It's pretty clear that GLP-1 should be prescribed with protein powder. When your appetite is crushed you don't go for the chicken breast, you go for what is immediately appetizing (usually carbs+fats like pizza or fries). IMO this and a lack of resistance training (which should also be prescribed) probably makes up a large % of the muscle loss on these drugs. The problem is that the FDA only looks at dumb measures like weight lost, not body fat % when approving these drugs.

Tirzepatide let me stay away from the immediately appetizing junk food and almost exclusively eat a clean diet focused on protein.

My experience matches at least a dozen folks in my personal bubble. It’s sort of the point of the drug or it wouldn’t work very well.

Totally agreed on resistance training. The one thing I would change would have been starting that in a serious manner as soon I started the drug vs. waiting. Prescribing it is silly though - if that worked we wouldn’t need the drugs to begin with.

That may be your experience, it wasn't mine. I eat very healthy on Ozempic but yeah of the 60 lbs lost so far some of it is noticeably muscle because I don't exercise enough. The next 60 lbs of fat lost will hopefully be me swapping fat for muscle from weight lifting and swimming.

Going to add to the chorus here. One of the reasons these things are so successful is that it kind of kills the crave factor of eating. You don't get that feeling where you feel like you want to keep eating something addictive like pizza or fries just because it's there. It's why the packaged food companies are freaking out - all their work to engineer snacks where they can "bet you can't eat just one" is defeated by these, at least for now.

> When your appetite is crushed you don't go for the chicken breast, you go for what is immediately appetizing (usually carbs+fats like pizza or fries).

Um, when your appetite is "crushed", nothing is particularly appetizing. That is the entire point. It allows one to make better decisions or pass on eating.

I find it significantly easier to eat healthy on tirzepatide, fwiw.

That hasn't been my experience. I've been on liraglutide (Saxenda) for a month and a half or so and if I feel like I can't finish a plate of food I'll eat just the protein and leave the carbs, where I would've eaten everything before.

If found the opposite to be true.

I'm eating healthier than ever and don't care for junk foods anymore.