Blogs and Stories
The Great Binge
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Oprah’s raw confession (she gained 40 pounds!) strikes a chord with a nation reeling from the consequences of overindulgence and excessive consumption.
Oprah is technically always the cover subject of her magazine, O, but rarely does she reveal anything more than a bright new twin-set. In her newest issue, however, she acknowledges what anyone watching her show has probably noticed. She’s gained a few. Well, more than a few. Forty pounds, to be exact. And in a rather raw article, she admits that when she reached her goal weight a few years ago, her cockiness about her diet led her to feel invincible.
Oprah having a muffin top is not the same as a family losing their home—but the cravings that caused her to overindulge on éclairs are not so different from the ones that led us to binge on SUVs.
Oprah's story of overindulgence strikes an eerie chord in a nation struggling with the consequences of a massive credit binge. Oprah isn’t seriously damaged by the economy of course; the O empire is probably one of the few left in this country that John McCain could have legitimately referred to as fundamentally sound. But “just like us,” as Us Weekly would say, she’s spent the last few years gorging to the detriment of her overall health. While we we’re buying Jimmy Choos and Rolexes we couldn’t really afford, Oprah was apparently chowing down on carbs and sugar she didn’t really need.
It crept up on her, Oprah explains, after a thyroid imbalance made working out more difficult. Anxious and depressed about a couple of extra pounds, she spiraled into a familiar cycle. “It seemed as if the struggle I'd had with weight my entire adult life was now officially over. I felt completely defeated. I thought, ‘I give up. I give up. Fat wins.’” And isn’t the feeling of “screw it” you get when you find you can’t stop on a can of Pringles you’ve popped pretty much the same as the “screw it” feeling you experience when you’re at the counter of Bloomingdales buying a $500 red Blahniks? You know, because you already maxed out that other credit card buying the red Chloe bag? And so, what difference does it make now? Whatevs…
Every one of us, regardless of fortune, is subject to a personal economy of guilt and pleasure, and the laws of supply and demand are not so different from the dynamic of calories in-calories out.
Oprah explains that “Falling off the wagon isn't a weight issue; it's a love issue.” The point is, that despite her money, her mansion in Maui, and the lifestyle that has made pumping gas a mystery (she admitted on her “Road Trip” special last year that she hasn’t had to do it for herself since 1983—but who’s counting?) Oprah has an emotional void. And like Americans from every walk of life, she’s learned to substitute stuff for love. While the middle class spent the last few years trying to self-soothe by buying cashmere-iPoddy things that should have been off limits, Oprah, who has all that crap, had to reach for something else.
For Oprah, the damage was ultimately forty pounds, as she now admits to feeling “like a fat cow” at over two hundred big ones. For us, the numbers went the other way, but with no less shame. Bloated debt turned into lost life savings. The results are obviously different in scale—Oprah having a muffin top is not the same as a family losing their home—but the cravings that caused her to overindulge on éclairs (I’m only guessing on that detail) are not so different from the ones that led us to binge on SUVs.
Oprah concludes that her latest chub-battle has led her to adjust her weight objective. She’s no longer striving to be thin, she says, but simply to balance health with giving herself “the love and care” she needs. So 2009 finds Oprah and the rest of the country adjusting to a new resolve. None of us, no matter what the size of our wallets, can be perfect. But when we waver from our budgets, we’ll be downsizing our indulgences. For Oprah, that might mean a cookie instead of a whole cake; for the rest of us, perhaps a movie instead of an Escalade.
Jessi Klein is a writer and comedian who has frequently appeared on Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, and the Today show. She is currently writing a screenplay for Universal Studios, as well as occasionally drawing animals for her best friend's letterpress card company. She also likes to think she has value as a human being aside from her numerous credits in the entertainment industry.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
What's Joe's Problem?
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Moving Out of Cougar Town
Jessi Klein is a writer and comedian who has frequently appeared on Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, and the Today show. She also likes to think she has value as a human being aside from her numerous credits in the entertainment industry.
TV's Funniest Frenemies
Jessi Klein is a writer and comedian who has frequently appeared on Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, and the Today show. She also likes to think she has value as a human being aside from her numerous credits in the entertainment industry.
