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“I recently made the decision to not continue serving on the board of WeightWatchers,” said Winfrey, who served on the board for nearly a decade after acquiring a 10 percent stake in the company in 2015. “I made that decision because I wanted no perceived conflict of interest for this special,” she added, referring to her interview with WeightWatchers’ chief executive officer Sima Sistani. 

Sistani discussed WeightWatchers’ shift in strategy after purchasing Sequence, a telehealth company that specializes in prescribing weight loss medication, in 2023. Part of this shift, according to Sistani, also emphasizes reframing obesity as a disease.

“We are the most clinically tested, evidence-based, science-backed behavior change program, but we were missing the third prong which was biology,” Sistani told Winfrey. “There could be somebody who needs medication because they have that biological underpinning, and what’s so important for us is to provide that care and also help people release the shame.”


 

 

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