If you’ve been following Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists in the news, you know that they’re highly controversial, with many people calling them “miracle drugs” and others referring to them as cheating or a lazy way to achieve weight loss. There also seems to be a trend in celebrities’ disparaging the medications, only to then try them themselves. The latest to join this list of stars is Oprah Winfrey: mere months after referring to weight-loss drugs as “the easy way out” during a panel for Oprah Daily, Winfrey has announced that she has since added one to her own regimen.
In a People cover story, Winfrey revealed that it was during that very panel that she had an “aha moment” about weight loss and GLP-1 agonists. “I realized I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control,” she told the magazine. “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.” After getting reassurance about the drugs’ science from her doctor, she began her own course of medication, helping her continue on the weight-loss journey she started several years ago ahead of getting knee surgery in 2021.
Winfrey has famously had her weight discussed in the press for decades, with media critics constantly calling attention to how her body has changed over the years, whether on the red carpet or on her television show. This scrutiny led to Winfrey’s becoming a public figure in the weight-loss arena. Though how the media has treated Winfrey about her body and harassed her about her size is shameful, the talk show host has been able to leverage this negative attention into profits by entering into a partnership with WeightWatchers in 2015, which will extend into 2025. As of October 2023, Winfrey is one of the company’s greatest shareholders, with an approximate 10% stake in the company.
Interestingly enough, after decades of focusing exclusively on a points-based dieting system and in-person meetings to encourage accountability, WeightWatchers acquired the telehealth platform Sequence in the spring of 2023 in order to introduce the WeightWatchers Clinic. This virtual service facilitates members’ consultations with providers and, if they’re candidates, the prescription of GLP-1 agonists or other weight-loss drugs. (The company has also cut back considerably on its availability of in-person meetings.) This led to an outcry from some WeightWatchers members, calling this move toward medication a betrayal. In a cover story for Bloomberg Businessweek, one member said that WeightWatchers’ decision to integrate weight-loss drugs into its program “is an antithesis to what I thought they believed in,” adding that “switching to medications feels like a quick-fix shift in their philosophy.”
Analysts from Morgan Stanley estimate that the global obesity market could go from a $2.4 billion category in 2022 to $77 billion in 2030, in large part due to GLP-1 agonist demand. These drugs are starting to help the public at large understand that, for many people, losing weight isn’t always as simple as changes in diet and exercise. This includes Winfrey. “Obesity is a disease,” she told People. “It’s not about willpower—it’s about the brain.” Joe Baczewski, RN, founder of LIVation in Madison, Connecticut, agrees. “There’s a lot of misinformation about weight loss, that it’s mind over matter,” he says. “It’s such a new concept to realize there’s a delicate and fragile balance between our physical selves and our mental health.” He likens Ozempic shaming to shaming someone with depression for taking antidepressants.
Baczewski adds that he hopes that those taking GLP-1 agonists continue to speak publicly about their experiences with the medication. “I think that celebrities coming out and saying they take these medications is helpful for spreading information,” he says. “It may help people have a greater desire to learn about these drugs and be open minded to new science and modalities of treatment.”
