2987: How to Lose Weight on a GLP-1 and Keep Your Muscle

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MindPump. MindPump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in history. This is MindPump. Today's episode, we're going to talk about how you can keep muscle while losing weight on a GLP. We'll give you five steps that are all guaranteed to preserve that muscle. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Element Tea. Element. This is an electrolyte powder that you can add to your water. They also have them in ready-to-drink cans of sparkling. They give you the electrolyte your body needs to perform. By the way, Element's one of the first companies to give you the right amount of sodium. Most electrolyte powders don't have nearly as much sodium as you need. If you actually need electrolytes, you need the sodium. With Element, it's 1,000 milligrams per serving. 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Use the code BLACKFRIDAY for the discount. By the way, every purchase enters you to win something all month long. We have red light panels. Squat racks, vacations, supplements, merchandise. We're giving away all kinds of stuff. Every purchase enters you to win. And again, everything's 60% off. It's mapsfitnessproducts.com. The code BLACKFRIDAY. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. As of the recording of this podcast, one out of ten Americans is on a GLP and that number is growing rapidly. In fact, for the first time in recorded history, the obesity epidemic is actually declining. So these medications are very powerful and they definitely work. However, they don't come without caveats, one of them being muscle loss. So today's episode, we're going to talk about how you can lose weight on a GLP and keep your muscle. Let's get to it. This is the main goal. And I want to start because this is top of mind for me because I had this conversation this weekend and the answer that were all the answers that we're going to give, not one of them is RETA because that's just so you know, that's being marketed because what you just said is because of how large this is. Now, obviously, there's some people that we're going to go over something that maybe they didn't know this maybe, but I'd say a good percentage of people that have been around GLP ones now or been on one long enough. I mean, they've heard that you can lose muscle. And the way that RETA is being marketed is as this one that's like this, the miracle one and all of them that you don't lose muscle. Retatrutide or Retatrutide, depending on how you want to pronounce it. So it went through phase three trial, so as of the recording of this episode, it's not FDA approved yet, but it probably will be. And it did cause a little bit more weight loss than the generation two Terzapatide or one, you know, semaglutide. But no, it also, you also saw muscle loss in the trials. I do want to be clear that GLP peptides or medications don't cause muscle loss. So it's not that the GLPs themselves have this deleterious effect on muscle. That's not what's happening. What's happening is that GLP is one of the main ways because they're quite complex. But I'm going to simplify it here. The majority of what's happening on a GLP that is causing the weight loss is the fact that it severely limits your appetite. Yeah. OK. If you're on a GLP and if you're on one now, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You suddenly don't think about food like you did before or you eat less overall. You're just not eating as much. And so you start to lose weight and it's predictable. This is predictable. Any time you dramatically cut your calories and you bring them down below what you're burning, OK, which causes weight loss is what causes weight loss. I'm eating less calories and my body's burning. So how's that possible? How's my body able to burn more calories than I'm taking in? Well, it borrows or it uses calories from stored energy, right, from body fat. So that causes the weight loss. But what my body does in response to that is it tries to learn how to burn less calories because less calories are coming in. So it's no different. It's similar to a person who suddenly is making half as much money at their job. So if this is you and suddenly your paycheck got cut in half. Well, one thing you would do is you would try to cut your spending in half. It would be irresponsible to continue to spend as much money as you do now. If suddenly you're making half as much money. If you're not careful, it's really easy to crash diet. It makes the process easier. And so it's it's no different than just extremely restricting and limiting calorie consumption. It just it's one of those things. It doesn't it takes away a bit of that noise and that edge as far as cravings. Right. So what your body does is it says, OK, we're now taking in less calories than we were before and we're burning and we're using stored energy, which we don't want to do. So let's burn less calories. One of the ways it does this is it pairs muscle down. So it's not that your body's burning muscle for energy. That's not quite what's happening. What's happening is your body is paring muscle down to reduce your metabolic rate. And so what you see in the data consistently, you don't