The World's Most Dangerous Comedian
Jessi Klein is a writer and comedian who has frequently appeared on Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, and the Today show. She also likes to think she has value as a human being aside from her numerous credits in the entertainment industry.
I think she looks gorgeous with the additional weight, and weak and underweight in the other photo.
It seems to me that Klein is using our economic crisis as a very inneffective way to talk about Oprah's weight gain. If you want to focus on Oprah's weight, just do it--don't try to link it to a social crisis. This site is struggling to define its purpose--many of us are fed up with gossip and celebrity postings. Please stop it. And by the way, Oprah is a beautiful and fabulous woman--who cares how much she weighs?
I think the metaphor would hold up better if, in her everyday life, O couldn't eat less than 4000 calories each day. Restrictions on income for the rest of us made us turn to credit, not for $500 shoes, but for $500 required courses for work, $500 set of tires for the van, $500 total Christmas budget for a family of 4. Seriously, we've been bingeing on being middle class. Idiot.
What really gets my goat is that we ONCE AGAIN have to listen to stories about Oprah's weight gain during a time when people are losing their jobs left and right. Seems like her weight is an issue every few years or so. No...her eating habits have nothing to do with the average american and their spending habits. She isnt average...but she sure as sh*t is lazy. Simple as that.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I am very impressed with this article. I agree with the comparisons of americans overindulging in things we can't afford to fulfill some feeling of worthiness.
It's amazing how many friends I know that have been buying things they can't afford for a while. Well done. Thank you.
I agree with those saying they're sick of having to read about Oprah's weight issues once again, especially in light of everything else going on in this country. But, I must admit, that it also makes me angry the way Oprah always tries to "simplify" issues with such statements that she just has to focus on giving herself the love and care she needs. Millions of women appear to hang on Oprah's every word and life isn't that simple/easy. It would seem that Oprah has very strong pyschological issues with her weight which maybe she should be addressing on a deeper level (I'm not a doctor).
How come hardly anyone comments on this site? Because it's new? Daily Beast - you need to do something about this.
Props to this woman for all that she has accomplished and what she's worked to model to the world -- success and failures her intentions are to help improve our connections to God, ourselves, this planet and I'm glad she's around. I don't have to agree with her ('The Secret').
That said, I used to love watching Oprah until it appeared she was competing with her interviewees for smarts on a topic or dropping names in the middle of an interview to interject her power - it always diminished the attention on the other person. And every month she's got to pontificate about 'what she knows'.
Maybe, just maybe, its time to do something she knows nothing about and be a beginner again and live life rather than have to analyze and report out on how powerful and knowing she is. It's got to be tough on the soul to feel like you have to be in charge and control of so much.
Yes- some people are genetically predsiposed to being overweight- but that is a very slim minority. The bulk of fat people are just lacking in determination to shed it- so either do something about it or accept and love yourself. If you have tried to in the past, but have regained weight- a new program or diet is not the answer, but a new and permanent mindset is.
Only in a country as affluent as ours do we spend so much time on weight issues- there is a whole industry set up on people's fears, self loathing, and lack of will power. Just beacsue we are not caught up with day to day survival that we feel the need to indulge in the decadent luxury of determining the psychology of weight gain. Those are excuses- check the calories you are ingesting and then compare it to the calories that you are expending- the answer might surprise you more than you imagine!
I agree with those who see this as an interesting analogy of over-indulgence -- whether it's food, vehicles, clothes, or our own opinions. And, of course, Madison Ave. happily obliges this illusion of choice and abundance. We have become a nation of self-centered infants, screaming "give me, give me, mine, mine." Ever watch an Oprah audience react to the pablum handed out on her show?
