a new paper<\/a>, the researchers propose that patients using the GLP-1 medications for weight loss also include exercise in their routines and ensure adequate dietary protein intake to achieve the maximum health benefit. In addition to losing fat, patients on the drugs also lose something called \u201cfat-free mass,\u201d which can be up to 50% muscle.<\/p>\n\u201cSome patients literally told me that they felt that they were losing muscle or muscle was slipping away from them while they were on these medications,\u201d Dr. Zhenqi Liu, a researcher and the former chief of UVA Health\u2019s Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, said. \u201cThis is a serious concern. Muscles, especially axial muscles, are essential for posture, physical function and overall well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers, including associate professor of kinesiology Siddhartha S. Angadi and graduate student Nathan R. Weeldreyer, arrived at this conclusion by reviewing the drugs\u2019 effects on cardiorespiratory fitness, or how efficiently the heart, lungs and muscles work together during physical activity like walking, running or swimming. This measurement \u2013 sometimes called \u201cVO2max\u201d \u2013 is the gold standard measure of aerobic fitness, Angadi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New and popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy can help patients shed a lot of pounds, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-20347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}