The GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are game-changers for diabetes and obesity, and sales are skyrocketing. However, they have issues, with muscle loss being the most profound. At Exxentric, we have a solution to ensure you achieve better, healthier, and more sustainable results 🚀 (spoiler alert: it’s strength training 💪).
- GLP-1 is effective for weight loss, glucose control, and protects the cardiovascular system
- Treatments cost up to $1300 per month, but the great results are reversed after discontinuing them.
- Up to 40% of the weight loss is muscle mass, and a simple strength protocol can help you both keep muscle during treatment and give you better long-term results down the line after treatment.
- Flywheel training equipment is a small investment on top of your medical treatment and will pay you back for years and years.
Is it just starvation in a pill?
Not completely but partially true. A GLP-1 drug mimics a natural gut hormone to slow digestion and reduce appetite by acting on the brain’s satiety centers. This is reducing your calorie intake, ie “helping you starve” and help you lose weight. However, they are also lowering blood sugar by increasing the release of insulin and reducing the release of glucagon. Furthermore, it has independent protective effects on the cardiovascular system and kidneys. That is great!
Sounds like this would be pretty popular in today’s society, right? And it is. Sales of GLP-1 drugs in the US went up 500% between 2017 and 2023 when we saw sales at 71.7 BILLION $ and 12% of the adult US population has been using a GLP-1 drug. Wow! Monthly cost for a treatment can be up to $1300 per month. Maybe a good investment but can it be even better?
15.000 fully loaded semi trucks of weight loss
There are about 260 million adults in the US, and 12% of those have been on GLP-1 drugs, that is ≈ 31 million people. Weight loss with treatment is, on average, about 15-20%. This means GLP-1 in total reduced the US body weight with roughly half a billion kilos or 15.000 fully loaded trucks.
Houston, we have two problems
So what is there to complain about? For one, almost 6.000 of those trucks are fully loaded with lean body mass, the stuff you want to keep because it keeps you in shape. The other problem is that the effects of the medication are reversed after you stop and you gain that weight back, which means you spent up to $1300 per month for a temporary weight reduction that was 35-40% lean body mass. Maybe still good but not great.
What to do?
Reading up on this, I bumped into a few research papers seeing the problem with loss of muscle mass, and they immediately rushed to the conclusion that, of course:
“We need another pill to take to retain muscle mass!”
Ok, great. Wait another 5 years for that OR start lifting weights ffs! Lifting weights even with caloric restriction helps you retain muscle mass. You don’t have to do anything complicated nor time-consuming and you can even do it at home if you use a kBox, for example.
Seniors in training studies have shown them building strength and mass with just 6 sets of kBox squats per week! Similarly in a recent pilot study with prostate cancer patients with testosterone-depriving treatment, they built muscle mass on 6 sets of kBox squat per week, with no testosterone! Simple onboarding, a few simple exercises, two times per week. You can do it too!
Protect your investment
If you have the money to use GLP-1 to lose weight or treat your diabetes, that is great. Do that! But when you do that, please consider adding in some strength training and thank me later. You will retain muscle, and if you continue the training after the treatment, you are more likely to get a better long-term result and not regain weight as much. They call it “change your lifestyle”, I just call it “lift goddamnit”.
Adding a kBox Active starter system to your regimen will set you back another ≈ $100 per month for 24 monthly instalments, and you will spend 20-30 minutes per week doing strength training, but it will pay you back instantly, and forever. Look into it! We are happy to guide you both to the right product and training schedule.
Happy DOMS!
Fredrik Correa, MD, CEO, Powerlifter, and heavily biased but still right.
Further reading:
- kBox Training Reduces Prostate Cancer Treatment Side Effects
- What do GLP-1 Receptor agonists actually do?
- A Quick Guide to GLP-1 Medications: Cost, Effectiveness, and More
- Application of nutrition interventions with GLP-1 based therapies: A narrative review of the challenges and solutions
- Nutritional priorities to support GLP-1 therapy for obesity: A joint advisory
