Tipping the scales at 200 pounds, Oprah Winfrey recently admitted of her weight, "I’m mad at myself. I’m embarrassed." As Inauguration Day approaches, Winfrey – who has said she finds Barack Obama inspiring, has vowed to shed her extra weight.
OK! has learned exclusively that Oprah is determined to lose 15 pounds before the swearing in of her close friend on Jan. 20, and is doing so with the help of another one of her allies, fitness and weight-loss guru, Bob Greene.
CLICK HERE for pics of Oprah’s battle with the bulge!
The talk-show host, 54, has admitted to putting on 40 pounds since 2004. In the January 2009 issue of O Magazine, Oprah confesses she hit rock bottom while standing between Tina Turner and Cher during an April show-taping in Las Vegas.
"I felt like a fat cow," she says. "I wanted to disappear."
But now with Greene’s help, the daytime diva plans to get her fitness plan back on track.
"Oprah knows the rules," Bob tells OK!. "I have five weeks. She’ll be aggressive and lose the weight in a healthy way."
The key to Bob’s plan? "She needs an hour of cardiovascular excercise six days a week. Crunches are done every day. That’s the core excercise."
In addition, three or four days a week, she’ll do 15-20 minutes of strength training. Although a malfunctioning thyroid diagnosis earlier this year is partly to blame for her weight gain, the TV queen is learning to change her diet.
"She became a sneak eater," a close pal of Oprah’s tells OK!. "She nibbles at events and parties. You never caught her eating fattening foods in public."
For the rest of Oprah’s slim-down plan, pick up the new OK! – on newsstands everywhere on Thursday!
On Monday, Carnie Wilson was seen jogging near her home in Los Angeles, a small part of her infamous, and well-chronicled, battle to get and stay thin. 
