i'm james.
personal trainer. on a glp-1 myself. one answer a day, about fifteen seconds each.
free. no email, no signup, nothing to buy.
nasm certified, biomechanic specialist personal trainer. not a doctor.
posture and lifting
this is what i was doing before any of the glp-1 stuff, and it's still the part that matters most.
start here
these are the ones people keep coming back to. the number next to each is how many times the average person watched it before they left.
the best standing posture guide11,345 views loop 2.2x sick of your posture while standing? i have the fix8,454 views loop 1.1x self conscious about bad posture?2,241 views loop 1.5x push up correctly1,871 views loop 1.0x knee pain733 views uncommon sciatica pain relief544 viewsthe smallest amount of lifting that works
most people think keeping muscle means living in the gym. it doesn't.
- two to three sessions a week cuts how much fat free mass you lose by thirty to fifty percent. 2024 systematic review, resistance training during weight loss
- protein above 1.3 grams per kilo of bodyweight, per day, preserves more lean mass than going under it. meta analysis, 47 randomised controlled trials
that's the whole job. it is a much smaller job than people tell you.
the glp-1 stuff
most glp-1 content is either a clinic selling you something or a highlight reel. i'm the boring middle: the trainer who is actually on it.
what the research actually says
the internet will tell you these drugs eat your muscle. that is not what the data shows, and the real version is more useful.
- about a quarter of the weight you lose is lean mass. the placebo group lost the same ratio, which is the part nobody quotes. surmount-1 dxa substudy
- lean mass fell about 10.9 percent. fat mass fell about 33.9 percent. fat loss was roughly three times the lean loss. tirzepatide, 72 weeks, 160 people
- lifting two to three times a week cuts that lean loss by thirty to fifty percent, without slowing the fat loss down. 2024 systematic review. this is the one almost nobody knows.
lean mass is not the same thing as muscle. it includes water, glycogen and organs, so the week one drop everybody panics about is mostly water.
what i'm actually doing
not advice. just what i do, so you can see whether it works.
- lifting through the whole thing, not waiting until the weight is off
- eating protein on purpose, even on the days i'm not hungry, which is most days
- using my working weights as the scoreboard instead of the scale
- started on the shot, quit it because i'm genuinely scared of needles, moved to an oral one
- posting the bad weeks too