How Much Will Oprah Lose?
Karin on a Rant — a departure from our usual blog fare, where I take dastardly pleasure in bringing up one maddening little diet-culture idea and prosecuting the case.
A note from 2026: I originally wrote this rant in 2015, when Oprah Winfrey bought a 10 percent stake in WeightWatchers for about $43 million. I’m leaving most of it intact because, well, what happened next makes it even more interesting.
In 2015, Virgie Tovar, body image expert and and author was lamenting the sad truth that Oprah Winfrey had put her money where her mouth was and bought 10 percent of Weight Watchers. A sad truth indeed.
We all knew the roller coaster Oprah had been on. I was there when she rolled that wheelbarrow of 67 pounds of fat onto her stage.
The year was 1988. Aside from the fact that I had a morbid fascination with before and afters (after all, I do live in this culture), I was about 5 years into the nondiet approach and was convinced that diets cause far more problems than they solved.
Video clip of the day Oprah announced she had lost 67 pounds on a strict fasting diet.
I watched in stunned silence as Oprah carted that fat onto the stage, wondering how she was going to handle the inevitable regain.
But then came the aftershock. She claimed that the weight loss had made her the best that she could be.
The weight loss?
I was speechless.
All That, and It Was the Weight Loss?
Oprah is arguably the richest and most powerful woman in the world. A woman who rose from the depths of poverty and sexual abuse, and fought her way through a male dominated world. An African American woman who fought prejudice and discrimination, who stood up to the haters, and who shared her pain and heartache. A woman who became a beloved icon around the world.
And it was the weight loss that made her the best she could be?
Really?
She later called this moment and show her "biggest, fattest" mistake. She started eating solid food again just two hours after the broadcast, and within two days, the size 10 jeans no longer fit. Within two years, she had regained most of the weight.
But then, in 2015, she was at it, in earnest, yet again.
Only this time she didn’t just join Weight Watchers. She bought part of it.
Here’s the problem. Women have been suffering for decades, feeling not good enough, waiting until they’ve lost that weight to live their lives. Going on and off diets. Yet no research exists that shows long term weight loss success with weight loss programs (including Weight Watchers), with over 80% to 95% regaining the weight within two to three years.. But research does show these same programs cause food preoccupation, food cravings, binging and more.
And now Oprah has purchased one such organization, which targets women and sells them failure and heartache.
Oprah knows what we all know. We have seen her diet and lose for decades.
She gained 90 pounds after losing that 67. When she hit 180, she said “I wake every morning hating myself.” After hitting a high of 235, she lost 85 pounds by 1994. Then she gained again.
We see the truth about dieting in Oprah. Lose. Regain. Lose. Regain. Lose. Regain. Try agin.
I Kept Waiting for a Different Conclusion
I remember when Geneen Roth, who wrote Breaking Free from Emotional Eating, was on her show. I thought, “Yay, Oprah will have a chance to hear the truth. She will give up that yo-yo dieting and finally learn internally regulated eating. She will learn to like who she is, a woman who was not built to fit into size 10 Calvin Klein’s.”
I waited for Oprah to embrace the nondiet approach.
And I waited.
And I waited.
I’m still waiting.
Then, in 2015, Oprah spent 43 million dollars buying into Weight Watchers. To quote Virgie, “That’s a lot of money for an industry that yields a 95ish % failure rate.” Of course, Oprah made 45 million dollars overnight when the shares more than doubled after the partnership was announced. Maybe that was the point.
Yes indeed.
Meanwhile, I wondered: How much weight will Oprah lose?
The only thing I lost during my two trips through Weight Watchers was some self respect and about $250.
And Now It’s 2026
Well.
Some things did change.
Oprah eventually began talking publicly about the shame and self-blame she had carried for decades. She said she had come to understand weight as far more biologically regulated than she once believed and rejected the idea that weight struggles simply reflected a lack of willpower.
Yay. Maybe she was finally getting off the weight-loss merry-go-round.
Nope. She also disclosed using prescription weight-loss medication.
In 2024, she chose not to stand for reelection to the board and donated her financial interest in WeightWatchers, partly to avoid a perceived conflict around her use of weight-loss medications.
And WeightWatchers changed, too. The company moved aggressively into prescription weight-loss medications and, in 2025, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as its traditional business struggled in the GLP-1 era.
So was I wrong when I wrote all those years ago: I’m still waiting?
Not exactly.
I’m glad Oprah stopped blaming herself.
I’m glad she has spoken publicly about the shame inflicted on people because of their weight.
And I’m glad she has helped challenge the idea that body weight is simply a measure of discipline or willpower.
That matters.
But that wasn’t quite what I was waiting for.
I was waiting for one of the most influential women in the world to ask why becoming smaller had to remain the goal in the first place.
I was waiting for her extraordinary life to finally become bigger than the number on the scale.
I’m still waiting.