The GOAT is bounding out of retirement.
Tennis great Serena Williams is back in the game, after openly endorsing GLP-1s for weight loss, and emphasizing how great her knees feel at her new, lower weight.
“I’m moving better on Ro,” she said in a Super Bowl ad for Ro, a telehealth company that prescribes Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound. (Williams’ husband, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, sits on the board and is a major investor.)
In the commercial, Williams said she can move more easily and enjoy steadier blood sugar levels throughout the day while she trains. In general, she feels “healthier” on her injectable medication, which she’s said helped her lose 34 pounds after the birth of her second child in 2023.
“After having two kids, I wasn’t able to be at a weight that was healthy for me,” Williams told the “Today” show when she first announced her paid partnership with Ro in 2025.
Her comeback is huge for tennis, of course — but also for the burgeoning peptide movement.
Yes, GLP-1s (“glucagon-like peptide-1”) are peptides.
For the uninitiated, injectable peptides are hot stuff right now. They have become wildly popular among gym-goers, athletes, and bodybuilders looking to trim fat, control inflammation, and avoid injuries. Ultimately, they want to find an edge in their routine.
Peptides are critical signaling molecules our bodies use to build muscle, heal injuries, and control hormones. Gym bros’ favorite peptides include BPC-157 (aka “the Wolverine shot”) for recovery, ipamorelin CJC-1295 for lean muscle growth — and, of course, GLP-1s for weight loss.
To be clear, Williams isn’t suggesting that GLP-1s should be used as performance-enhancing drugs. She is simply emblematic of a growing trend, from regular folks on up to competitive bodybuilders and elite athletes, who are using GLP-1s to stay nimble as they get older.
Her experience mirrors what many doctors are seeing in clinical practice: Their patients are recognizing GLP-1s as a health optimization tool — seeing that the fat reduction and anti-inflammatory benefits of these drugs go beyond treating diabetes and obesity. Research shows the medications can improve heart health, liver function, and sleep quality. And scientists are also probing whether these drugs could help with healthier aging and longevity.
“It’s the most powerful drug we’ve ever seen for helping people lose body fat,” exercise physiologist Pat Davidson, who is using an unapproved GLP-1 drug to help shred fat for bodybuilding, told Business Insider. “You are never putting that genie back in the bottle.”
GLP-1s target dangerous belly fat
The trend isn’t limited to high-powered sports stars.
In San Francisco, Dr. Nima Afshar, a concierge doctor at longevity-focused Private Medical, said he has “dozens” of elite clients who are using these drugs to remove dangerous visceral fat from their midsections and feel better in their bodies.
Visceral fat is stored deep in the belly, providing essential cushioning for vital organs such as the liver and kidneys. While some visceral fat is normal, too much can be a problem, as this fat is metabolically active, and can impact a person’s risk of developing chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
Increasingly, Afshar is initiating conversations with patients who he says are “not that overweight” but who he thinks could use these drugs to boost their longevity by driving down visceral fat stores and lowering inflammation across the body.
“I almost don’t use the word weight,” Afshar said. “Some people can carry visceral fat, but tolerate it well and have no metabolic effects — that’s uncommon.” For most people, extra “toxic” mid-section fat, which is not always visible, “can ultimately make you not feel quite as good.”
Once the negative signaling from that extra visceral fat is gone, a whole chain of health benefits can ensue, he said.
Afshar uses multiple clinical measurements — including InBody scans, routine bloodwork, liver and kidney ultrasounds, and blood pressure readings — to assess whether GLP-1s could be prescribed to improve a patient’s health.
At the same time, he recommends all his patients on GLP-1s up their protein intake to “the maximum” recommended dose, and incorporate more movement into their daily routines, to help safeguard their musculature and prioritize fat loss over muscle wasting as they eat less food.
Some private insurers are getting wise to the same idea and mandating that patients adhere to some kind of exercise and nutrition program in order to get access to these medications.
Dr. Mitch Biermann, an obesity medicine physician at Scripps Health in San Diego, said the practice is emblematic of a wider shift in his field, toward a more holistic assessment of excess fat and body composition.
While insurance companies may not cover every indication (i.e., medical reason to take a drug), doctors are increasingly prescribing GLP-1s to a wider array of people with health concerns tied to carrying around excess weight, including joint pain, inflammation, and high blood pressure.
“I think there are quite a lot of indications that people can justifiably use the medicine,” Biermann said. “There are just many different definitions of obesity now.”
Bodybuilders and athletes are using peptides to get an edge
Whether it was steroids or insulin, bodybuilders have long used exogenous hormones to pursue bulgier muscles, along with protein-rich diets and more strength training than cardio.
GLP-1 drugs are essentially the next generation of that playbook: powerful new drugs that are like supercharged versions of our own hunger-checking hormones, which can help athletes get lean.
Take Davidson, the bodybuilder, who is gearing up for a couple of Mr. Universe-style bodybuilding competitions this July. He’s aiming to cut his body fat, without sacrificing muscle.
So, alongside his ultra-high-protein, low-carb diet, he started taking an ultra-powerful but not-yet-released GLP-1 drug called retatrutide, which is still in development at Eli Lilly, about three months ago. (He’s part of a groundswell of gym-goers tapping into underground “peptide” markets selling research materials.)
Davidson said he has lost over 30 pounds in three months. He feels like the GLP-1 has helped him maintain more strength than he usually does in the slim-down phase before a big event.
“I really haven’t gotten any weaker,” Davidson said.
Afshar said the “super optimizers” like Davidson are rarities in his practice, but he knows at least a few people who fit into the category.
Doctors vehemently recommend against doing this without medical supervision.
Williams is not part of this performance enhancement and fitness-optimization-through-peptides band of GLP-1 users; she is promoting these drugs for FDA-approved uses, including blood sugar control and clinical weight loss.
Still, her big comeback to the court next week is great news for the pro-peptide guys, who are keen to show that peptides are much more than drugs to treat chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.
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