The 70-year-old TV star embarked on a weight-loss journey in the late 1980s, but Winfrey found that in spite of her best efforts, she quickly regained the weight that she had lost.
During an appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, Winfrey said: "I didn't have a morsel of food for five solid months in losing that weight on (the all-liquid diet) Optifast.
"Three days later, I was five pounds (2kg) heavier, and a week later I was 10 pounds heavier.
"The week before Christmas, I remember Don Johnson - the Don Johnson of Miami Vice - was having a party and had invited me and some members of my show to come, and I wouldn't go because I thought I was too fat to go."
Winfrey recalled feeling a sense of shame about her weight struggles.
"I'd gone from 145 (pounds) on the day of the show. I think I was 157 in the course of, like, a week and a half or two. And the shame started again," she said
Despite this, Winfrey previously confessed to being a "steadfast participant" in America's diet culture.
The veteran TV star acknowledged that she's played an influential role in shaping the conversation around diet and health in the US.
Winfrey, who hosted her own TV talk-show for 25 years, said on a YouTube special earlier in 2024: "I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture.
"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."
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