While hosting the WeightWatchers live special, Making the Shift' on Thursday, May 9, the talk show host also recalled the famous 'wagon of fat' moment that took place on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'.
- May 11, 2024
AceShowbiz - Oprah Winfrey wasn't afraid to take accountability for promoting unsustainable methods of weight loss over more than two decades. While hosting the WeightWatchers live special, "Making the Shift", on Thursday, May 9, the talk show host apologized for being a "major contributor" to diet culture.
"I've been a steadfast participant in this diet culture," the 70-year-old said. "Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years, through online -- I've been a major contributor to it. I cannot tell you how many weight loss shows and makeovers I have done and they have been a staple since I've been working in television."
During the special, which aimed to "catalyze a new wave of change in how we collectively redefine the cultural and personal relationships between our weight, our health and each other," Oprah recalled the famous "wagon of fat" moment that took place on "The Oprah Winfrey Show". She described it as "one of my biggest regrets."
"It sent a message that starving yourself with a liquid diet set a standard for people watching that I nor anybody else could uphold," Oprah, who lost weight after going on an intense, months-long, liquid-only fast, explained. "And I've said this before, the very next day, I began to gain the weight back."
She also shared her experience with yo-yo dieting, which happened after a 1985 interview with Joan Rivers on "The Tonight Show," when she and Rivers made a pact to lose weight together. During the interview at the time, Winfrey also tells Rivers the different diets she's tried.
Oprah also admitted that she "was so embarrassed" about her experience with yo-yo dieting. "That was the start of a vicious cycle of yo-yoing that ended up with that liquid diet where I literally starved myself for months. And the result was that now famous wagon of fat moment," she stated.
Oprah has recounted her struggles with weight loss over the years in her recent ABC special, "An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution". She aid of the wagon of fat moment, "To combat the shame, I starved myself for nearly five months... But I gained it all back the next day."
