Serena Williams Becomes New Face For GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs
Tennis legend Serena Williams has revealed that she turned to GLP-1 weight loss medication after years of struggling to lose weight post-pregnancy — even while training hours a day as a professional tennis player. She has been taking the medication consistently since April, and has lost 31 pounds to date.
“I [was] literally training 5 hours a day and I would always work my way to one point of the scale and it would never go below that,” she recalled on the Today Show Thursday.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner, who welcomed daughters Olympia (born in 2017) and Adira (born in 2023), said she wants to normalize the use of weight loss drugs and push back on the stigma that it’s the “easy way out.” Her comments were part of launching a partnership with telehealth GLP-1 prescriber Ro.
In May of 2024, an estimated 15.5 million people — roughly 6% of U.S. adults in a recent Gallup poll — reported having used the injectable diabetes medicine to reduce weight. That’s only growing, with an April/May 2025 survey from RAND putting that number around 12%. In recent years, the CDC has reported 40% of U.S. adults are obese. It comes as patients are seeing health benefits from semaglutide (or GLP-1) drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy beyond weight loss.
A PHYSICIAN WEIGHS IN
Mo News spoke with Dr. Cedric Jamie Rutland, a critical care physician, who said he recommends his patients try GLP-1s if they’re struggling to lose weight.
He emphasizes that long-term success with GLP-1 weight-loss drugs depends on lifestyle changes, but that patients typically lose around 15% of their body weight over the course of a year — and some lose even more.
He’s seen weight loss reverse diabetes, eliminate sleep apnea, reduce joint pain, and more.
🎧 Listen to the full conversation on the Mo News podcast (on Spotify or Apple) for insight on GLP-1s and how to navigate insurance coverage, as the cost of the drugs can be a deterring factor.
BIGGER IMPACT
Besides cost, injecting weekly shots is also a potential deterrent from taking the drug. Drugmaker Eli Lilly says its oral GLP-1 weight loss pill, currently in trials, could be nearly as effective as its injectables – with participants in one trial losing an average of 12% of their body weight, or roughly 27 pounds.
The results could mean a possible cheaper and more convenient alternative to weight-loss medication on the market by next year.
The pill, which would also be used to treat diabetes, showed additional benefits like reduced blood pressure and non-HDL cholesterol. Side effects such as nausea and constipation were similar to those from Eli Lilly’s injectable versions like Zepbound and Mounjaro. Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, is also working to bring a GLP-1 pill to the market.
BEYOND WEIGHT LOSS
One study suggests GLP-1 medications could have untapped potential to reduce the risks of psychosis, infections, some kinds of cancer, and dementia — though much of those benefits were related to weight loss and a decrease in inflammation. Another study from USC found found GLP-1s reduced alcohol cravings and caused participants to drink less, which could potentially help reduce alcohol deaths and cancers or diseases caused by excessive drinking.