Sunny Hostin Was 'Horrified' After Gaining 40 Lbs. During COVID, So She Started Weight Loss Medication Mounjaro

"I think these medications are changing lives and saving lives," 'The View' co-host said Tuesday

Sunny Hostin has revealed that she turned to a prescription weight-loss medication after gaining 40 lbs. during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday's episode of The View, the former prosecutor, 55, said she used the popular drug Mounjaro, adding that "there is shame when you've gained weight" and that "I had never experienced that kind of shame before."

"During COVID, I gained 40. lbs.," said Hostin. "All I did was eat... I love to cook, and I found out, I love to eat. And I was horrified about the fact that I would have to come out on air. So I also took Mounjaro."

There were also health effects for Hostin. "I found that my cholesterol went up to 200 when I gained the extra weight. And I use Mounjaro and my cholesterol is 140 now," she said. "I feel better, I think I look better, and that’s what this is about for people."

Related: Whoopi Goldberg Reveals She Used Weight Loss Medication Mounjaro After Hitting 300 Lbs.: ‘That’s a Lot of Me’

Her disclosure came as Hostin's View co-host Whoopi Goldberg said she also used Mounjaro to slim down, when she noticed her weight was almost 300 lbs. "I just always felt like me. And then I saw me and I thought, ‘Oh! That’s a lot of me!’ " said Goldberg.

The women on the panel — including Sara Haines, Joy Behar and Alyssa Farah Griffin — were discussing Oprah Winfrey's ABC project An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution. The program discussed the topic of obesity, which the American Medical Association designated as a disease in 2013, and the growing trend of using medications like Mounjaro and Ozempic to treat it.

Winfrey — who revealed to PEOPLE in December that she was using a prescription weight-loss medication as part of her health and wellness regimen, but did not name the medication — shared in the special the shame she long felt over her weight.

"For 25 years, making fun of my weight was national sport," Winfrey, 70, said, recalling decades of hurtful headlines ridiculing her size.

Related: Oprah Winfrey Tackles Key Issues Around Weight Loss Drugs amid Obesity Epidemic: 'Very Personal to Me'

It wasn't until she began to remove fault from her thinking that she was able to heal. "I realized I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control," she said on Monday's show. "Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it's about the brain."

"When I tell you how many times I have blamed myself," an emotional Winfrey continued. "Because you think you're smart enough to have figured this out, and then you hear, all along, it's you fighting your brain."

Hostin praised Winfrey for her candidness in the special, and hoped that the conversation around obesity would help change people's minds.

"Obesity is a disease," Hostin noted. "If someone has diabetes, and they’re being treated for diabetes, it’s fine. When someone has some sort of cardiac disease, that’s fine. They’re not shamed for it. But when someone is obese, they are shamed for it."

She opened up more about it on The View's Behind the Table podcast on Tuesday, explaining that she took Ozempic first but was experiencing terrible constipation.

Within a month of switching to Mounjaro on the lowest dosage, Hostin said she saw a difference. "I was just able to lose weight and eat normally, as opposed to engorging myself, which I had gotten used to," she said.

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"I think these medications are changing lives and saving lives," Hostin added. "We were home for 18 months. I became a mixologist, I drank a lot of margaritas, a lot of sidecars. I love to cook anyway, I baked a lot of bread. ... I had gone up 4 sizes. What you see now is what I looked like before the pandemic, before menopause. My husband says, 'Oh wow, you look like what you looked like when I met you.' "

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC. An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution is now streaming on Hulu.

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