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

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236 points Eumenes | 2 comments | 20 Nov 24 23:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.425s | 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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throwup238 ◴[21 Nov 24 00:22 UTC] No.42199679[source]▶
The next line of the article after that 40% quote:

> Carla Prado, a nutrition researcher in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences and lead author on the commentary, explains this rate of muscle decline is significantly higher than what is typically observed with calorie-reduced diets or normal aging and could lead to a host of long-term health issues — including decreased immunity, increased risk of infections and poor wound healing.

The rather obvious problem is that these GLP1 agonists don't improve your diet. If you continue to eat a protein and nutrient deficient diet (which is probably a majority of Americans) with caloric restriction on top of that, that leads to excessive muscle loss that you wouldn't see in a weight loss diet. This normally doesn't happen without GLP1 agonists, because these diets are too difficult to stick to for most people. Those who stick to them usually turn to nutritious high satiety whole foods that help combat the negative effects of caloric restriction.

Losing weight without losing muscle mass is very hard. It requires extreme diets like a protein sparring modified fast where 80%+ of your calories are from lean protein while running a 50% caloric deficit. If this research is correct, then using GLP1 agonists shortcuts the feedback loops that make the diets hard to stick to, but they shift the tradeoffs from weight to overall nutrition.

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure" and all that.

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1. throwaway2037 ◴[21 Nov 24 01:13 UTC] No.42199994[source]▶

    > nutrient deficient diet (which is probably a majority of Americans)
This is bullshit. Literally, I Googled for: what percent of americans have nutrient deficient diet?

First hit is some blogspam trying to sell me "Nutrient Therapy". Second hit is CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition-report/media/2nd-nutrition-rep...

    > The Second Nutrition Report found less than 10% of the U.S. population had nutrition deficiencies for selected indicators.
Another thing that people frequently overlook, since post WW2, the US has been "fortifying" grains with essential minerals and vitamins. That means when people eat cereal and bread from the supermarket (usually highly processed), there are plenty of minerals and vitamins. Say what you like about the highly processed part, few are nutrient deficient.
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2. anon291 ◴[21 Nov 24 01:50 UTC] No.42200244[source]▶
Part of the problem is that the standards are incorrect. If you go by dietary standards, you are eating way too many carbohydrates and likely eating too many times a day, especially if you do not have an active job.

Most people should mainly be eating fat and protein with a decent amount of grains and fruit and vegetables. However, the standard advice is to eat a lot of grains, some fruit and vegetables, a modest amount of protein, and little fat. This is awful and leads to very high hunger. Especially if you eat multiple meals a day, as is also commonly recommended, this is a recipe for being ever hungrier day by day.

It wasn't until I eschewed all advice, started eating one big meal a day and maybe one snack and matching my carb intake with my fat intake that the hunger that I had known since childhood magically disappeared and I lost 25 lbs (and am losing more). Finally a 'normal' weight seems not only in sight, but extremely easy!