Oprah Winfrey: I set an unrealistic standard for dieting

Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.

Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.

“I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture,” she said during a live event broadcast on YouTube in partnership with WeightWatchers.

“Through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years and 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,” she said.

Winfrey admitted that through her focus on weight, she “set a standard for people watching that I nor anybody else could uphold.”

The three-hour live special, which also featured actresses Rebel Wilson, Amber Riley, WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani and a number of doctors and other expert voices, highlighted a shift away from diet culture for WeightWatchers and toward body acceptance and medical intervention with drugs like Ozempic.

Sistani said during the special that the company acknowledges that weight loss isn’t strictly a matter of willpower and that diet culture and body shaming isn’t healthy.

Winfrey told People Magazine in December that she has added a “weight-loss medication to her regimen” but didn’t specify which drug.