Oprah Winfrey Finally Talks About Her Yo-Yo Weight

For as long as talk show host Oprah Winfrey has been on the air, she has battled her weight, which has fluctuated over the years. No matter how much she lost, she always gained it back. Now she’s looking at the emotional connection with food.

Oprah is finally talking about how her compulsion to overeat is a coping mechanism to deal with emotional pain.

Oprah, 56, admits she “stuffs” herself whenever she feels sad, empty, unhappy with herself or anxious.

“There’s still anxiety when I have to say no to someone,” said Oprah. “I still worry, ‘What are they going to think’ …

[That happened to me recently and] I did not eat a pound of potato chips. I ate a pound of lettuce. But it’s the same thing. I’ve switched the drug from potato chips to lettuce,” she says.

Geneen Roth, author of the diet book “Women, Food, and God,” said many women eat when they’re not hungry to cope with emotional pain.

Roth, 58, confessed to Oprah that she herself has struggled with anorexia and wild weight fluctuations since the age of 11.

After crash-dieting and gaining and losing more than 1,000 pounds over the years, Roth had a breakthrough when she found herself on the verge of suicide.

“What happens is that people end up losing [and regaining the same weight] 10, 20, 30, 50 times in their lives,” Geneen explains.

“They just endlessly do it, because they think endless dieting is a way to get a handle on their problem. But even if they get a handle on their dieting, just losing weight is not the point.”

She explains: “Dieting leads to self-hatred and self-loathing, making you feel crazy about yourself.”

Conquering issues with food starts with learning to love yourself, Geneen says.

In an excerpt from Women, Food, and God, Roth shares seven tips for mindful eating:

Eat when you are hungry.
Eat sitting down in a calm environment. This does not include the car.
Eat without distractions. Distractions include radio, television, newspapers, books, intense or anxiety-producing conversations or music.
Eat what your body wants.
Eat until you are satisfied.
Eat (with the intention of being) in full view of others.
Eat with enjoyment, gusto and pleasure