Episode 53 of the Living Life Well Show: GLP-1 vs IF--who loses more...........muscle?
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Speaker 3: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life. Well show the intersection of God's word, today's science and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
Jon: Hey, welcome back to the Living Life Well Show. Today I want to talk about muscle loss, and some of the really popular ways to lose weight. GLP ones intermittent fasting, and what can we do about it? Is it just something that we have to accept? Interestingly, you know, the GLP ones have been in the news a lot lately from the issue with what the FDA has ruled about compounding.
In addition it's been in the news with regards to [00:01:00] this fact muscle loss. And so for a lot of you you know, especially you guys, you may have seen that recently Dana White had a. Article come out in Men's Health about doing an 86 hour water fast. We know that muscle is very important for maintaining health, for maintaining cardiovascular health, for maintaining bone health for maintaining functionality and independence as we age.
And we really need to make sure that we are maintaining our muscle health. So if we are doing intermittent fasting or if we are doing GLP ones what can we do and which one really gives more benefit for maintaining your muscle mass? So let's kind of dive right in. So looking at the literature, here's the long and short of it.
Anytime you lose weight. You're gonna lose some muscle. [00:02:00] That is just going to happen. There isn't a way just to lose fat unless literally you're doing liposuction. That's it. Any other weight loss program, you're going to lose fat. You're gonna lose water, and you're gonna lose muscle. You're gonna lose nutrients.
That's just the way weight loss works. Now, there are ways to mitigate and proliferate the type of m. Loss that you want fat loss in this case, or water loss, but. Muscle loss is generally something that we don't want to occur, right? So what can we do to really kind of help prevent that or at a minimum, minimize that.
So let's jump right into it. GLP ones, what we see with that. Is that the vast majority of people start losing muscle mass pretty quickly. They start losing muscle mass within a matter of a couple of weeks, and they [00:03:00] are dosed in such a way that you. Escalate to increase that weight loss in a 12 to 24 week kind of timeframe, then you want to maintain that dosing really essentially in.
Perpetuity. So what is it that the GLP ones are doing? Well, first of all, they're, you're cutting calories, right? So GLP ones essentially cause satiation so that you aren't hungry anymore, and so you end up getting that weight loss. Well, weight loss in and of itself is really good, especially when somebody is in the obese or overweight categories.
And so getting that weight. Off is absolutely gonna help decrease inflammation, help your hormone synthesis overall. It's gonna help decrease your risk for cancer but weight loss alone and how you lose weight. [00:04:00] They're not all equal. And so that's really kind of what we want to talk about. So when you're doing GLP ones, the risk of it is if GLP one is your sole source for health, if you will you're gonna lose a lot of muscle, you're gonna lose up to 40% of that weight that you lose is gonna be lean muscle mass.
So if you're losing. , 50 pounds then really you're talking about 20 pounds of that is gonna be muscle. There's gonna be a fair amount. That's water and then there's gonna be a lot of it that is fat too, but. You know, 20 pounds of muscle loss is extremely significant. And so we wanna really make sure that we're doing what we can to minimize muscle loss, especially as we age, because muscle like I said it just is.
Involved in so many functions helps us recover from injury. And if we are losing a [00:05:00] disproportionate amount of muscle, than we really have to then that is going to create long-term effects down the road. And when we look at GLP ones, the reason. Partly that people are losing more muscle is because of the longstanding nature of it, that long timeframe that we're talking about, that people are on these medications, essentially creating a fasting state daily for weeks and months on end, and potentially in perpetuity.
Well, if you were to do fasting in perpetuity. Guess what? You're gonna lose muscle mass as well. Now, typically speaking the muscle percentage loss is a fair amount lower usually only up to about 30%. But if you're doing intermittent fasting the right way, only about 10% really. And that's kind of the big difference and what I wanted to get into [00:06:00] now, when we talk about intermittent fasting, what we're talking about is generally a, timeframe from anywhere from 12 hours to 72 hours with restricted eating. Now, typically what I would recommend is that nobody who is going over 24 hours needs to do that solely with water. They need to supplement with some bone broth and or possibly even some. Very basic amino acids .
But for the sake of this discussion, we're gonna, we're gonna say up to three days. Well, why do I say up to three days? Why do I say up to 72 hours? Well, it's the exact reason we're doing this podcast because once you start going over 72 hours, you are disproportionately increasing that amount of muscle that is being lost.
And once you get over that 72 hour mark, your body has to turn somewhere for fuel, [00:07:00] and unfortunately, where it turns to is it turns to muscle. So with Dana White's 86 hour fast, that lasts 14 hours. He was burning a lot of muscle. Now he did some before and after pictures, and absolutely you can tell a vast difference in the before and after picture, he is getting a fair amount of fat loss but you're also getting muscle loss, like I said, in that last 14 hours. So the key with intermittent fasting is this is.
A, you want to treat it just like you treat your workouts. You want to vary it. You don't want your body getting used to the same routine all the time. It's the same guy that goes to the gym and he's looked the same for the last 20 years because he is done the same thing every single day for the same amount of time, the same intensity and really he's maintaining.