Ok, this is a matter of perspective. Women over 5'8" who weigh under 125 are NOT the norm for the human genotype. People who make over a million dollars a year who went into massive debt buying real estate and high-risk stocks and bonds are NOT the norm. The average woman is around 5'5" and weighs between 130 and 150. The average American makes between $40 and $75 a year, and supports a family on that income. Do Americans need an extravagent lifetsyle? No. But people supporting a family of four on less than $40K a year aren't extravagent. They are surviving. Barely. One cannot compare Oprah's financial position with that of the average American, nor can one compe her weight issues with those of the average woman. Apples and oranges. Ms. Winfrey has enough money to hire personal trainers, chefs, buy in-home gyms and whatever else she wants or needs to deal with her weight issues. She can afford the very best psychotherapy, vacation time, travel time - in short, anything that she wants or needs to deal with this issue. She has no concrete financial worries, like whether she will have to decide between electricty or groceries. The average woman might be able to make better nutritional choices, but in dealing with her weight issues, she has little coice but to do it all herself. The average American suffering through this financial downturn is struggling to just pay the dern bills. Please don't patronize those of us working our butts off just to pay the rent, the utilities, the phone bill, and maybe, if we are very lucky, cable television, by comparing our situation to Oprah's.
The country's fascination with Oprah is symptomatic of something; I don't know what exactly, but her apologists are so strident in their defense, so impassioned in their responses, that I've long stopped asking questions in an attempt to understand the phenomenon.
"It crept up on her, Oprah explains, after a thyroid imbalance made working out more difficult" - DB
Get real-I should say the same too. We're lazy and complacent. That is what my problem is and that is what her problem is. Excuses, Excuses.
I don't so much mind the blogs on here, as the take. Don't be so serious about a woman that has constantly had a weight issue since she got in TV. When I first heard about her sudden weight gain I thought, "What's the news here? She's thin, she's fat. What year is it?" We shouldn't be making excuses for laziness. I don't, but I don't complain about it either. I can't wait for all of these self-important idiots to fall by the wayside. I think America is finally waking up from its long slumber and we are not going to be told what to believe anymore.
Toodles, Oprah.
-JP
The hubris here is hilarious. Sorry, Daily Beast and whoever this Jessi Klein person is, I've never maxed out my credit cards on cute shoes and handbags nor have most of the people I know. Dental work, new tires for the car and an unexpected trip to the ER (and yes, I have health insurance) are more like it. Get a clue.
I think the analogies outlined by Jessi Klein strike a balance between commentary and entertainment. Who wants to read another story on the economy? We're all hurting and we all know why.
This isn't a gossip article and it isn't trying to solve our problems by looking to Oprah's answers. What I took this article to be was a way to glimpse inside our own minds, and for each of us to find the source of our own problems. I haven't watched Oprah in years, but I appreciate the role she plays in the country. She serves as an example to all of us that no matter where we excel or fail, we can always strive to be better. And the first step in bettering ourselves is to identify the reasons we stumble.
Additionally, I think this site tries to strike that balance between commentary and entertainment. Look at the article comparing Blogo to Tony Soprano. Or the regular articles from a former Project Runway contestant. I like the variety here, especially Ms. Klein's perspective. And for those who are looking for just the news, it's pretty easy to pick out which articles are lighter than others. Or save yourself the hassle and just read CNN.
Being human entails feelings of emptiness. Some people seek to fill this feeling w/ food, others w/ drugs, alcohol or material things. On a superficial level, I am different than O--younger, white, male, un-rich and -famous, yet I totally understand her struggle w/ food. This blog may seem to be a superficial puff piece, but the truth is deeper and I applaud O for speaking publicly about her battles and her feelings of self-loathing when she knew, just had to, that people would ridicule and mock her.
Sorry for being predictable but why wasn't Oprah on the "BIG FAT STORY" page? Oprah as the "Car Czar." Here's the solution. Oprah sends her $14 Billion Dollar food budget to bail out the Big Three, she loses all that weight and in the process solves the economic crisis. It's a win-win situation for the Big Four of them and the country. The Power of "O".
It has taken 43 years but finally -- finally! -- someone has done it. Yes, Jessi Klein, you have made me wish that language hade never been invented. If only to be spared this masterpiece of stupidity, it would be worth it.
bored2tears
A bit masochistic forcing yourself to read "this masterpiece of stupidity," no? Or was it an act of courage? At least sophia5 offered something useful: "Oprah sends her $14 Billion Dollar food budget to bail out the Big Three, she loses all that weight and in the process solves the economic crisis. It's a win-win situation..." Brilliant!
