August 22, 2025, 8:50 am | Read time: 4 minutes
During her active tennis career, Serena Williams often faced comments about her body: She was either too curvy or too muscular and therefore too masculine. Will she now hear that she’s become too thin? Serena Williams has noticeably lost weight and revealed that she used weight-loss injections to help. It wasn’t an easy decision and initially more a step out of desperation—she shared this in an interview.
A professional athlete needing weight-loss assistance? Hard to believe, but true—at least in the case of Serena Williams. And not just since she retired from tennis. In fact, the use of GLP-1 (short for GLP-1 receptor agonists) was already a topic when Williams was still an active tennis player, with every training session and meal meticulously planned and perfected. Yet even when she was in top athletic form, her weight apparently always posed challenges for Serena Williams, which intensified after the birth of her first child. Desperate, Serena Williams began exploring GLP-1 and the use of weight-loss injections. “I was nervous and had so many unanswered questions,” Williams shared in an interview with the U.S. magazine “Women’s Health.”
A major concern: that she might be accused of being lazy and taking the easy way out. Today, she confidently says: “It’s not a shortcut. It’s not an excuse. It’s simply another tool that supports me on my journey to better health.”
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Grand Slam Legend and Still Not Slim Enough?
Losing weight has never seemed easy for Serena Williams. Diets and training made her strong and muscular. However, after the pregnancies and births of her children, it became increasingly problematic that the tennis player couldn’t manage to lose weight. “In a sport like tennis, you put stress on your joints with every movement and each time with hundreds of pounds,” explained Williams, who boasts an incredible 23 Grand Slam victories. That’s why it was important for her to lose weight back then.
“At some point, my coach said to me, ‘You need to lose weight.’ I ate extremely healthily and trained really hard because I know what it takes to be number one. But I just couldn’t lose weight, and that was really frustrating for me.” During a stay in Paris, she reportedly walked between 20,000 and 30,000 steps daily, but the scale never showed the required weight loss.
The consequences were noticeable in tennis: Serena Williams struggled with joint pain while chasing after balls. “I’m a very good example of how you can do everything right—eat healthily, train so much that you even play professional sports and reach the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open—and still not lose weight,” she explained in the interview.
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Serena Williams’ Path to Weight-Loss Injections
Because the complaints threatened to hinder her tennis success, Williams realized: “I need to try something different.” That was GLP-1. Serena Williams researched weight-loss medications. A year ago, after weaning her daughter Adira, the time came: Serena Williams took a weight-loss injection for the first time, but not for long. It apparently didn’t feel right yet, and the fear of stigma was still too great.
In January 2025, she tried again, with the help of a company where her husband is an investor and board member. Her second experience with the weight-loss injection was much more positive, Serena Williams explained: “The doctors could answer all my questions, no matter how silly or crazy they were.”
Williams has been taking the medication for seven months now, while maintaining a healthy diet and rigorous training program—and she’s pleased with the results.
Lost 14 Kilograms—How Serena Williams Is Doing Now
In a reel on her Instagram account, Serena Williams is now a brand ambassador for the company she embarked on the renewed GLP-1 journey with—she revealed that she has lost 14 kilograms since January. “My joints are much better. I’m running farther than ever before.” The 43-year-old is currently preparing for an upcoming half-marathon. And her health is benefiting too: “I just had a check-up, and the doctor said everything—including my blood sugar levels—looks great.”