We thought the miracle jabs would get people moving. We were wrong. A new study suggests that as the pounds melt away on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, physical activity actually plummets. People are shrinking. But they are also sitting still.
The data, slated for presentation at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, paints a grim picture. Researchers tracked 753 obese patients using fitness trackers. The cohort, mostly middle-aged women, took a sharp turn toward the couch. Daily steps fell from an already modest 5,047 to a sluggish 4,487. High-intensity movement dropped too. It went from 28 minutes down to just 22.
This is bad news. Very bad. Dr. Sajana Maharjan of HSHS St. John’s Hospital warns that these drugs do not just burn fat. They eat muscle too. Without exercise, you end up skinny but frail. The drop-off was worst in men and those already dealing with joint pain.
Why the slump? Dr. Peter Balazs, a weight-loss specialist, points to biology. Starving bodies conserve energy. It is survival. Plus, constant nausea and fatigue do not exactly inspire a trip to the gym. He insists exercise is mandatory. If you do not lift weights, your body digests its own muscle.
Not everyone buys the doom-and-gloom narrative. Dr. Amanda Kahn, a longevity expert, blames lazy doctoring rather than the drugs. In her practice, weight loss sparks motivation. If a patient gets too weak to lift weights, she adjusts the dose. To her, muscle loss is a monitoring failure.
Either way, the lazy way out does not exist. You cannot just inject your way to health. You still have to sweat.
