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Weight-loss drug found to shrink muscle in mice, human cells

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236 points Eumenes | 3 comments | 20 Nov 24 23:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.636s | source
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cm2187 ◴[21 Nov 24 00:11 UTC] No.42199591[source]▶
> emerging research showing that up to 40 per cent of the weight lost by people using weight-loss drugs is actually muscle

That's the sort of headlines that smells like bullshit to me.

My understand of those drugs is that they don't actually make you lose weight, they just cut your appetite so you can follow a diet to lose weight without hunger hammering at the door. So to start with, if that's the case, all they are observing is the effect of a diet. Not sure the diet drug has much to do with it.

Then I went from 133kg to 88kg with these diet drugs. Even though I exercised every day, I am sure I also lost some muscle mass as well, just because I don't have to carry 45kg every time I make a move anymore. Seems logical and would probably be concerned if it was any other way.

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1. firecall ◴[21 Nov 24 00:19 UTC] No.42199659[source]▶
Interestingly, when I was part of a weight loss diet study at my local university I actually gained muscle whilst losing weight.

I had multiple full body dexascans during the programme.

I didn’t change my exercise routine at all. I wasn’t hitting the gym or doing weights, just my usual basic cardio.

And I gained muscle and lost ~10kilos in weight.

It wasn’t much muscle, but the amount of muscle was higher than before.

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2. philipbjorge ◴[21 Nov 24 00:27 UTC] No.42199708[source]▶
The latest research I’ve pulled suggests that DEXA scans are fairly inaccurate and aren’t a reliable way to measure body composition even for the same person across time.

MRI is the gold standard, everything else is pretty loosely goosey.

Sorry, no references but this comes up pretty often in the science based lifting communities on Reddit and YouTube if you want to learn more.

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3. cthalupa ◴[21 Nov 24 04:34 UTC] No.42201155[source]▶
https://macrofactorapp.com/body-composition/

Estimates in level of inaccuracy on the high end ranges from ~5% to ~10%

If you see your lean mass going up in DEXA, your muscles are getting larger, and you're getting stronger, particularly across a wide variety of exercises where CNS adaptation can't explain the strength gains, they're likely broadly accurate.

Mine have all tracked quite closely with what I'm seeing in the mirror and what is happening when it comes to the amount of weight I'm moving.