What bothers me most about this article, is not the apparent difficulty it takes for Klein to establish, at best, a weak link between Oprah's recent (and as many point out, not very surprising) weight gain to the recent economic crisis. It is not even the existence of yet ANOTHER article trying to relate any random piece of news to the country's economic situation. What bothers me most, is Kilen's comment that the O empire is one of the few that are "fundamentally sound".
I cannot believe that in a time of such severe economic recession, of minimalism, of cutting back, our society is going to continue to buy into this "O empire" without question. Did Klein ever stop to think that maybe the reason people some people maxed out their credit cards for a pair of Manolos with a "whatevs" attitude, was because Oprah kept raving about them on her show? By airing episodes like "Oprah's Favorite Things" and hosting beauty, wardrobe and home makeover shows about once a week, Oprah is the one giving us this craving for more things, stuff, money spent.
As this financial crisis deepens, I would hope that instead of buying even more into this ridiculous franchise, the Oprah audience will step back and stop blindly following her, or to put it more appropriately, buying everything she plugs on her show, in her magazine or on her website. Oprah is not a god. At most she is a successful businesswoman with a weight problem. Maybe this recession will inspire some of the Oprah fanatics to not only cut back on spending, but to think for themselves for once.
Like so many women, I've watched Oprah with interest, glee, irritation, anger, envy, and just about every emotion one is capable of, since she came on the scene years ago. I doubt anyone could fault her obvious generosity to so many areas of life. That said, over the years I've gotten increasingly irritated at her constant references to her wealth. I think we're all pretty clear on the fact that she's a seriously rich woman. I have tried to make sure my feelings are not envy-related, and I feel sure they are not. Each time she makes one of these references, they seem gratuitous. So then I wonder why a woman who is clearly worldly wise would have this compunction to constantly bring up her supreme wealth. I think her weight is a clue, as if to say that she may have control of so many things - more than most of us - at the end of the day she's flesh & blood like all of us and money won't ever buy her that kind of control. Money is only going to do so much for you. But my final thought on Oprah's weight is I think she is beautiful and actually looks amazing even at the increased weight. Of course one wants to be healthy, and she's said that being so is a serious matter to her. So as long as that's a concern, I say, "Relax, Oprah. You're really rich & we all know it. Keep on helping those you can. And ENJOY your life."
Those pictures were taken 20 years apart.
Please....Oprah is not just a metaphor for the over-spending of average Americans, she is a contributing factor. She hosts scores of shows encouraging conspicuous consumption including her top-rated "Oprah's Favorite Things" bonanzas. And her endless episodes glorifying celebrities and their over-sized lifestyles contribute to the culture of celebrity-worship and materialism in this country. Her O magazine (and especially its home edition) could be mistaken for O's shopping catalogue.
Then, she has the gall to run her series "the Debt Diet" where she tsk, tsks those who are living beyond their means for buying those products she's been hawking on tv and in print.
The only analogy between her binge eating and America's binge shopping are her hypocritical treatment of such issues. i.e. That she hosts show after show on healthy living and eating consciously while she sits there with her obese BMI like a heart attack waiting to happen....or holds her series on the debt diet after she has spent the rest of the year showcasing consumer items her audience "can't live without" and celebrity lavish lifesyles we've just got to emulate. The only consolation we can take from this is that her obesity will hopefully create health problems that will force her early retirement so we don't have to listen to this hypocrite a moment longer.
Oprah is not happy unless she's plugging, well - Oprah! That's how she makes her millions, by using everyone and everything to snag viewers.
I suspect this is just a shabby ploy for sympathy, mostly in part because she's lost some of her luster among female supporters.
And although I will not watch her show, buy her magazine, or read her "approved-list" books, I really like Oprah with a few more curves. She simple doesn't look very healthy or happy when she's razor thin.
Just go shop, girl!
There is only one way to beat an addiction. First, we need humility. We also need to do it one day at a time. Regardless of how trite that phase is...it's loaded with truth. Next, we share our battles and success with a few close others...but not the whole world.I liked Oprah best when she was heavier.To my eyes, she lacked a pretentiousness which she gained with the weight she lost.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.