Whoopi Goldberg's Stunning Weight Loss Transformation

Whoopi Goldberg has been a mainstay of the American entertainment industry for decades. She kickstarted her career with Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" back in 1985, and since then she's delighted audiences with films like "Ghost" and "Sister Act." She was the first Black person to win an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). Her impact on the entertainment industry can hardly be overstated, and she's been a role model for a great many people over the decades.

Unfortunately, though, she's had a lot of health battles as she grew more advanced in years. Some of them brought her worryingly close to death and reduced her mobility, and that naturally had an impact on her weight. Her size doesn't really have any bearing on her ability to perform, but it's often a topic of conversation, especially on the talk show "The View," which Goldberg has been a part of since 2007. Her comments there about weight and exercise often make headlines.

Let's take a look at the timeline of Goldberg's weight loss journey — a journey that she's still on, as of this writing — and see what she's achieved.

In 2003, Whoopi Goldberg must have seemed like a perfect candidate to advertise the diet brand Slim-Fast. She was one of the most famous names in Hollywood, and a mere two years prior she had nabbed herself a star on the Walk of Fame. "To my fans, you don't care if I'm fat or skinny, you still come to see me," she said at the ceremony, as reported by Backstage. Unilever, then-parent company of Slim-Fast, were very keen to have her on board. Goldberg became a spokesperson and appeared in advertisements that featured Goldberg calling herself a "big loser" of weight while she showed off various Slim-Fast products.

Unfortunately, though, it turned out Goldberg wasn't as perfect for the business as she seemed. Slim-Fast had forgotten to take her trademark dirty humor into account. In 2004, while at a Democratic fundraiser event in New York, she made a joke referencing then-President George W. Bush and a certain part of female anatomy. Slim-Fast was appalled. "We are disappointed by the manner in which Ms Goldberg chose to express herself and sincerely regret that her recent remarks offended some of our consumers," general manager Terry Olson said at the time, The Guardian reported. Although Goldberg was no longer a spokesperson for the weight-loss brand, that wasn't going to stop her from trying to lose weight.

Whoopi Goldberg sat down with Katie Couric for Glamour magazine in 2010 and talked about her quest to become slimmer. It turned out she had a problem millions across America could no doubt relate to: poor portion control. While she said she had "minimal interest in food," sometimes she just couldn't stop eating. "I eat eight bags of chips in one sitting, and then nothing for a day or two," she explained. "I learned that my body thought it was starving, so it would hold on to fat."

At the time, she was on a new detox diet, and it had already caused her to lose some weight. None other than fellow star Meredith Vieira had put her onto it. Goldberg explained the plan, saying, "I do three shakes a day. And I have my crab, sushi or whatever, including chips. I just don't need eight bags. And I make sure I'm pooping, because that, apparently, is a huge deal. I was never a pooper, either." Flatulence, however, was never a problem for the star.

As Goldberg told Couric, "I worked in a theater in San Diego with the smallest dressing rooms. I was trying to change clothes, and you don't have time to be polite. People would say, 'You're like a whoopee cushion!' And so she changed her name from Caryn to Whoopi.

Although she saw some success with her diet in 2010, she continued to struggle with weight loss in the years after. In 2014, she decided to go on a brand new diet. She ended up losing 35 pounds in all. "I happened to notice that I had begun to look like a linebacker," she told ABC News, self-deprecatingly. "I happened to look over and there was Sherri [Shepherd, then a co-host on 'The View'], skinny, and I said, 'What did you do?' She said, 'I've been doing Rocco DiSpirito's one pound a day diet.' I said, 'Please, I want to do it too.'"

The diet involved drinking a lot of water and eating smaller meals that are rich in protein. It was designed to help the dieter lose a lot of weight quickly. Goldberg certainly seemed to like it at the time. During this time, she also made a substantial lifestyle change: She quit smoking.

While plenty of people think that smoking can help you lose weight, that's not necessarily true — and even if it were, it wouldn't be worth the myriad of health problems that come with the habit. According to a 2024 study published by the Society for the Study of Addiction, smoking may actually increase abdominal fat.

In the summer of 2019, Whoopi Goldberg was taken to the hospital with pneumonia and sepsis. Unfortunately, she delayed seeking help when she first started experiencing symptoms, and medical professionals were instantly very concerned. "The doctor told me, 'Listen, you're not going anywhere tomorrow and you're not going anywhere next week because you are really sick. You were this close to dying,'" Goldberg told People.

As the the serious health scare nearly cost Goldberg her life, she issued a warning to readers. "I never thought of pneumonia as something that serious. In my mind I wasn't that sick. I hope that this is a cautionary tale for people. You have to take the time to take care of yourself," she said. The pneumonia and sepsis ended up reducing Goldberg's mobility, which can contribute to weight gain. "I get winded going up stairs and I still can't get on my treadmill," she admitted to People. "Nobody wants to feel like they can't do something, but your body says no sometimes." Nevertheless, Goldberg was lucky to be alive in the first place — and, naturally, that is the most important thing.

Unfortunately, Whoopi Goldberg's health problems were far from over. In 2021, she was diagnosed with sciatica, a common but serious cause of lower back pain that affects the sciatic nerve. Once again, her mobility was reduced, and she had to start using a walker to get around. At the time, losing weight was likely not a priority for her — adjusting to her new circumstances was. After spending a week away from television, Goldberg returned to "The View" to explain what had happened.

