Oprah Winfrey has revealed the shocking reality of what happened to her when she suddenly stopped taking weight loss injections.
The TV legend has spoken out about her experience using GLP-1 injections and what happened when she stopped.
The 71-year-old shared that she was using the medication ‘as a tool to manage not yo-yoing’ her weight.
In an interview with People, Oprah said: “The fact that there's a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for.
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“I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
Since then, Oprah has shared her decision to quit the GLP-1 drugs ‘cold turkey’ in January 2024.
She explained: “I said, ‘I’m going to see if the science is right. I want to see if I can do without it’.”
What happened when Oprah quit GLP-1 medications?
One reason many people can gain weight after quitting weight loss drugs is due to a failure to change routine, meaning they're often still eating the same way they were before using such medications.
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However, Oprah sought to fight back against people who said she would ‘immediately put the weight back on’, and stuck to a healthy diet and workout routine in a bid to avoid weight gain.
In spite of her efforts, Oprah noticed that she gained 20lbs throughout the year she quit the medication.
With the weight gain in mind, Oprah told People what she’d learned, saying: “It's going to be a lifetime thing. I'm on high blood pressure medication, and if I go off the high blood pressure medication, my blood pressure is going to go up.
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“The same thing is true now, I realize, with these medications. I’ve proven to myself I need it.”
When she first started using weight-loss jabs, Oprah explained that she'd been ‘blaming herself’ for being overweight, but not acknowledging that she has a 'predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control'.
“Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower - it's about the brain,” she said at the time.
Now, having tried to quit GLP-1s, Oprah sent a message to anyone with obesity in their gene pool.
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“I want people to know it’s not your fault,” she said. “And people need to stop blaming other people. Don't say, 'Why don't you just work out more and eat less?' That is not the answer. I want people to have the information, whatever you choose to do with it, whether you get the medications, or whether you want to keep dieting.
“That's the lesson I learned: I stopped blaming myself.”