To think Serena Williams being on a GLP-1 isn’t that big a deal?

I agree with you. I watched a good video yesterday talking about how people are so hung up on thinking it's about aesthetics and yet almost everyone taking this medication talks primarily about how they feel and how their general health has improved.

More power to her.

How are normal people supposed to be body positive and accept their shape and size if super fit athletes are promoting weight loss drugs.

Because body positivity was never about normalising or celebrating being overweight/obese. Or, at least, it wasn't to begin with.

It was about saying, "Don't wait until you've lost that 3 stone to start living your life. Live it anyway." But the emphasis, initially, was also on people being 'healthy'. It was also for anyone who didn't naturally fit Western beauty standards.

Over the years, it was hijacked to become all about celebrating extreme weight.

I was in a FB body positivity group for years. In the early days, everyone was welcome. Whether you were 25 stone and wanted to start going to the gym, 25 stone and wanted to just sit and eat cake or whether you were 8 stone and struggling with a post partum body or just didn't look like a model. I left when it became completely toxic and anyone who posted with reference to eating healthily, or going to the gym or just not being morbidly obese was jumped on for being part of the problem when it was literally women talking about their first time gym nerves or wanting to be able to play with their kids in the park and their health.

I don't really have an opinion on WLI. I know people who've taken them and its worked wonders for them but I have no interest in them myself. Not because I'm perfect but because I do just accept my shape and size.

If others want to do it, that's up to them. It's nothing to do with me or anyone else.

Nobody owes anyone an explanation or a justification.

I suppose it has exposed that deep down not many people were as 'fat and happy' as they'd been claiming. But I don't think many people really believed that anyway.

Any celebrity being paid to endorse a product isn't being altruistic & I'd take their broadcast view with an unhealthy pinch of salt. The individual or their family having a further financial interest doesn't really change my view - it's all commercial advertising anyway. Does Gary Lineker truly love Walkers? Who knows!

This is not correct @phoenixrosehere . It's her sister Venus that has Sjogrens.

However, as regards this thread subject, I'm not totally convinced that a person with a history of blood clots would be using WL drugs, but perhaps that's just the cynic in me, given the promotional/advertising aspect of this story.

But she’s advertising it? It’s hardly a private decision…

I wonder if Serena Williams advertising it will change some people’s minds. Like the ones who think the jabs are the lazy option and people should just eat less and move more. Because no-one could accuse SW of being lazy or undisciplined.

I don’t think people in other countries need to avoid using companies that have put prices up abroad.

But she did use an Eli Lilly drug, as they are one of the two manufacturers sold by the company her husband invested in and sits on the board of. She used Zepbound.

I agree with PPs that, as a general rule, people advertising things should declare if they have an interest. It’s a similar principle to saying that influencers need to say if they've been paid to promote something. I think it is more important if you’re talking about a prescription drug. But I don’t have any opinion on her using it herself, just like I wouldn’t have any opinion on her using any other medication.

Why are you on this thread ? To discuss how a well known person has said they use WLI. Adele said she exercised twice a day with a PT. Weight loss is 80% diet.
Point being she told the world how she lost weight. If she said nothing that’s fine. But if this is not true then she should say so.
WLI have been around for about 10 years. The celebrity trend took off after Covid

Her body, her choice. Adele doesn't need to 'own up' to anything

I agree with this. At the very least I appulald her honesty.

Also I love your name. BH was my favourite character and stole every scene she was in.

I wonder if Serena's weight was detriment to her physical health.
I would have thought she was one of the very few outliers of the standard BMI charts - ie despite having a BMI was completely healthy - low fat, heart in good shape, normal BP.
I suppose the stress on joints would be the same.

Her skill and talent has always been her income. Hope that helps.

This is just more anti WLI myths being trotted out by someone who has no real idea what they are talking about.
A small % of people on WLI are eating very little and losing weight at unhealthy rates. They are people who are uninformed about health both the impacts of too much food and too little. Most people on WLI are eating in a moderate calorie deficit over a long period of time and focusing on macros and exercise. Personally I've lost 3 stone eating 1800-2000 calories a day consistently. I work out and my body goal is muscled and toned, not skinny. I'm pretty typical of a WLI user. You have a weird take on it that smacks of resentment TBH.

I think she can take whatever medication she likes, if a medical professional approves it and she can afford it.
I don't think any celebrities should be actively promoting any medication though, or gaining financially from it.

Good for her and thank God someone who clearly was fit as heck said she needed help after tennis retirement. After the birth of her first she did gain a lot - some articles have comparison photos.

Exercise makes you hungry as heck. As the saying goes “you can’t out train a bad diet.”

She has Sjögren's Syndrome, and has said she has struggled to lose weight despite being active and eating well.

Plenty of people who are a normal BMI and overweight have had this issue where they have struggled to lose weight despite doing all the things that is said to do to lose weight.

It’s also not shaming people by others being able to afford things and plenty of people are happy with their size and wouldn’t take it anyway.

People talk about the trends of the past but ignore that many people also ignored them, didn’t participate and/or mocked them. How many times has the lip fillers come up on AIBU with many saying how horrendous it looks despite it being a trend, same with BBL, Botox, and how horrible some look after taking weight loss drugs.

But the weightloss drugs are creating genuinely unhealthy bodies, which we are celebrating.

The drugs themselves may be safe, but they enable people to eat very little - and that's what people are doing. That's how the dramatic weightloss happens. I was diagnosed with an eating disorder due to eating that little, and sent to hospital. But apparently it's fine to do it when you pay for it?

Eating so little that the weight falls off you, as is what often happens with the WLIs, is very bad for you.

If health is your concern, you should be concerned about the WLIs.

I'm not concerned by health, which is why Im back to severely restricting my food intake to lose this stupid "recovery" weight I gained from hospital. So I'm not concerned bout the WLIs either. My thought are, if eating so little is fine for them, it's fine for me. The only difference is I can do it for free.

Eating very little will always lead to weightloss, you don't need a I ejection to do that. It just helps you do that.

But saying body positivity is bad because it got unhealthy whilst also taking weight loss injections and applauding them is absolutely laughable. A naturally chubby person, ie they got that way due to a few excess calories, is always going to be healthier than someone in WLIs who is dropping weight due to very low intake (and healthier than me too, of course).

For WLIs to be the healthy choice, they need to be reserved for people who are very large. Unable to walk. Who cannot control their eating habits at all.

Instead just "kinda fat" people are all over them... And now athletes. That's insane.

Her H apparently has shares in the company and she is being paid to promote the drug. So she is hardly being altruistic by talking about her struggle to lose weight.
I see it a a real negative that she is promoting an idea people can't lose weight without using these drugs.

Weight loss drugs should be for people who are clinical obese and have health issues. People who truly need help when nothing else has worked

Why??

I don't agree at all that 90s skinny culture is back. Being strong and fit is still prized highest. There wouldn't be so much talk about protein and exercise on WLI if skinny was the only goal. And I'm sorry but body positivity is all very well but being a healthy weight is always better than being overweight.

Weight loss drugs should be for people who are clinical obese and have health issues. People who truly need help when nothing else has worked

Why??

I don't agree at all that 90s skinny culture is back. Being strong and fit is still prized highest. There wouldn't be so much talk about protein and exercise on WLI if skinny was the only goal. And I'm sorry but body positivity is all very well but being a healthy weight is always better than being overweight.

I personally don't care what she does. Was simply sharing why the criticism.

Yes its freely available information- but if you are also advertising a product, it should be clear in your statement. She has a beneficial interest in her husbands company to do well.

whos business is this? Not mine, yours, or anyone else’s but Serena’s and her doctors