believe me. You can pause this episode, look it up yourself, though. The weight loss that you see with GLPs looks like about 30, depending on the study, 30 to 40 percent of the weight is lean body mass, meaning the rest of the weight is body fat, but everything else that's being lost is non body fat weight, which they refer to as lean body mass. Now, this includes water, glycogen and muscle. OK, so why do we want to stop that? I guess would be the next thing, like somebody's like, well, I need to lose 50 pounds, who cares if 30 to 40 percent of that is muscle? Why would anybody want to stop muscle loss? Let's talk about that first before we could talk about. Well, I mean, you're it's metabolically advantageous. It protects our bones. It's what makes you strong and functional in the real world. Pain. There's so many benefits to forget. We can not include aesthetically. You look way better, way better with with more muscle than less muscle. And so there's a lot of reasons why we don't want that to happen. But the most common one, because the person who is like really obese doesn't really think about those things, they just want to get all this body fat off. Is it really set you up for a tough place to live forever? Because you get if you let's say you take somebody who has got one hundred pounds to lose and they just don't care, they just by all means means necessary, crush the appetite with the GLP one and let it fall off. They find themselves and we get. By the way, we've helped and coached so many of these people. I mean, we took a trial group last year, over 50 people in that group that we did personally. All the three of us coached them through. We've got probably hundreds of clients that we've taken through. Almost all of them inevitably end up hitting a hard plateau where they're eating very little calories and their body learn how to burn those little and they're still not where they want to be. Right. They end up to at a place where they maybe they lost that initial 50 pretty fast. And then they lost maybe another 20 because they went even lower. And now they're at this place where they're like, I'm eating thirteen hundred calories, I'm walking all these steps and I still got 20 more pounds. What am I going to do up my dose and eat even less? Remember, we had a woman in the group where she lost 60 pounds, had another twenty five or thirty to go. So she had started from a high place. She was eating around a thousand calories a day. Yes. And she was stuck. And she was moving to she was moving and she was stuck. She was stuck at this body weight for three months. So she had plateaued so hard because her body pared muscle down and learn how to burn just adapted. So that's one reason. The other reason is fragility. So here's here's what happened. So people who are overweight don't have more muscle than people who are normal. Wait, there's this myth out there that you carry more muscle mass. You actually don't misconception. And so you're going to lose all this weight and lose muscle mass, which you really shouldn't lose anyway, because you don't have a lot to spare bone density. Bone density gets worse and you increase your risk of injury. You loss of mobility, loss of energy just doesn't feel good. So, yeah, OK, cool. You went from obese now to fragile. In fact, this is this is happening at at such a rate that this is what people are talking about. There are clients. There are people in their thirties and forties who lost weight through GLP. Didn't do anything to try to keep the muscle. They just want to lose weight. They want to lose their muscles. So if you do it properly and you do the things we're going to say and you're consistent with them to keep the muscle, you will get miraculous results. It could be very beneficial for you. That's right. If you just use the GLP and rely on the appetite suppression alone and change nothing else and just eat low calories, you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. You will end up with another issue, which is having low mobility, having fatigue, and a metabolism that's just crawling. And so keeping muscle is the name of the game when you're on a GLP. I do want to share too how this can creep on you and you not realize it. This is especially for the audience that hasn't listened to this podcast for a long time. Because it's been now, has it been two years since I did my thing? I think so. I think two years ago was when I tested the GLP-1. And the idea, for those that don't know, was obviously they were getting super popular. I'm like, I want to take this thing. I want to take the medical dose that they prescribe. I don't want to use my trainer brain. What I mean by that is all the things we're going to teach you right now. I'm going to teach you all the things we're going to teach you right now. I'm going to just go how I feel. You're just going to use it like the typical person who just takes it. Yes. And then just see what happens. And just see what happens. Eat when I'm hungry, train when I feel motivated to train, and just go about my life, right? And let it take its course. It was totally an experimental thing. And really the idea behind that was it would help me be a better coach to communicate this. I found a lot of things out that were