One of my guiding principles for working with clients as their nutritionist is to try things before I recommend them. Certain products, supplements and medicines, and entire protocols are clouded by marketing hype. Since there’s nothing I value more than my clients’ trust in me, this principle helps me keep their trust by only recommending proven protocols that I’ve personally vetted.
This presented a unique challenge when GLP-1’s, like Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro, became the topic of conversation. Insurance doesn’t cover the use of GLP-1’s for me. But I had a few clients who were already taking it, many clients who were asking about it, and a couple of personal friends who used it as the solution to their weight struggles instead of a tool (which, as I’ll explain, is the WORST way to use it).
I decided to pull the trigger on trying a GLP-1 as a 4 week ending strategy for my prep. I was able to get a prescription through my functional medicine practitioner and had it delivered days before Eli Lilly shut down all compound pharmacies from providing tirzepatide.
Trying tirzepatide came at exactly the right time, the final weeks of prep for my Fitness Atlantic Show. I had broken my toe which sabotaged the plans I had for my cardio. I was curious to see whether I would get a boost from this peptide, and whether it would naturally shut down my appetite.
Before you get upset with me for trying it or call it “cheating” I want to share my experience and my rationale for doing this:
- I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and to see if it actually reduced appetite
- I wanted to track any side effects, so I could make a more informed recommendation to clients
- I wanted to better understand the place of GLP-1’s into an overall weight loss strategy
I know people who have used GLPs in a way I would not recommend. What do I mean by this?
We know from the data that GLPs are highly effective. However, one of the known facts about weight loss is that part of this loss includes loss of skeletal muscle, our “metabolic sink.” With a strong hammer like a GLP medication, this muscle loss can be rapid and extremely significant due to a massive caloric deficit. GLP users can lose 50% of their muscle mass if they don’t prioritize strength training and protein. However, by simply prioritizing strength training and protein, this loss can be minimized to only 4%. That means that you can mitigate muscle mass loss on GLP-1’s when you use it alongside strength training and eating plenty of protein.
One of my friends used Ozempic for several months. She lost 50lbs and felt great.
Unfortunately, she never changed her eating habits so she continued to eat fried foods and junk, just a lot less of it. When she took herself off of the medication (the average person stops it after 6 months), her appetite returned but her eating choices hadn’t changed and the weight came back.
Ozempic & Mounjaro can’t teach you better habits. They might quiet food noise and reduce appetite, but it’s still up to you to make better choices.
In the first two weeks, I felt nothing different but I did have a weird side effect: my skin felt sensitive, kind of like a light sunburn. I was taking 0.25mg. I have researched whether this side effect is real and apparently it is! Here is a published study on semaglutide causing allodynia (skin pain): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.
Nothing happened with my appetite until week 3 but then something super interesting happened while I was eating my nightly pound of steak:
I couldn’t finish it. I wanted to, but couldn’t have put in another bite if you paid me!
In my mind, I knew I could eat more food but there was nothing I could do to make my body accept more. That’s when I knew that the signal coming from the brain is real, and why a GLP actually works well for people. I can only imagine how much stronger the signal is with a higher titration.
In that final month, I dropped 5lbs: on show day I weighed in at 143. I started to notice that in my final week my appetite was exceptionally blunted. I was very easily able to act like my prior self (before the reverse diet) where I would eat two meals a day, and in the 3 days leading up to the show, I was eating under 1000 calories and this scared me. When you’re also in ketosis, it’s a double whammy of zero appetite. I had already screwed myself up before, so I did not want to do this again! I was happy to stop the medication…. I had not gained 30lbs in the effort to build muscle and restore metabolism to then end up starving myself!!!! It actually freaked me out.
If I had continued on this path, I could have easily lost another 20lbs (quite rapidly) at a very great cost of losing my hard won muscle tissue and downregulating my metabolism again.
NO WAY!!!
Don’t overlook the importance of this: Muscle mass and grip strength are some of the best predictors of both lifespan and healthspan. The bodybuilders figured this out a while ago and we need to learn from them!
Even though we don’t know the long-term ramifications of GLP-1’s, I do worry about there being a generation of folks who end up severely under-muscled and undernourished. I came away from my 30-day experiment realizing that they can be an incredible and effective short-term tool as long as dietary choices are good, and strength training is incorporated.
Post show, I am eating above 2,000 calories and I had a couple of indulgence moments like ice cream on Mother’s Day. I am up 3lbs (weighed in today at 146.6 and 27% bf) but feel FANTASTIC. My appetite is normal and I’m eating 3 times per day. Strength markers at the gym are already going back up.
If you are going to try out a GLP, I highly recommend using it alongside a professional where you can focus on staying accountable for quality food & lifestyle choices. Building quality habits and mindset in place to keep you from gaining back all the weight you lost when you stop using it is the secret sauce. The average person takes a GLP for 6 months, and stops because of the loss of pleasure for eating.
Life is meant to be enjoyed and you were meant to thrive on quality food. GLPs are clearly here to stay but you need to decide how you will choose to live your one, wild and crazy life. Will you learn to love yourself better with nourishing food, exercise, sleep, water and positive thinking?
To your health and success,
Kristina
P.S. If you need help building quality habits around food and a better mindset, book a consultation with me below:
https://thriveresultscoaching.
Add a Comment