She compared the sciatica to "a bad boyfriend who came back to mess with me," and showed off her walker to her co-stars and the audience. It was, she said, "my new best friend." Joy Behar told her how well-rested she looked, and Goldberg answered that she'd been in a hospital bed for the past week. It had really been a rough couple of years for her, and it was imperative that she found her way back to health.

Luckily, there are treatments for sciatica. The Mayo Clinic recommends physical therapy once the pain is under control. However, one of the ways of getting it under control is steroid injections, and steroids very often cause weight gain as they make the body retain fluid and also increase the appetite. Additionally, steroids are also commonly used to treat sepsis. In a later episode of "The View," Goldberg attributed some of her weight gain to the medications she was prescribed, saying, "I had taken all those steroids, I was on all this stuff."

In 2022, Goldberg starred in the movie "Till." It told the horrific true story of Emmett Till, a young Black boy murdered in a racist attack after allegedly whistling at a white woman. Goldberg played Emmett's grandmother, Alma. However, the film's critical acclaim was briefly sidelined in the wake of a body-shaming controversy. Goldberg found that one reviewer of the film made a callous comment about her, and she was understandably not pleased. "There was a young lady who writes for one of the magazines, and she was distracted by my fat suit, in her review," Goldberg revealed on "The View."

"I don't really care how you felt about the movie, but you should know that was not a fat suit, that was me. ... That was steroids." Goldberg continued, saying, "I assume you don't watch the show, or you would know that was not a fat suit." Although Goldberg accepted that the reviewer wasn't trying to be unkind, she was still hurt. "Just comment on the acting, and if you have a question, ask somebody," she said. She went on, "Now she'll know the next time you go to talk about somebody, you talk about them as an actor."

The review, which appeared in The Daily Beast, was later updated to remove the "fat suit" comment, Entertainment Weekly confirmed.

No one would have really blamed Whoopi Goldberg if she'd given up on serious exercise after her health struggles, but she didn't. She kept on going, even if she did it in a slightly unusual way. She explained all during a November 2023 episode of "The View." The women were laughing about then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, exercising in his jeans. "That's a serial killer move right there," joked Alyssa Farah Griffin; however, Goldberg admitted to wearing the controversial gym fashion choice.

Goldberg's co-stars questioned how exactly she dealt with sweating when exercising in jeans, and she answered, "You change your clothes when you get home. Listen, sometimes you don't have time to stop when everybody else is in their shorts and everything. And you go and you get some exercise in when you can." She admitted it was a "freaky thing to some people." While exercising in jeans is not ideal, and a lot of people find it very uncomfortable, Goldberg is right in that people should get exercise in while they can. Even improper exercise in jeans is better than no exercise at all!

Quite a few celebs have now spoken out about using weight-loss drugs – and Whoopi Goldberg is one of them. In March 2024, she revealed on an episode of "The View" that she used Mounjaro. The injectable medication was designed to treat type 2 diabetes but is also used off-label to treat obesity. Goldberg credits the medication for helping her slim down after she gained weight from the steroids she was prescribed. "I was 300 pounds," Goldberg told the audience, referencing her time filming "Till."

"One of the things that's helped me drop the weight was ... Mounjaro. That's what I used," she explained. Goldberg's co-hosts shared their own stories of weight gain and loss, and Goldberg recalled a time when she had looked in the mirror and realized, "Oh, that's a lot of me." In the end, she decided that when it comes to losing weight, "it is a matter of how we treat ourselves." That is a healthy way of looking at it.

After Whoopi Goldberg spoke out about taking Mounjaro, it caused a flurry of comments on her body. Stylist Tavia Sharp talked The Sun, opining that Goldberg "does not want to commit to a new look yet and is unsure how to fit into her new body." The comments seemed to be prompted by Goldberg wearing loose-fitting, casual clothes compared to the outfits of her co-stars on "The View." The stylist continued, saying, "Whoopi has been pretty heavy-set for many years and is now going through the process of physically changing her shape. ... Right now, she is not embracing the new body."

Sharp claimed that the overalls Goldberg wore on one episode of talk show made her resemble a Super Mario Brother. She went on, "Many people, especially women, feel uncomfortable showing off their new body after weight loss. They were so used to covering it for so long. This is all about body image."

Goldberg didn't make any sort of response to these comments, and it's unknown if she even saw them. However, as was the case with the "fat suit"comment in a review of "Till," she may not have appreciated the attention on her looks.

In May 2024, Whoopi Goldberg went on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" and the two women discussed weight-loss medications. "I'm doing that wonderful shot that works for folks who need some help and it's been really good for me," Goldberg told Clarkson. Kelly Clarkson, who also underwent a weight loss transformation of her own, responded, "Mine is a different one than people assume. ... My doctor chased me for, like, two years. and I was like, 'No, I'm afraid of it.' I already have thyroid problems. ... Everyone thinks it's Ozempic but it's not. But it's something that aids in breaking down the sugar."

Goldberg later showed the clip of the conversation on "The View" in order to defend Clarkson, who was being criticized for saying she'd taken a weight-loss drug when people thought she'd lost weight by walking. "A lot of people are taking the shot because they need it," Goldberg pointedly said. "Some people need bodies jumpstarted, some have diabetes, there's lots of reasons. She continued, saying, "They kick her behind when she's bigger, they kick her behind when she's lost the weight, and now they're kicking her behind because she said it out loud." Clearly, there's still a lot of stigma around weight-loss drugs, but Goldberg is doing her best to break down that stigma.