really fascinating going through this. One, how incredibly easy it was to eat nothing. It was so easy to not. Eat any food at all. And how crazy amount of weight I lost, right? So I look back actually, just because I just got a DEXA scan again, so I could see back what my old number was. And I came all the way down to 199 pounds. I typically carry myself at 125 to 230. So you lost over 30 pounds. Yeah, over 30 pounds. And a large percentage of that was muscle for me. So in fact, I think mine was 20 something pounds of those 30 pounds was muscle. Wow. So, but what's it, what I found, interesting was it wasn't until we actually had to, we had to do these photos that we did for a new marketing material. And it just so happened to be, you know, the team needed it when we were, I was in the middle of this, whatever we took them, didn't really think much about it. It wasn't until after the whole thing was said and done. And I looked at the pictures that I could see myself differently than I did in the moment. So in the moment, even I was like, oh, I'm losing body fat. I'm getting smaller. I'm leaner. It's like, you know what? I know I can get it all back. It's not a big deal. Didn't, I actually didn't mind the way I looked because it was like that perception drift. It was like, oh, my cheats are starting to lean out. And you weren't really working out a lot. So it's not like you could totally tell how much strength or I remember because your energy was low. Oh yeah. Yeah. I had a really hard time, uh, strength training consistently. Your calories are so low. Cause my energy was really, really low. There's many, I've, if you go back, you can listen. A lot of times I had to choose between, uh, am I going to help my wife out around the house or get a maps 15 workout in? And it was like one or the other. Cause I couldn't, I didn't have the energy to do both. But, uh, I say this because there might be somebody who's listening right now who doesn't think it's a problem or don't think that it's that big of a deal because of they, they probably saw themselves as the fat kid or the fat person for so long and just seeing the weight come down is so positive and so much better than it was. And, and, and I share that because it might not be until you look back and you look at the picture and you go like, oh, my God, I didn't look really healthy. And I, and, and so I didn't see that until I saw the pictures. Like I knew what was happening. Obviously I was tracking whatever, and I felt the energy, all those things you're saying, but I was like, and we joke about it tongue and cheek in here, but I get the whole Ozempic face because I had that. It looked, it didn't look good. It looked, it looks different than how I look right now. Like I'm, I'm leaner now today than I was on that, but I've got significantly more muscle on me and I'm healthier. I'm eating a lot of meals. And so it's a very different look, but hard to see when you're in it. So I just wanted to share that because I know there's gonna be people listening to this that are on a GLP one that may not be taking all the advice you're about to give right now. And still doesn't care because they're like, I'm not happy. They lost the way. Yeah. I'm not fat. I'm not fat as I was a month ago. So who, who cares? And I want to encourage people. If you do what we're about to say while on a GLP, uh, it's, it's plausible. It's likely won't lose any muscle. And in some cases, you may actually build a little bit of muscle while on a GLP. So you can totally stop the muscle loss with what we're about to say right now. Also, I'm going to add this piece right here. If you do what we're about to say, combine it with some behavioral modification, meaning you're, you're actually trying to change your, how you eat and change things while on a GLP. You also set yourself up for a potential future where you don't have to live on a GLP for the rest of your life. Okay. Let's get into now. How do we keep the muscle start with number one, which is eat a high protein diet. Okay. So the data on this is really, really clear. We've got lots of data, lots of studies on this. When we compare restricted calorie diets, all things being equal, one of them being high protein, one of them being normal protein, the higher protein diet results in more fat loss and less muscle loss. Okay. That's always the way it is across the board. The question always arises. What is high protein? Okay. High protein is close to about a gram of protein per pound of target body weight. Okay. So if your target body weight, is 150 pounds, that's what you're aiming for. If your target body weight is 180 pounds, that's what you're aiming for. If your target body weighs 120 pounds, that is what you're aiming for. And you want to eat it consistently day in and day out. Now, one thing I want to add to this is this is hard to do when you're not in a GLP. This is hard to do when your appetite isn't restricted because of a GLP because protein is very satiety producing eating a lot. So eating 150 grams of protein a day for the average person whose target body weight is 150 pounds is hard. You throw a GLP on top of that and you're choking it down. So there are some strategies that you can do with this. And I'll give you two of