OPRAH’S BATTLE OF THE BULGE
O PRAH Winfrey’s on a new diet — and this time, she’s buying in. The TV host and mogul announced Monday she’s purchased a 10 percent stake in Weight Watchers, joining its board of directors to help further develop the brand. The 61-year-old will take part in the program, too, using the app and working with a personal coach, according to NBC News.
But Winfrey’s known for her yo-yo diets. In 1997, a then-slender Winfrey even told the Los Angeles Times, “I did Weight Watchers . . . I had been on every diet known to womankind and I would always fail.”
Here are her past dieting ups and downs:
1976: Winfrey, 22, takes perscription diet pills to control her weight, dropping to 150 pounds.
1988: Winfrey’s weight creeps up to 211 pounds. She goes on a fasting diet, losing 67 pounds by avoiding solid food for four months. Two weeks later — after rolling out a wagon on her show full of the equivalent fat she lost — she starts to gain it back.
1993: After topping 237 pounds, Winfrey hires trainer Bob Greene.
1994: She trains for a marathon, running five days a week.
1996: She releases a health book with Greene, sharing how she went from a size 24 to an 8.
2005: Winfrey bares her belly on the cover of O, the Oprah Magazine, showing off her svelte 160-pound figure in a crop top.
2009: The now 200-pound Winfrey opens up about “falling off the wagon” in O, admitting to a food addiction and thyroid problem.