Tennis champion Serena Williams mentioned Thursday that she is taking weight reduction treatment after struggling to see outcomes from food regimen and train following the start of her two daughters, Olympia and Adira.
“As an athlete and as somebody that has executed every part, I simply couldn’t get my weight to the place I wanted to be at a wholesome place, and imagine me I don’t take shortcuts. I do every part however shortcuts,” Williams mentioned in an interview on “TODAY.”
After Olympia was born in 2017, she mentioned, she would run and stroll for hours to attempt to shed weight.
“I actually was taking part in an expert sport, and I may by no means return to the place I wanted to be for my well being, for my wholesome weight, it doesn’t matter what I did,” she mentioned. “I’d all the time lose a number of weight, after which I’d keep. It doesn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t go decrease than that one quantity.”
There have been different well being issues too, Williams mentioned: Diabetes runs in her household, and African American adults have a better threat of being recognized with it. She additionally hoped that shedding pounds would relieve strain on her knees.
“I had a number of points with my knees, particularly after I had my child,” she mentioned. “That, fairly frankly, undoubtedly had an impact on perhaps some wins that I may have had in my profession.”
On Thursday, she launched a marketing campaign with Ro, an organization that prescribes GLP-1 drugs by telehealth, to normalize using weight reduction medication and fight the narrative that taking them is the “straightforward approach out.” Her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is an investor in Ro and serves on its board.
Williams joins a rising record of celebrities who’ve publicly shared their use of weight reduction drugs, together with Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, singer Meghan Trainor and basketball legend Charles Barkley, who’s a Ro ambassador. Comic Amy Schumer has mentioned she tried Ozempic, however couldn’t tolerate the unwanted effects.
Williams mentioned her weight reduction journey turned more difficult after Adira was born in 2023. By then, she had introduced her exit from skilled tennis after a 27-year profession marked by 23 Grand Slams and 4 Olympic gold medals.
Almost a yr in the past, she began on a category of weight reduction drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which incorporates Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. The medication suppress urge for food by mimicking a hormone within the intestine. Ozempic and Mounjaro are additionally used to deal with diabetes since they will decrease blood sugar ranges. And Wegovy is accepted to scale back the chance of coronary heart assault and stroke in adults with coronary heart illness who’re obese or overweight.
Williams mentioned she has been constant about taking the treatment since April and has misplaced 31 kilos to this point.
