Oprah ‘was ashamed of bigger body but weight loss jab admission may drive others to Ozempic – celebs need to do better’
OPRAH Winfrey’s messaging surrounding her use of slimming drugs is not thoughtful enough, a psychotherapist has said.
She also urged other celebrities who admit to using Ozempic to consider fans who aspire to look like them and warned the medication is “not a quick fix.”
Oprah shared an Instagram video on her 70th birthday in which she jogged along a beach with her dog and a friend.
“Celebrating 70 with a run on the beach. Thank you for all the birthday love,” she captioned her post on January 29.
Psychotherapist Dr. Emily Fiorelli suggested Oprah’s weight loss “toolbox” included Ozempic and exercise.
She warned people might be unaware that their weight loss would “plateau” should they copy Oprah using the medications.
“I had an awareness of weight-loss medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way,” Oprah told People magazine in December.
“I was actually recommending it to people long before I was on it myself,” she added while referring to the drug as a “maintenance tool.”
Fiorelli warned against such recommendations.
“Oprah has been scrutinized for her body size over time,” she told The U.S. Sun.
“She hit a point where she was experiencing this level of shame — Oprah would have hit this level of discomfort with her typical body.
“The exercise, healthy eating, and whatever that looked like for Orpah was not getting her where she wanted to be.
“But the messaging behind Ozempic is that this is a quick fix.
“From what I have seen with my clients, the medications work quickly.
“People lose a lot of weight in the beginning, and then at some point, they plateau.
“I have seen people have a rapid weight loss in the first couple of weeks and after a few months, it starts to even itself out.”
Other celebrities like Sharon Osbourne, Keke Palmer, and Amy Schumer have opened up about using weight loss drugs.
Ozempic, the type 2 diabetes drug, as well as the FDA-approved obesity drug Wegovy, are given via prescription.
The drugs help regulate blood sugar and typically lead to weight loss.
Fiorelli claimed people might assume they would follow the same trajectory as other celebrities.
“People are looking at a celebrity and immediately assuming that the celebrity experience will be their experience,” she said.
It seems like such an easy cure-all, and many people are turning to it because doctors prescribe it so readily.
Dr. Fiorelli
“Celebrities often give us the feeling that if they can do something, we can do it.
“We see this with things other than weight loss, such as plastic surgery and spending money on designer clothes.
“There are so many ways that celebrities can be better role models.
“People will now look at Oprah Winfrey, want to look like her, and then go and take Ozempic.
“It seems like such an easy cure-all, and many people are turning to it now because doctors prescribe it so readily.
“They think it will solve all their problems so, celebrities could do a better job.”
Since Oprah’s People magazine confession, she has been turning heads on red carpets while showing off her dramatic weight loss.
Within days of her birthday jog, Oprah shared photos on Instagram where she posed on a staircase ahead of the Grammy’s.
Oprah wore a black Maison Valentino outfit that accentuated her waist. The skirt fell to just above her knees.
Oprah dressed in a figure-hugging purple Louis Vuitton dress for the Golden Globes on January 7.
She wore a glam D&G gown at the Critics Choice Awards on January 14.
Fiorelli claimed Oprah’s birthday beach jog was an attempt to show her weight loss was “sustainable.”
“Oprah posted the running image to say, ‘Yes, I am taking Ozempic,'” she said.
“It is one tool in her toolbox for getting where she wants to be with her weight.
“She was also saying she was doing the work in the background to change her other habits.
“She is trying to make the weight loss more sustainable.
“Here she was not saying the medication was going to change her life.
“She was not changing her feelings about herself or reducing that shame.
“Ozempic might be a boost in the goals that she does have and is working toward.
“Ozempic is happening in the background for Oprah while she is changing habits.
“For her, this is a healthy mindset.”
The star has remained fairly open about her weight loss journey pre-Ozempic.
She is famed for losing 67 pounds using a liquid diet in 1988.
At her heaviest, in 1992, Oprah weighed around 237 pounds.
Since joining the Weight Watcher program and becoming an ambassador in 2015, she initially lost 40 pounds.
“I can honestly tell you; I struggle no more. I’m eating everything I love — tacos, pasta. I’ve never felt deprived,” she said in a commercial for the company.
The Queen of Talk continued to work alongside Weight Watchers, but in 2022, she told her followers she was resetting.
“Time for a reset. I’m clearing out my fridge,” she said on Instagram as she threw out half a cake.
Fiorelli explained there is a need to change habits including how people feel about themselves inside.
“This has become such a big topic with some people seeing weight loss medications as a cure-all to body image concerns,” she said.
“But this needs to be done with changes in diet and movement in tandem.
“Weight loss medications like Ozempic are supposed to help with this, but it does create such rapid weight loss.
“Now people see it as being less sustainable in the long term and often gaining weight back straight away.
People will not automatically be happier just because they are in a thinner body or taking Ozempic.
Dr. Fiorelli
“They also might be having these kinds of complicated feelings around being on medication.
“This is not just talking about the body and changing the body.
“There needs to be an internal motivation for wanting that change in the first place.
“A lot of clients that I work with are women who are experiencing potentially low self-esteem.
“Body image issues are struggling with the feeling that if I change my body, my life is going to get better automatically.
“The emphasis has always been that if you are in a petite body, you will be happier, and people will like you more.
“It is all about cultivating that inner sense of self-worth so that the relationship with the body can become slightly more neutral.
“If there is a weight loss medication use, people ideally need to be having therapy.
“People should discuss their relationship with their body, food and movement, meaning, and self-esteem.
“Then they could make choices based on that.
“People will not automatically be happier just because they are in a thinner body or taking Ozempic.
“This messaging is important and education around it becomes so important.
“If there is going to be a message with an image of Oprah running along a beach and we know she takes weight loss medication, there needs to be more thought about the bigger picture.”