05/01/2026
GLP-1s
In the first comment below is a link to a great, common language article on the current state of GLP-1s, aka Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, and Victoza.
The Ugly: “DEXA scans showed that lean body mass (muscle and bone) accounted for nearly 40% of the weight lost.” Stated another way – 4 out of every 10 pounds lost is body mass that you really want. Osteoporotic risk increases have always been a concern which is why regular and increased exercise is highly recommended when prescribing GLP-1s. I would recommended that those who need these aggressive treatments combine them with a weight lifting regimen and a good, healthy, variety diet . It is also recommended that you monitor essential vitamins that can be depleted when your body goes through the stress of losing 20-30 pounds in a short period of time.
The Good: Attacking obesity and diabetes is a great thing and GLP-1s seem to be helping significantly. The diabetic and obesity epidemic are killing people right now, waiting around to get a full understanding of the long-term risks of GLP-1s may not be an option. To give a completely fictional analogy – if we find out that tanning beds cure terminal Stage 4 cancer, we would use them despite the risk of developing skin cancer years from now. Also, it is worth mentioning that GLP1s are been proven to successfully treat and at times reverse steatosis hepatitis or MASH in patients with this advanced stage of what we commonly know as 'fatty liver".
The Bad: Trials are showing that when the use of GLP-1s stops, patients are regaining two-thirds of the weight lost, indicating that maintaining the benefits requires life-long usage and/or healthy ongoing lifestyle changes.
Short answer: We don’t know everything yet, and anybody that tells you different is predicting, not drawing conclusions from data. If Toyota comes out with a new car model, the only way to truly know if the car will be dependable for the next ten years is to have people drive it for the next ten years and study the data. GLP-1s are in the middle of the 10-year test drive and science is still gathering the data.
NOTE: Comments for this post have been turned off. Social media has proven itself to be an awful forum for intelligent debate. We’d prefer to skip all the problems it brings.
