Motherhood Affected My Tennis Career – Serena Williams

Popular Tennis legend Serena Williams has said that she has been taking a GLP-1 medication to help her lose weight. She recently revealed that her decision to lose weight was taken after the birth of her second daughter.

Speaking during an interview with TODAY.com, Serena shared that she has lost 31 pounds since she started taking the medication about a year ago.

According to her, despite trying other means to shed some weight, including running, exercise, and long walks, nothing worked, prompting her decision to resort to medications for the sake of her health.

The mother of 2 stated that it was a good step she had to take to improve her life and general well-being.

“I was on and off (the medication) and now completely on. It was a really good decision I had to make for my life, you know, I tried everything.

This all started after I had my (first) kid. As a woman, you go through different cycles in your life. … No matter what I did — running, walking, I would walk for hours because they say that’s good, I literally was playing a professional sport — and I could never go back to where I needed to be for my health. Then, after my second kid, it just even got harder. So then I was like, OK, I have to try something different,” she said.

Revealing that she even tried being a vegan to lose weight, Serena noted that the medication-induced weight loss has improved her blood sugar levels.

She concluded by saying that the knee issues she used to endure after delivery are long gone as well.

“I had a lot of knee issues … especially after I had my kid (and) was never able to get to my normal levels of weight. And that, quite frankly, definitely had an effect on maybe some wins that I could have had in my career.

I put my body through a lot. … I understand that there are lots of side effects, I just didn’t have any.

A misconception is that it’s a shortcut. As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn’t get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place — and believe me, I don’t take shortcuts.

I definitely had struggles because, I mean, I believed it too. … But with Ro (the GLP-1medication), I could easily just ask all the questions, and … I didn’t have to worry about it, and not have to feel like someone was looking at me sideways.

I feel like, after having my kids, my body was missing something. I don’t know if it’s something that the GLP-1 has, but I just feel normal again,” he added.