Tirzepatide and muscle mass — what the research says

I'm on semaglutide myself, down around 37 lbs, but I keep reading about how tirzepatide seems to preserve lean mass a bit better and I'm curious what studies people here have actually dug into. Has anyone found good data comparing the two on muscle loss, or tracked their own body composition while on Zepbound? Would love to hear what the research says versus what folks are seeing in real life.

I had a DEXA scan before starting and one a few months in, mostly because I was worried about exactly this. My lean mass held pretty steady, which surprised me since I was expecting a bigger drop

honestly, i haven't dug into the studies much but I did get a body scan before starting and again a few months in. My lean mass number barely budged, though I was lifting and eating a lot of protein the whole time

did you get a baseline scan before starting? I skipped one and now I have no idea how much of my loss was fat versus muscle.

honestly, curious whether anyone here actually got a second scan later on rather than just the baseline. I skipped the baseline entirely and now i have nothing to compare against

Curious whether anyone here actually paid out of pocket for a DEXA or if there's a cheaper way to get a rough lean mass read, since I'm only a couple months in and haven't bothered yet

Did you get a baseline scan before starting semaglutide?

Curious whether anyone's actually seen the tirzepatide lean-mass edge hold up outside the trial data. I'm down 60 and never scanned, so my evidence is just that my deadlift hasn't budged much

Curious whether anyone here has actually done a DEXA before and after on semaglutide rather than tirzepatide, since most of the scans I see posted are from the tirz side.

The head to head data really is thin, so I mostly watch my own lifts instead. My pull ups dropped a couple reps around month two and that told me more than any study

Curious whether anyone here actually got a DEXA before starting, I went off how my clothes fit and lifting numbers instead and now I wish I had a real baseline to compare against

Only a few pounds down myself so no real data yet, but I did a baseline DEXA partly because of threads like this one. My plan is keeping lifts in the program from day one so any lean mass change shows up against real numbers, not vibes, seems like that's what the folks further along here keep landing on anyway.

Curious whether anyone here has actually seen a DEXA swing one way or the other on tirzepatide, since most of what I can find is trial-level averages and not much on individuals. My own lifts held steady through the first stretch, but I never got a scan before starting so I can't prove a thing.

Curious whether anyone here has seen a DEXA change that actually tracked with dose increases, since that seems like the messy variable nobody mentions. I'm on Rybelsus so no personal Zepbound data to add

I never got a baseline scan either so I just watch my lifting numbers, and honestly they've held better than I expected. Curious whether anyone here has seen the tirzepatide lean mass studies hold up outside a trial setting.

No baseline scan here either so I've just been logging my lifts every couple weeks, and the only dip was the month I dropped protein while appetite was gone. Curious whether anyone found an actual head to head trial on lean mass or if it's all subgroup stuff

Did a DEXA at month four and the lean mass drop was smaller than I expected, though I have no baseline to compare it to so it's half a data point. Curious whether anyone here actually got scanned before starting.

I never did a baseline scan either, so my only read on lean mass has been whether my pull-ups held steady, and they did until I took two weeks off. Curious whether anyone here actually found a head to head study on the two drugs or if it is all just extrapolation from separate trials.

Curious whether the DEXA crowd here actually changes anything after the scan, or if it just confirms what the lifts already told you. I skipped the scan myself and just go off how my rows feel.

idk, the lean mass difference between the two meds looked pretty marginal in the studies I poked through. The training and protein variables seemed to carry way more weight than which drug someone was on.