How to build muscle on Ozempic without losing strength

Losing weight on Ozempic is great! It has helped lots, and lots of people lose weight they never thought they would get off. Losing that weight can have great side effects such as stabilized sugar, potentially lower blood pressure, and for most people just feeling better about themselves. In the end thats what we all want. To look in the mirror and love that person staring back at you. Unfortunatley using Ozempic comes with a big side effect of muscle loss. In some cases its up to 40% of total weight lost. Another study found that subjects lost 10% of their muscle mass during a 68-72 week intervention. That is approximately equivelent to 20 years of age related muscle mass!!! Most people who are on the drug do not pay attention to that because when they look in the mirror they just see weight coming off, and clothes feeling baggy. That feeling alone will make you turn a blind eye to whats really going on and how you physically really feel.

Luckily, you can combat this in two different ways. The first thing you can do is start eating more protein. A normal diet would consist of 1.2-2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. That is approximatley .54-.91 grams per pound of bodyweight. for the sake of argument if you are on Ozempic you will want to round up a little and have 1 gram per of protein per bodyweight in lbs. To eat all that protein will not be easy since Ozempic mainly works by shutting off your hunger signals. So, you need to start a little bit at a time. Start by just having protein at every meal if you are not already. If you are, then start adding some more. To give you a visual idea a deck of playing cards is about 25g of protein. I would recommend "2 decks of cards" per meal assuming you are eating 3 times a day. You can then get more protein in with protein supplements. Try getting your protein from quality sources and stick with complete proteins such as chicken, fish, and beef. Eggs are a complete protein and can give you 6-8g per egg depending on the size. Plant proteins are fine they are just not complete proteins (contain all 9 essential amino acids). Most of the protein coming from plants are for the plant, not you. Its mostly fiber to us which is great for digestion and should be a part of your meals anyways.

Lastly the best way to take advantage of all that protein is to build muscle with it! Yup, you gotta lift weights! Lifting weights and mostly external, meaning not just your body weight will build muscle, increase bone density, and put you in a great mood for hours!! There are so many benefits to weight training which i'll go into on another post, but it is ABSOLUTLEY essential you start. If you are doing zero days then just adding one day will help. Ideally, you should be doing 2-4 days a week of weight training and moving 7 days a week. Moving consists of just going for daily walks, and it doesnt have to be a hike. I suggest an intenisty beyond "strolling" but you should never become out of breath. Once you have gotten in a groove with protein intake, and you are lifting weights you will have set yourself up for positive growth habits that will pay off not just while you are on Ozempic, but will stay with you forever!