Taking Weight-Loss Meds? Here’s Why Strength Training is Crucial
For many, the newest round of weight loss medications, including the GLPs, has been a godsend and a relief. It has represented, for many, a new lease on life.The ability to lose weight safely, and for good, has altered consumers’ habits, with industries taking notice of reduced alcohol consumption and decline in sugary snack sales, and even has fast food restaurants feeling the “heat”.
While these powerful medications help reduce appetite and lead to significant weight reduction, they also cause the body to lose fat mass AND muscle mass. Individuals taking weight loss medications like GLP-1 agonists (e.g., semaglutide, tirzepatide) must prioritize strength training to ensure their weight loss is healthy and sustainable.
Why Building Strength Matters More Than Ever
As we age, we need all of the muscle we can keep. The more muscle you have, the more likely you are to live a long life. Strength training is critical because it acts as a necessary countermeasure, helping to preserve lean muscle, boost the body's metabolism, improve stability, and ultimately lead to a healthier body composition and better long-term physical function. For women, strength training is a MUST. For women and men who are experiencing weight loss, strength training is a double MUST.
Let’s define strength training first. It is often used incorrectly in social media and in conversation. Strength training, in practice, is a systematic process of applying resistance against the muscles (using weights, bodyweight, bands, etc.) to stimulate adaptations that increase the body's capacity to produce force, improve movement, and enhance performance, all while managing the risk of injury.
Strength training should be structured, not random. Skilled strength coaches, like myself, follow programming principals such as progressive overload and periodization. Strength training builds physical reserves of strength, endurance, and power–and women lose power when we enter into perimenopause. Strength training improves the way we move and how nimble we can remain during the unexpected, for example, when we trip and fall. Last, strength training helps make your body build more resilience and better tolerate the demands of any activity, while also reducing risks of injury. It’s a magical pill!
The Real Benefits: Reasons to Start Lifting Now!
Below are my top 5 reasons those of you on weight loss medication need to pick up some weights NOW:
Counteract Muscle Loss. Weight loss, including that driven by GLP-1s, can lead to the loss of both fat and muscle mass. Strength training directly signals the body to preserve and build muscle tissue.
Improve Body Composition: The goal is often fat loss, not just scale weight loss. Strength training ensures a higher percentage of the weight you lose is fat, leading to a leaner, healthier body composition.
Enhance Insulin Sensitivity: Strength training improves how your muscles use glucose, enhancing insulin sensitivity. This synergistic effect complements the primary metabolic benefits of GLP-1 medications.
Improve Blood Sugar Control: Muscle is a major site for glucose storage and uptake. More muscle mass means more "storage tanks" for glucose, which improves glycemic control and helps the GLP-1 medication work more effectively against insulin resistance.
Improve Stability: Significant weight loss, regardless of the method, requires your body's musculoskeletal system to adjust to a completely new—and lighter—load. Even your body's center of gravity and movement patterns change. This can indeed lead to a feeling of instability, and this “new body” has to adjust. Strength training, particularly core work and compound movements will help retrain your nervous system and muscles for better stability, balance, and reduced risk of injury.
Bonus Benefit? Confidence You Can Feel.
While those are my top five for those of you engaged in any weight loss program, I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t share this truth: ANYONE and EVERYONE benefits from strength training. The greatest byproduct? Increased confidence. Lifting heavier loads shifts your focus from weight on the scale to tangible physical capability. This experience is a profound confidence booster, supporting a positive body image and mental resilience throughout your health journey.
If you’re ready to find the right balance of workouts as you begin, or continue, your weight loss journey, let’s talk. I’ve helped clients build strength safely while taking GLP-1s, and I’d love to help you too. You can also join one of our small group sessions to move, connect, and feel good…both inside and out.