them. One, start with a high protein breakfast. Don't get behind the eight ball. You wait till noon to start eating your protein. Good luck hitting your targets. So that's number one. So eat a high protein breakfast right when you get up. Number two, protein shakes can help a lot. And in many cases, when people are on a GLP, especially in the beginning of the day, they're going to get a lot of protein shakes. And they're in the beginning stages where your appetite's really restricted. You're probably going to have to have two shakes a day to hit those targets. So those would be the two most important things. Yeah, I would add in there, like we always do, is eat the protein first, too, is making sure that you prioritize it. You also have to explain to people how protein is unique and different in the consistency that you do it every single day versus the average. Because another mistake I see people make, especially on GLP-1s, is you'll notice if you're on one or if you've ever taken one or you take one, the first three days after the shot, it crushes the appetite. By the time you get to day five, six, and seven, the appetite creeps back up. And so what you might see some people do is like, let's say their target- Lower your high days. Yeah, their target is 120 grams of proteins. Day one, two, and three, they barely get 60, 50, 70. And then days five, six, and seven, they get 130, 135, 140, or whatever. Oh, you can't make up. Yes. Yeah, protein doesn't work like that. So carbohydrates, your body stores. Fat, your body stores. Your body doesn't really store protein. So it's got to be consistent every single day. Hit that target for this to really make a big difference. By the way, without strength training, this will do something to preserve muscle, even if you don't lift weights. This actually helps. So this is actually really, really important. The next thing is to supplement with essential amino acids. So you might be thinking, well, if I'm eating protein, why the essential amino acids? Well, here's why. Essential amino acids add an additional layer of insurance to keep muscle. So essential amino acids are the amino acids in protein that your body can't make itself. That's why they're called essential. But here's the part that I like about essential amino acids. They're easy to consume. So a protein shake, in some cases, you might feel like you've got to choke down. But essential amino acids, they come in capsules or powder, and it tastes like water. And so you could drink this in between meals. And this really does help preserve muscle. So I'd say add this to your supplement repertoire to help you preserve muscle. I mean, again, I did a whole thing. Where I tracked and did all this, and I added it in. And the amount of muscle that I preserved in comparison to every other cut that I've ever done was very surprising to me. And that's coming from somebody who was hitting their protein targets. So to me, with somebody that's on a GLP-1 that's already in that range where they're struggling to get enough calories and/or protein, it becomes kind of a no-brainer supplement to take. Next is use creatine. So creatine is a good, healthy supplement. It's good for longevity and healthspan. It's good for brain health. It's great for muscle. It's great for energy for your muscles. It also helps attract water to your muscles to keep them hydrated, which is what you want. So creatine, just one of those supplements, regardless of your lifestyle, diet, whatever, there's very, very few exceptions. Creatine will help you keep the muscle. It'll also give you some of the energy that you need to do the strength training. What I imagine too, just like they've found with all the cognitive effects with that, like being low calorie, a lot of times you get really low energy. You got a bit more brain fog. Creatine will definitely help to address that. Yeah. Creatine and water, I just would add to that because it's staying hydrated. What happens sometimes too when you're not eating a lot of food, you just tend to not drink too. Some of the lean body mass that we see that people lose in the studies might actually be water too because it blunts your appetite signal. So a significant percentage of the fluid that you consume comes from your food. A lot of people are dehydrated. And so you're on a GLP, you're eating less, you're probably consuming less water. So that's a good point. Drink a lot of water. All right. Strength training. Here we go. Lift weight. Lift weights. Everybody's like, yes, I need to lift weights. Here's the mistake people make on a GLP is they go too hard, too often, too much. okay if your calories are low yeah your capacity to recover and adapt to strength training is lower it lowers okay so you want to do the minimum amount to elicit the most change here and in this case for most people in a glp you know what this looks like two days a week of strength training yeah that's it two full body workouts not more more will probably not get you better results it might actually be worse especially if your calories if you're listening your calories are 1500 1400 1300 yeah don't do more than two days a week of strength training you're not gonna be able to recover from it very well and it will probably cause worse results yeah i