Here's How Oprah Lost 42.5 Pounds For New Years!

Oprah Winfrey has done it again and this time, she says it's for good. The billionaire multimedia maven embarked on a weight loss journey with Weight Watchers in a quest to finally put her battles with the scale behind her. Just in time for the new year, Oprah revealed a 42.5 pound weight loss and says that she feels better than she has ever felt in her life. She describes her life today with one word: "contentment."

After receiving a call from Weight Watchers a little over 2 years ago, Oprah decided to sign-up on the program which boasts making a lifestyle change that prevents feelings of guilt and deprivation. The SmartPoints program assigns a point value to foods based on calories, fat, sugar, and protein content. Oprah just follows her point system eating what she likes. And she loves bread! The program is about choosing the right foods in the right proportions. The guesswork is taken out of the equation. Using the FitPoints system app, physical activity is tracked and rewarded.

When you join Weight Watchers, you join a supportive community of people who understand the journey. Oprah credits her success with the program to announcing her intention to achieve a balanced lifestyle, self-acceptance, being healthy and vibrant, and becoming more conscious about the foods she was eating and why. 

In her newly-released cookbook, Food, Health, and Happiness: 115 On-Point Recipes For Great Meals And A Better Life, Oprah shared the moment she stood naked in front of a mirror with appreciation instead of judgment and shame. Rather than be critical, she has chosen to embrace the body that has allowed her to achieve so much in her life. She will turn 63 on January 29th. 

So, why has it been so hard for Oprah to lose the weight and keep it off? Weight loss isn't so much about willpower or the psychological components. According to Drs. Carlos C. DiClemente and J.O. Prochaska, there are 6 stages of change that everyone will go through on the weight loss (or any other) journey:

1) Pre-Contemplation - a period of reluctance, rebellion, resignation, and rationalization where one is in denial, refuses to accept the need to change, and projects responsibility for the issue on others

2) Contemplation - the period where there is acknowledgment of the issue, but ambivalence about whether or not taking the necessary steps will achieve the desired result; on the fence about getting started

3) Preparation - making the commitment to change

4) Action - taking the steps necessary to bring about change

5) Maintenance - once the initial goal is reached, or at least significant progress is being made, the program steps are adjusted to make this phase the new normal 

**This is the phase where many fall off the wagon on a weight loss journey due to a biological response referred to as the Set Point Theory where the body sends signals urging itself to return to the original weight. Exercise promises to be the most effect tool in lowering the body fat setting.

6) Termination - the period where the individual feels the most in control of the issue

Though her initial goal was 50 pounds, Oprah is fine if she loses another 15 or never loses another pound. That is because, for the first time in her life, she is in control. Congratulations, Oprah!