Serena Williams is getting real about her weight-loss journey.

Since April, the retired tennis legend has been on a GLP-1 medication that uses a naturally occurring hormone to help regulate blood sugar levels, appetite, and digestion. The drug has helped the athlete lose over 31 lbs.

“I feel great,” she told People today. “I feel really good and healthy. I feel light physically and light mentally.”

new york, ny august 21: serena williams is seen on august 21, 2025 in new york city. (photo by xny/star max/gc images)

While there has always been much controversy around the use of weight-loss drugs, Williams said that the medicine did to her body what exercise never could after she gave birth to her first daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017.“I never was able to get to the weight I needed to be no matter what I did, no matter how much I trained,” she explained.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion had the same issue after welcoming her second daughter, Adira River, in 2023.

“It was crazy because I’d never been in a place like that in my life where I worked so hard, ate so healthy and could never get down to where I needed to be at,” she said.

new york, ny august 21: serena williams is seen on august 21, 2025 in new york city. (photo by xny/star max/gc images)

Seeing as her healthy diet and intense workout routine were still not cutting it, Williams decided to contact Ro, a health care company that led her to the right GLP-1 treatment. Popular GLP-1 drug brands include Ozempic, Zepbound, and Mounjaro.

“I did a lot of research on it. I was like, ‘is this a shortcut? What are the benefits? What are not the benefits?’ I really wanted to dive into it before I just did it,” Williams said, acknowledging the controversy around the medications. “I had never taken shortcuts in my career and always worked really hard. I know what it takes to be the best. So it was very frustrating to do all the same things and never be able to change that number on the scale or the way my body looked.”