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For the people who lift weights while on this/these drugs, how much lean muscle do they lose?

The point is is that most people lose muscle because they’re not lifting. You will lose muscle if you lose weight no matter the cause, if you are not lifting weights.

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phil21 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Not sure how much I lost during, but a substantial amount. I have been working out since about 20lbs from my goal weight and now roughly a year later - and have gained strength (based on the numbers I can lift) from before I lost 100lbs.

I don’t think it would have been possible to not lose substantial muscle mass while rapidly losing 100lbs over 9mo, even with extreme resistance training added to the mix. While DEXA scans are not super accurate, I’ve put on about 17lbs of muscle since my first scan 10mo ago, while maintaining a 12% or less bodyfat ratio.

That said, I’ve been eating extremely healthy both before and after being on the drug which helps a lot. The drug simply gave me the mental space to avoid the binges which were my particular problem. That and it controls portion sizes to European dinner vs. American restaurant sized meals for me.

	▲	Agingcoder 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		100 lbs that’s significant. What are the implications of rapidly losing weight ? ( I’d expect even your body image changing to not be very easy )

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cyberax 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> For the people who lift weights while on this/these drugs, how much lean muscle do they lose?

I was 92kg when I started on liraglutide (I was doing GLP-1 agonists before it was cool!) and 67% of muscle mass (61kg). I'm now at 69kg and 82% of muscle mass (56kg). I'm doing weight and resistance training twice a week, in addition to aerobic training.

One nice thing, while muscles don't become more massive, they for sure become more pronounced and visible with weight loss.

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scotty79 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

I'd bet you are stronger now despite slightly lower muscle mass.

Probably the muscle tissue people lose first are crappy cells. Weak, nonfunctional, senescent or even maybe some muscle embedded fat.

	▲	cyberax 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Muscle cells don't get replaced or cleaned. Like neurons, they basically stick around throughout the whole life. Instead, it's the cells themselves that grow bigger or smaller.

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metafunctor 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Those muscle mass percentages cannot be right. How were they measured?

	▲	NovemberWhiskey 5 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I’m assuming that’s lean mass (100% - fat %) rather than muscle mass. Unless that person doesn’t have a skeleton.
	▲	cyberax 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Just the total mass minus the fat mass. Any further breakdown is not particularly useful.

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scruple 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I know 2 competitive athletes (both MMA) who experimented with it. Both came off of it within ~6 weeks because of complications, mostly related to mood (they got very, very temperamental on it). The athletes in my sphere know about it but aren't interested. The 2 who experimented have a non-trivial social media presence and, ultimately, that is what drove them to experiment.