Whoopi Goldberg has never been one to hold her tongue when it came to speaking her mind. She’s doing that now when it comes to her dramatic over 100-pound weight loss. She’s gets candid when she shares how she lost the weight of “almost two people” while on a popular weight loss drug, and has also been outspoken about her stance on the stigma surrounding weight loss drugs.
The Weight Loss Drug of Choice Whoopi Goldberg Uses
The 69-year-old Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony (EGOT) winner, whose real name is Caryn Elaine Johnson, first revealed that she had used Mounjaro in March 2024, during a conversation on The View about Oprah Winfrey’s special Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution.
The Long Walk Home alum has made no secret of the fact that she used weight loss medication to help her the more than 100 pounds, which is very refreshing considering how many other celebs who have slimmed down are keeping their weight loss secrets very close to their chests.
Whoopi discussed her weight loss on a past episode of The View. Her guest Jim Gaffigan candidly said: “I have gotten skinny. And it’s none of my own willpower. It’s a shot in the stomach. That works wonders. I don’t know why people are afraid to admit it.”
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Goldberg agreed, before going on to admit that she tells “everybody” that she takes Mounjaro.
“I weighed almost 300 pounds when I made Till,” Goldberg said of the 2022 film she produced and starred in as Mamie Till-Bradley, mother of 14-year-old Emmett Till who was murdered in 1955. “I had taken all these steroids and I was on all this stuff, and one of the things that’s helped me drop the weight is Mounjaro. That’s what I used. I say it all the time. Because you can’t go from close to 300 pounds without someone saying, ‘OK, what happened?’ ‘Cause you know I didn’t go to the gym!”
Last spring, Goldberg implored viewers to ‘stop judging everybody’ based on what they look like.
‘Maybe that’s the key – because, listen, when I realized how much I had put on, because … I always felt like me,’ Goldberg said. ‘And then I saw me and I thought, “Oh, that’s a lot of me.”‘
“I am doing that wonderful shot that works for folks who need some help, and it’s been really good for me,” she continued.
How Does Mounjaro Work?
Mounjaro works by mimicking two hormones in the body, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), which helps to regulate appetite and blood sugar levels, leading to reduced food intake and weight loss by signaling to the brain that you are full, while also improving insulin sensitivity and slowing down stomach emptying; essentially, it makes you feel fuller for longer after eating, reducing overall calorie consumption.
Key points about Mounjaro:
Dual-agonist action:
Unlike other similar medications that only target GLP-1, Mounjaro activates both GLP-1 and GIP receptors, potentially leading to greater weight loss.
Appetite control:
By mimicking these hormones, Mounjaro sends signals to the brain to reduce hunger and cravings, making it easier to eat less.
Blood sugar regulation:
It also helps to improve insulin sensitivity and manage blood sugar levels by stimulating insulin release when needed.
Injection administration:
Mounjaro is a prescription medication that is injected once a week under the skin.
How This Different than Other Weight Loss Drugs?
Ozempic and Wegovy are brand names for a drug called semaglutide. Mounjaro is the brand name for a different drug called tirzepatide. The drugs work in similar ways to reduce appetite, but there are some differences.
The drugs also are made by different companies. Eli Lilly makes Mounjaro, while Novo Nordisk makes Wegovy and Ozempic.
“It’s a completely new drug class,” says Professor Low Wang of the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. “Instead of being a single-receptor agonist, which semaglutide (the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy) is, Mounjaro activates two receptors at the same time. That’s why it’s called a ‘dual-agonist.’”
This double agonist approach seems to cause people who use Mounjaro injections to lose even more weight than those who use a single-agonist medication.
These receptors stimulate hormones that control blood sugar levels and reduce appetite, triggering weight loss.
The receptors are known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP).
Wegovy and Ozempic activate the GLP-1 receptor, while Mounjaro activates two receptors: both GLP-1 and GIP.
People who used the largest dose of Mounjaro, 15 milligrams, have lost around 22% of their body weight or more.
How Whoopi’s Weight Loss Journey Started
Whoopi didn’t think about her weight much–even when she was overweight–until a fan who thought she was wearing a fat suit while filming Till.
“I was indignant,” Goldberg recalled. “I was like, ‘This is not a fat suit. This is me,’ and then I saw me.”
“You’re living your life and you’re doing what you need to do—and that’s the last thing you’re thinking about because you’ve got other stuff on your mind,” she added. “When you realize it, you go, ‘Well, damn.’ And everyone says, ‘Well, I thought you knew.’”
“I think it’s very hard for people to just know what a normal weight would be,” she continued, noting that she felt people who gain weight are often met with criticism. “Everyone has something to say but no one said, ‘How you doing?’ Because it involves so many other things.”
