I Finally Made Peace With Food - Oprah Winfrey's Emotional Interview

After Losing 42.5 Lbs., the Star Says Er Days of Yo-yo Dieting Are Over, Thanks to Weight Watchers

- Mary Green

Oprah Winfrey’s spirits dipped lower and lower as the number on her scale climbed higher and higher. In July 2015, determined to lose 20 lbs. over the Summer, she’d started hiking but fell on a trail in Maui and hurt her ankle. At the same time, “I had a bunch of people at my house, and although I wasn’t eating cronuts, I was eating jalapeño bagels,” she says. After a month of vacation, she had gained 17 lbs. thanks to “some serious eating and not moving.” It sent her into a downward spiral. “I was in yet another funk about my weight,” she says. “I thought, ‘Now what? My body won’t take another fast.’ Psychologically I just can’t make myself do it, because of that time I went through it in 1988”—when she famously lost 67 lbs. on a liquid diet. “I was at my wit’s end.”

Then Winfrey got a call that would set her on a different course—one she says she will be on for the rest of her life. When Weight Watchers asked her to be its new spokeswoman, she initially turned down a simple endorsement and instead bought a 10 percent stake in the company. After 17 months on the program, during which she steadfastly counted points instead of calories, Winfrey, 62, is now a size 12 and has lost 42.5 lbs. “And that .5, honey child, counts!” she exults. “I finally made peace with food.”