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Consuming much less protein is also related to larger muscle loss for community taking weight reduction medication like Ozempic, in keeping with a contemporary learn about offered July 12 on the ENDO 2025 convention, the Endocrine Family’s annual assembly.
Fast weight reduction—without reference to the way it’s accomplished—is understood to release incline aggregate, or muscle. Low muscle groups can build up the danger of falls and fractures, in particular amongst used adults and alternative teams vulnerable to bone loss. It could actually additionally impair the frame’s talent to keep watch over blood sugar ranges.
However for the ones taking GLP-1 receptor agonists, a category of new-generation weight reduction fixes, nutrition would possibly play games a particularly essential function in protecting muscle, researchers discovered. The learn about has no longer but been printed in a peer-reviewed magazine.
“Our data suggest that higher protein intake—specifically among participants on semaglutide—may help prevent some loss of lean mass,” learn about creator Melanie Haines, MD, of Massachusetts Common Clinic and Harvard Clinical Faculty, instructed Condition.
For the current learn about, Haines and her colleagues recruited 40 adults with obesity (however no longer type 2 diabetes) who visited a weight reduction hospital. Medical doctors prescribed semaglutide, the lively element in Ozempic and Wegovy, to 23 sufferers, and the alternative 17 adopted a nutrition and way of life weight reduction program.
Then 3 months, the semaglutide workforce misplaced extra weight than the nutrition and way of life workforce, 6.3% in comparison to 2.5%. The 2 teams misplaced a related share of incline muscle groups.
Particularly, within the semaglutide workforce, being used, feminine, and eating much less protein at the beginning of the learn about have been all related to the largest losses in incline aggregate. On this workforce, larger muscle loss was once additionally related with much less development in blood sugar ranges.
Whether or not you’re taking a GLP-1 or following a current nutrition, you’re most probably consuming fewer energy total. That suggests eating much less protein, which incorporates amino acids that aid the frame uphold muscle.
Pace the learn about didn’t take a look at whether or not eating extra protein may aid stave off muscle loss, the researchers concluded that it appeared most probably to take action.
“Our study wasn’t a randomized controlled trial, so we don’t have direct evidence on exactly how much protein,” mentioned Haines. “But it seemed like more protein was better in terms of preventing loss of lean mass.”
It’s utility noting, on the other hand, that the learn about has some key barriers, together with a deficit of peer evaluation. It’s additionally tiny, and since maximum individuals have been white girls, the findings won’t follow to a broader community, identified Richard Siegel, MD, an endocrinologist and co-director of the Diabetes and Lipid Heart at Tufts Clinical Heart.
Pace the learn about solutions some questions, it raises others, comparable to whether or not community on high-protein diets lose much less muscle and which muscle tissues are perhaps to atrophy all over weight reduction. Moment research must dig into those questions, Haines mentioned.
Regardless that the learn about didn’t conclusively display that protein—or any alternative nutrient—prevents muscle loss, the power of protein to backup muscle fitness is widely known.
To mitigate muscle atrophy, Siegel recommends up to 1.6 grams of protein in step with kilogram of frame weight for his sufferers, or about 0.7 grams in step with pound. That suggests consuming kind of 60 to 120 grams of protein in step with while. High-protein foods come with:
- Seafood, incline meats, and poultry
- Eggs
- Legumes like beans, peas, and lentils
- Soy merchandise
- Nuts and seeds
Alternative macronutrients and nutrients also are remarkable. “You need fat, you need carbohydrates, you need fiber, you need balance,” Siegel instructed Condition.
Mavens additionally counsel resistance coaching, comparable to push-ups, squats, or weightlifting, to aid release muscle loss. A 2021 learn about discovered that, for community taking the GLP-1 drug liraglutide, resistance coaching helped uphold incline muscle groups.
“If you use medication alone, without smart physical activity and smart nutrition, it is putting patients at risk for problems,” mentioned Siegel. “If your lean mass is down, and your bone mass is down, you’re at risk for falls and fractures, which can ultimately increase morbidity and mortality.”
Some community taking GLP-1 medication will revel in nausea and alternative unintended effects and won’t have a lot of an urge for food, making it tricky to workout or devour plenty protein. She advises discovering a dose with manageable unintended effects.
“I really encourage my patients that we’re not trying to get to the highest dose as soon as possible,” mentioned Haines. “Starting low and going slow with the dose titrations can help reduce some of the gastrointestinal side effects.”
