Ozempic: Does It Cause Muscle Loss?

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Delivery fees may apply. Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Shots of Science Versus. Now before we get started, I wanted to let you all know that this feed is gonna go on a pause, which means it's gonna be our last shots of science versus. But don't worry, if you miss science versus if you want to hear my voice. Which I know you do. You're gonna miss my voice. Don't wa you don't have to, because science versus which is what this show is based off, is gonna keep running.

So if you want to get all the science that you're hearing on this show, then just head over to Science Versus. So Science V S. That's how you find us. And we are just gonna keep making great episodes. We've got some really good ones coming up. So if you don't wanna miss them, and I know you don't, uh just start following Science Verses. Okay, but for now, to kick us off with our last episode.

of Shots of Science Versus. Today we are talking about weight loss drugs. These are drugs like Ozempic. They're so hot right now And there are also a bunch of fears out there about them. Scary side effects.

And so I talked about all this with senior producer Rose Rimler. So Rose Let's start with this thing that we've both been hearing a lot about, which is this idea that Ozempic can mess with your muscles. And basically that you're not just losing fat, which is the goal for many people, but you're also losing a ton of muscle on these drugs. So here let me read you some headlines that I have read recently.

The race is on to stop Ozempic muscle loss. Another one, Ozempic may cause dangerous muscle loss. And uh perhaps my favorite. Our fat loss shots are ticking time bomb. Doctors warn Ozempik and Wagovi are shrinking patients' muscles.

Yeah, I've heard this too. And I I've heard a lot of people talk about it on podcasts, you know, those uh bastions of misinformation. You gotta watch out for those. And I specifically have heard This claim that the muscle wastage that happens when people are on these medications Can also melt muscle off your face and make you look like gaunt and weird and they call that Ozempic face. Oh God, it has its own name now. Ozempic face. Yeah, Ozempic face.

Okay, so like how freaked out do we need to be about this? Well, if it's true that the Azempics are melting your muscles away, that would be a big deal because You know, our muscles aren't just there to yank our bones around, which is kinda how I think I have previously thought about it. Yeah. It's actually a very important organ and it's very it's a very active organ. So one thing they do is they pull sugar from our blood and then store the sugar.

That's cool. I didn't I didn't know if that yeah. And I talked about this with Vipa Singhal. She's a doctor and scientist at Harvard. Even when we are sitting, muscle is sort of Sucking up all the glucose. Like almost like you know, the vacuum machine. It can just Suck away all the glucose. So muscle is sort of a storehouse of energy. And to maintain healthy blood sugars, healthy metabolic state, a healthy muscle is very, very important.

So the less muscle you have, the less efficient this whole thing is. Mm-hmm. This is all part of what's called insulin sensitivity. And so just to really land this point. One study took healthy people and had them stay in bed for a week. And because they were inactive for a week they lost about three pounds of muscle. And their insulin sensitivity

Lumited. It went down by thirty percent. Oh whoa. And that's bad. Like that can lead to a whole bunch of problems. Type two diabetes, but also high blood pressure, heart disease, yada yada yada.

So hearing all this, you want to keep your muscle, right? Yes. Love love my muscles. So does Ozempic melt them away? Okay, so straight away, you need to know that every time someone loses weight, they lose muscle. In fact, studies that have looked at weight loss generally find that on average, twenty to fifty percent of the weight that people lose comes from their lean tissue, which is mostly muscle. So if somebody loses ten kilos, two kilos of that could be muscle.

to up to five kilos, which is a lot. That is substantial. That is substantial. And one reason for this is because when you're losing weight, because you're taking in less energy by eating less. Your body is gonna look for energy in other places. It's gonna try to get sugar. And one place it can get that sugar? From your muscles. Okay. So every time we lose weight, some of that weight is muscle because your body

Searching for energy, eating away at things, including your muscle. And and on average About 20% to 50% of the weight that you lose is muscle. Is that right? Yeah. So then the question becomes. When you're on these meds, are you losing more muscle than you normally would? Right. That is the question. So to find that out

Researchers have pulled people into these scanners that can measure how much of your body is fat, how much is bone, how much is lean tissue, muscle. Okay. And so they scan people before they start these medications. And then again, after they've been on them for a while and lost a bunch of weight. And here's what they have found. So, in one trial for trzepatine, which is the stuff in Manjaro and ZeppBound, out of all the weight that people lost on average,

About twenty-five percent of that was muscle. And then in another trial for semaglutide, that's the stuff in Ozempic and Wagovi, almost forty percent was muscle. Oh. Almost forty percent and then twenty-five percent? So that is that is exactly what you would expect. Is that right? It's exactly what you'd expect. So there's nothing special happening here. Not as far as we can tell, no.

But there's so much like vitriol around Ozempic and the muscle wastage problem. Like I haven't read any headlines. That were worried about muscle wastage when people were losing weight through other means. Like why all this focus on these drugs? Yeah, it's weird, right? Well, Phippa thinks that there's just a spotlight on these medications. So any little thing that they do is gonna be breathlessly reported on.

So this is how we wind up with these discussions about like quote unquote osempic face. When you lose weight, you lose weight from everywhere. Including your face. Including your face. So I don't believe in osempic face. It's the weight loss phase. So there's n so there's when it comes to muscle wastage or whatever, like

I don't know, is there anything to particularly worry about with these drugs? Yeah, as far as I know, I I mean I haven't seen any evidence that the way people's weight comes off on these medications is different than From any other means of weight loss. But that being said, I mean, it is a fair point that people should be aware of this whole muscle loss thing and but people do lose weight.

on these medications or otherwise, they should be trying to preserve muscle, build muscle. So, you know, that looks like getting plenty of exercise and eating enough protein. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. And the best exercise for this is resistance exercise. So that's stuff like lifting weights.

But Vipa says that any exercise that you do consistently will help some. I have one family that, you know, they like to dance as a family for thirty minutes every evening. Great. Whatever gets you moving, works. That's really sweet. That's really sweet. I like that. All right. So dance for 30 minutes if you're on Ozempic. Love that. Oh That's that's the takeaway, yes.

So this was just a short segment from our most recent episode on Ozempic. And if you'd like to listen to the whole thing, then just head over to our main feed. So just search for science versus that's science V S. And click on our episode Ozempic. Is it scarier than we thought? And if you do wanna keep getting your hit of science versus, then don't keep listening to Shots of Science Versus'cause we're not going to be updating it for now.

Instead, you've gotta go to that main feed. Um you you you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. You're gonna meet some friends over there, I'll be there. So just search for science versus that's science vs or whatever app you're using. Follow us, subscribe. All right. I'll see you there. I'm Wendy Zuckerman. I'll back to you next time.