Comment by NotYourLawyer
2 months ago
To be fair, that comment was about the claim:
> emerging research showing that up to 40 per cent of the weight lost by people using weight-loss drugs is actually muscle
Which is… obviously bullshit.
2 months ago
To be fair, that comment was about the claim:
> emerging research showing that up to 40 per cent of the weight lost by people using weight-loss drugs is actually muscle
Which is… obviously bullshit.
You lose muscle when you lose weight, especially if weight loss is rapid. This is why it's important to be physically active when you're losing weight. It doesn't matter if you're on drug or not.
they might have confused muscle and lean mass/FFM
The source article links to a reference for the 40 percent claim, which itself links to a couple articles that aren't available without a JAMA account.
I can't read the original sources there, but what makes you say its obviously bullshit?
From the abstract:
"Studies suggest muscle loss with these medications (as indicated by decreases in fat-free mass [FFM]) ranges from 25% to 39% of the total weight lost over 36–72 weeks. This substantial muscle loss can be largely attributed to the magnitude of weight loss, rather than by an independent effect of GLP-1 receptor agonists, although this hypothesis must be tested. By comparison, non-pharmacological caloric restriction studies with smaller magnitudes of weight loss result in 10–30% FFM losses."
The "surprising" part is kinda bullshit, and implies there's something special about glp-1s. It is the opposite of surprising that weight loss includes a lean mass loss.
That said, being skinnyfat is probably bad for you and the idea that you should work to preserve/build muscle and not only lose weight is a good one.
FFM isn’t entirely muscle, but what other weight would be shed when losing FFM other than muscle?
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