Oprah Winfrey apologizes for her role in diet culture and her ‘Wagon of Fat’ moment

• Oprah Winfrey has said she regrets her role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
• The media mogul hosted a Weight Watchers live special broadcast on YouTube earlier this week.
• During the discussion, Winfrey pointed out her famous “fat wagon” move from her 1988 TV show.

Oprah Winfrey has reflected on her role in perpetuating unsustainable weight loss methods.

While hosting a live Weight Watchers YouTube special on Thursday (May 9), the 70-year-old media mogul acknowledged that she had been a “major contributor” to modern diet culture and said that she “was done with shame.”

“I wanted to bring us all together because I believe we have reached a pivotal moment in how we talk and how we think about our bodies,” Winfrey told the in-person and virtual audience.

“I actively participate in this diet culture. Through my platforms, through the magazine, through talk shows for 25 years, online, I have been a major contributor to it.

“I can’t tell you how many weight loss and makeover shows I’ve done,” she continued, adding that the famous “fat cart” moment on her talk show was “l ‘one of my greatest regrets’.

In a 1988 episode of her eponymous talk show, Winfrey brought out a red cart containing 67 pounds of animal fat to show her audience how much weight she had lost after going on a crash diet that led her to replace her meals by shakes for four months.

The episode attracted 62 million viewers, meaning one in four Americans sat down and watched it.

“The very next day, I started gaining weight back,” Winfrey said of the stunt.

“This wagon of big moments was set in motion after years and years of thinking my struggle with my weight was my fault, and it took me until last week to even deal with the shame I felt privately as a very public yo-yo dieting moment has become a national joke.

Today, Winfrey told the audience she wanted to support them as they move toward self-acceptance and a healthier mindset.

“Whatever path you take, let’s stop the shaming,” she said. “We were told that unless we met a certain height standard, we didn’t deserve to be accepted or even loved.”

Winfreys’ comments come two months after she announced she would leave her position at WW International, known as WeightWatchers, after nearly a decade on its board of directors. The company’s shares fell 25% after the news was announced.

At the time, she said in a statement that she would donate her shares to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and would continue to “advise and collaborate with WeightWatchers and CEO Sima Sistani to raise the debate on the recognition of obesity as a chronic disease. condition, working to reduce stigma, and advocating for health equity.

Soon after, the Oscar-winning actress fronted the ABC television special “Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” which saw her discuss the growing popularity of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy.

Winfrey revealed last year that she used weight-loss drugs to maintain her weight, declining to say which specific medication she was taking.

“The fact that there is a medically approved prescription to manage my weight and stay healthier, over the course of my life, feels like a relief, a redemption, a gift, not something to hide behind and be at a loss for. ridiculed again,” Winfrey said.