Oprah Candid About Weight Gain In New Magazine Issue
Posted December 9, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Oprah Winfrey has long battled with her weight, and she now admits she’s “fallen off the wagon” once again.
In the January issue of “O” magazine, the 54-year-old talk show host admits she’s gained 40 pounds since 2006, putting her current weight at 200 pounds. She says she’s struggled with an out-of-balance thyroid and the condition made her worry about how much she could work out.
“I look at my thinner self and think, ‘How did I let this happen again?'” she writes in the not-yet-published article.
“I’m embarrassed,” she adds. “I’m mad at myself.”
Winfrey’s height and weight give her a body mass index of 31.8, which is considered obese according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The star says she’s changed her focus from getting thin to simply staying healthy and fit. On January 5, the talk show will feature a candid discussion about her weight gain and the challenges of keeping in shape.
Back in 1988, Winfrey illustrated her significant weight loss by wheeling a wagon loaded with fat, 67 pounds of it, onto her talk show set, while wearing a pair of size 10 jeans. She had shed those pounds by a consuming a liquid protein diet.
“When it comes to maintaining my health I didn’t just fall off the wagon. I let the wagon fall on me,” Winfrey writes in the new article. “I didn’t follow my own fundamental rule of taking care of self first.”
Oprah also notes that she has yet to pick out a gown for Barack Obama’s inauguration ball, suggesting the one she’d planned to wear might not fit.
Oprah Winfrey arrives to the 17th Annual Women In Entertainment Power 100 Breakfast on December 5, 2008 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katy Winn/Getty Images)
