We’re used to seeing Serena Williams on our TVs, muscles flexing, smashing a tennis ball past her opponent. But in a recent 30-second commercial, Williams traded the racket for a GLP-1 drug injector pen.

Williams, whose most recent child was born in 2023, has become a spokeswoman in her post-retirement days for Ro, one of the many boutique health care firms to get in on the GLP-1 craze. “They say GLP-1s for weight loss is a shortcut — it’s not. It’s science,” she says during the spot. “After kids, it’s the medicine my body needed.”

Key takeaways

• Patients should be eating a protein-rich, balanced diet and doing some kind of strength training when on an GLP-1 medication.

• Some patients taking GLP-1 drugs have experienced significant muscle loss and weakness.

• Experts worry that too

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