would i would make the argument for that or even you know the maps 15 type of protocol like a little bit every yeah a little bit every day just because it's so that way you don't overdo it well yeah not only that but just your energy is so low i remember it was so i mean an hour workout seemed like a like that felt like running a marathon so doing something uh i mean i would say maps 15 even modified if it was just a great eight you know grade 8 maps 15 just here you're at this point when we're this low of calorie and we're cutting like this we're catabolic we're catabolic we're not anabolic building muscle is anabolic so the and strength training is primarily used to build muscle that's the way most people think about it but the way you're using it right now is to just keep muscle so you're in the game of i just want to keep muscle which doesn't take the muscle a ton of volume and intensity to maintain the muscle you already have on your body you just need enough to send a signal loud enough that says hey we're going to be doing we're going to be using these muscles to move heavy weight around you know every once in a while and so hey let's stay around but you don't want to send a signal it's so loud that it's intense your body can't recover from it because you don't have enough nutrients because then it'll give it the excuse to pare it down and so there is this fine line and dance that you're trying to do and i think the mistake most people make in this situation is they're highly motivated to make change it's the first time in their life they're seeing this weight come off and so they feel like oh the more they lift weights the better results you're gonna get that is not the case with this that's right now focus on compound lifts you don't have a lot of energy to waste you don't have a lot of recovery to waste on a bunch of different exercises focus on the big movers your squats your deadlifts your presses your rows compound lifts are where you want to focus maps grade a is a great example of compound lift one a day type of deal it's a great program for something like this and that'll also keep the most muscle like a a bench press will do the work of three different exercises one for chest one for shoulders one for triceps but now it's just one exercise requires less uh recovery but great adaptations lastly don't let your fats get too low so we talk about protein everybody knows about protein but here's what happens sometimes with people on glps right they're really conscious about the protein intake so they start taking all these shakes and shakes are protein and nothing else if your fat intake is too low and you're not getting essential fats you're not you're going to actually starve your body yeah in fact you could starve your body with 10 000 calories if your fats are too low because there are there is something known as essential fatty acids don't let your fats get below 60 grams that's 60 50 at the lowest i've seen people i've talked to people on glps you look at their fat grams and it's like 30 25 and they feel like crap their hair is getting falling out hair gets thin all kinds of negative effects and it's like you got to bump your fats dude so don't let the fats go too low because they're essential meaning you need a certain amount of fat for your body just to function so you could actually put yourself in a situation that's quite dangerous because you're having so many shakes and i'm hitting my protein targets but i'm not getting essential fats olive oil avocado almonds i mean these things are crucial i think for somebody in this situation i and i can't stress this enough that that's such that's so common this is common even uh like i would notice this in my own like how quickly when i'm cutting calories that i can get down there's obviously one of the ways you cut calories is to reduce fat fat there's a lot of calories in fat and so you reduce these foods in pursuit of getting this lower calorie before you know it you're going to lose a lot of calories and you're going to lose a lot of calories and your your your fats are going i told you off air a while back that i was like oh i noticed that it was affecting my sleep yeah i had to bump my fats by 20 20 grams plus a day and also my sleep got improved immediately at that the other one i would add to this that i also see that's really common is fiber and since glp1 slow down motility as it is and if you're also not getting a lot of fiber you'll have you'll also hear a lot of people report like i haven't gone to the bathroom in four or five days yep and so if you're eating super low calorie low fat and you're not getting a lot and or also low fiber this can make a big difference too this will and this will cause bloat you won't feel good like it's you'll hold on to water you might see the scale not moving in your head you're going oh my god i'm barely eating i'm moving i'm doing all these things and then the scale is staying the same this doesn't make sense i think then you think you gotta cut more or move more and do more when in reality your body is just not moving that food through it properly because you're not getting enough fiber and so make sure your fibers are good make sure your fat 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