Serena Williams shares use of GLP-1 for weight loss and stigma

[FoxRedPuppy]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8de89lg21jo.amp

When will the judgement stop, she is talking about when she became obese after pregnancy.

🤦‍♀️

Have you actually read about it? Because she doesn’t look thin nor is she promoting it, she is clearly very muscular. She retired and had two pregnancies and became obese,

im shocked at the negativity, the running in to attack her, she doesn’t need the money, she could have picked other routes, hidden and pretended it was diet and hard work, aka a secret jabber, I am delighted a strong woman who is not aiming for thin is promoting these medications.

I was reading about this and found this article in the Guardian a bit negative and irritating

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/aug/22/serena-williams-ozempic-weight-loss-drugs

That article made me seethe. A man commenting on a woman’s choices around her body is never good.

Also there seemed to be little mention of the health benefits of the drugs, it was all about appearance and 'shrinking' She doesn't look 'shrunken', she looks strong..

The Guardian seem to have a weird thing about weight loss drugs, this not the only recent odd article about them. There was another recent one "Shrinking girl summer' as well as others I have seen.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/aug/10/body-positivity-shrinking-girl-summer-everyone-getting-smaller-except-me

The Grauniad seems to have a bit of a sexist streak across the boards recently.

Anecdotally a lot of body builders use Ozempic-like substances to make cutting weight easier—it helps them keep muscle mass while reducing body fat percentage. It’s not solely used as a tool for weight loss

Serena says in the article “despite training five hours a day and running, walking, biking, stair climbing she couldn't pulverise this adversary like she did to her opponents on the tennis court”. So she has Iikely always had well-toned muscles, but now they are visible due to her lower body fat.

They don't seem to understand that 'body positivity' is about celebrating all types of body not just fat ones, do they. Grr. And yes that man commenting on Serena was really annoying.

I struggle to believe she was training for 5 hours a day when she was in her last playing days. She lumbered around the tennis court like a walrus and only relied on sheer physical strength with serving. If exercise didn't make you toned/thin then why aren't there other overweight tennis players on the tour?

People are overweight because for whatever reason, they are over eating.

Not really a very nice way to describe someone.
But yes, that's what she says, GLP1 helps her to deal with the reason she was eating more than she burned, even with 5 hours of training.

Well aren’t you a peach! 😂 @MrsLizzieDarcy

If exercise didn't make you toned/thin then why aren't there other overweight tennis players on the tour?

There are lots of different builds in women’s tennis - top players (including grand slam winners) have varied considerably in physique. To be a top tennis player you need to be powerful and fit with great technique and good strategic instincts. That doesn’t necessarily lead to a one-size-fits-all physique.

Typical Guardian. Very pretentious. Of course, they use a man to write about a top female athlete. She could easily thrash him at tennis. Guardian have not been good at reading the room at all when it comes to women in general.

This is isn’t even true. I gained two stone in 8 weeks from steroids. There are number of health conditions that cause insulin resistance for example.

Your comment shows very little understanding of science of weight loss and weight gain.

It's almost like there are a range of issues affecting women's bodies, and athletes do often struggle with their weight towards the end of their career - the difficulties in maintaining it as you age aren't exactly a secret and are often a driver in retiring in the first place. There are so many athletes from footballers to swimmers to boxers who have spoken about this. In fact Rebecca Adlington springs to mind right away.

I don't mean any of this nastily, I'm diabetic and really struggle to lose weight myself. But she should have retired long before she did, because she was overweight and that made her very unfit. She was unable to run round the court at all during her last Wimbledon and it was actually quite sad to watch. She never regained full fitness after the birth of her 1st, IMO. And anyone overweight 99.9% of the time is eating too much, no matter how many hours a day they spend exercising.

I suggest watching the series about Serena currently on iPlayer, which documents the kind of relentless body shaming she was subjected to over her career - far more than any white player - not to mention the fact that she played through illness and personal tragedy and just kept winning. She is absolutely phenomenal. Her 'last playing days' were after she nearly died having her baby but she came back anyway.

You do sound nasty.

athletes have short paid careers

Oh come off it! She’s worth $250 million.

Yeah, that guy can fuck off!

I do believe her, and her exasperation.

Before kids, before even pre-menopause , we went on a five week activity holiday together. We shared a room, meals, lives, stories.

She lost 5lb. I lost 21lb. I felt for her.

Yes I eat less, but she doesn’t shovel food in her gob all day either.

I never thought she was overweight, I thought she was just muscular as she is an elite athlete, she’s Serena Williams fgs did anyone really care what her body looked like? But if she wasn’t happy with aspects of herself then it’s up to her what and how she changes that

@MrsLizzieDarcy ’lumbered around the tennis court like a walrus’ is a pretty nasty thing to say.

At no point did she say she did it for others.

god nothing makes me seethe more than women bringing down other women, can’t beleive someone actually compared Serena Williams competing to a lumbering walrus, shameful and shocking,