How Oprah Lost 20 Kg

The talk-show queen is so delighted with the diet plan she’s on that she’s bought a stake in company!

- Nici De Wet

OVER the years she tried almost everything to shed the kilos: the liquid protein diet where she “literally starved” herself for months, the no-white diet that cut out milk, flour, salt and sugar and the acacia berry diet that involved taking supplements to stave off hunger.

But every time the weight came steadily creeping back. Oprah Winfrey, the world’s most famous talk-show host and one of the most successful businesswomen on the planet, just couldn’t win when it came to the battle of the bulge.

But this time she believes she’s done it. The 63-year-old mogul is a svelte size 12 after shedding 20 kg – without depriving herself.

Eighteen months ago Oprah joined Weight Watchers, the popular diet programme that’s been around since 1963, and was so impressed with the results she bought a stake in the company and sits on its board.

She has also just published her first official cookbook, Food, Health And Happiness: On Point Recipes For Great Meals And A Better Life, based on her favourite Weight Watchers-friendly dishes.

Posing on the cover of US People magazine in a clingy pink dress, Oprah tells the publication her latest weight-loss journey “has been the easiest process I’ve ever experienced”. And if anyone has been through the mill when it comes to weight, it’s O – slimming down dramatically sometimes, ballooning alarmingly at others.

She reached an all-time high in 1992 tipping the scales at 107,5 kg. Then in 2007 she thought she’d “struck gold”, she says, when despite “eating everything I wanted” the weight melted off.