But he's not advancing. My goal for you is I want you to advance I know you want to [00:08:00] advance. You don't wanna stay where you are. You don't want to get to that plateau point, if you will, that many of us get to. And so variety is what's gonna do that. And so that goes for fasting as well. So fasting, maybe you fast one day for 24 hours, then maybe you know, next week you do a three day fast.
Okay? Varying that fasting helps. And again, I don't ever recommend going over 72 hours just because that is when you are going to start losing muscle mass. Now interestingly, with intermittent fasting, one of the ways to cycle into more, fat burn, if you will, as opposed to muscle burn, is to incorporate hit workouts while you're doing this.
And so people think, oh my gosh, what are you talking about? Doing a really intense workout when you're fasting. Well, here's what I tell people. The first 24 hours of a fast here, typically not a big deal to do a [00:09:00] real heavy workout between 24 hours and 72 hours on a fast. Yeah, depends on the individual.
You know, trying to do a really intense hit workout at, you know, 48, 60 hours into a fast. That may be very difficult. Now you can still do a HIIT workout, but it won't be nearly as intense and you won't have the amount of output necessarily that you would've had you done it either in a non-fasting state or only like a 12 hour to 24 hour type of fast state.
But HIIT workouts really seem to help catabolize those fat cells, those fat molecules, and really help increase your fat loss and preserve your muscle while you're doing this intermittent fasting now. When we're talking about GLP ones, what they're really recommending is resistance training.
And the reason that we see this difference is just because of the [00:10:00] difference of the nature of the two programs. The GLP one is a steady state, right? It doesn't change unless you. Increase the dose. So you dose yourself, it's in there for a week. And so you're kind of staying at this plateau.
You, you're gonna get gains and increases over time for several weeks, but then that's gonna plateau off. Then your doctor's gonna increase the dose. Same thing you're gonna plateau off. And it's just the same with everything else. If you stick to the same fasting routine, you're gonna plateau off. If you stick to the same workout routine, you're gonna plateau off.
But what you. Lack with the GLP ones is really that variety, that ability to really change what the main driver of the loss is. The main driver of the loss is the calorie restriction. Well, you're having the calorie restriction because the GLP ones are creating that satiety so that you don't have that hunger anymore to [00:11:00] continue to eat.
And so you eat, but you eat much less. And when you eat, you wanna make sure that you're eating really good varieties of foods and low fat really lean cuts of meat and animal proteins. And then you really want to make sure that you're getting lots of vegetables in, you need those nutrients as well, because just like with intermittent.
Fasting GLP ones can at the beginning especially introduce a little bit of diuresis and loss of vitamins and minerals, and so you wanna make sure that you're replacing those as well. Now. Even if you are doing resistance training with the GLP one, it currently appears that the muscle loss is still going to be greater than if you did some intermittent fasting.
Definitely intermittent fasting with a hit type workout. So when you're looking at considering GLP ones versus intermittent fasting for weight [00:12:00] loss the big keys are that either one. To really help yourself. You want to incorporate exercise. Either one. When you are breaking a fast and when you are eating with the GLP ones, you want to make sure that you are getting good quality nutrients in.
Those are just some guidelines that you want to think about if you are considering GLP ones versus intermittent fasting. So I also wanted to take a minute to let you guys know if you are having trouble getting your dose of GLP ones now. Since at the airing of this is gonna be at the end of April.
And then May 22nd is when the FDA's issue comes down with regards to the compounding pharmacies being able to compound it. Now there's a little bit of issue there with the way it's been reported and even the way that I commented on it previously. So all [00:13:00] compounded GLP one. Drugs are not gonna be taken off.
Just those that are the exact same doses that the pharmaceutical companies make, those will be gone. Now. They can alter the doses and change that from what is offered by the manufacturer and they will con continue to produce those However. I would still say if you're considering GLP ones, just know the big issue with them is there is not a plan.
To transition off, there is not a plan to come off of this. It is designed to be a lifelong drug. So if you are someone who is on GLP ones, considering GLP ones, you wanna make sure that you've got a. Plan at the end of the day to get off of it. Once you do get that weight loss goal, once you are feeling better and feel like, okay, now I can actually go after some things that I've been wanting to do, I feel like [00:14:00] I can now induce some discipline because I have lost some weight.
I am thinking a little bit more clearly. Then. You really want to make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people that are gonna help you transition off of that. Well, and that's exactly what I've created with these 40 days to begin living life. Well, this will help you transition if you're doing intermittent fasting.
This will help you with your intermittent fasting if you're doing neither, but just considering doing something this will help. Many people, when we get to the true detox portion of it you know, lose anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds just during this time, and if you're considering or thinking about needing weight loss or wanting to explore GLP ones for your diabetes or any other reason you have an underlying autoimmune condition and you're wanting to decrease inflammation and you think by losing weight that will help. It will help.
But there's other ways that you [00:15:00] can. You can do that besides just the GLP one medications you can employ the intermittent fasting and the other tools that we have within this 40 days to begin living life. Well. So if you're interested in that you can go to our website, live life well clinic.com and you can click on the 40 days button at the top of the screen and that will get you all the information you need.
So thanks and God bless.
Speaker 4: That's it for this
Speaker 3: episode of The Living Life Well podcast if you like what you've heard and want to learn more or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself. Go to live life well clinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. John Skelton saying go out and live the truth so you can live life well.
Speaker 5: The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, [00:16:00] nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
