Tirzepatide and muscle mass — what the research says

honestly, has anyone actually posted a DEXA before and after in here? I keep seeing the same secondary endpoint papers cited and would rather look at scans from people mid-stack than argue over small percentages.

I'm on semaglutide too and never got a DEXA, just lift numbers. My squat held steady until i took three weeks off, which tells me more about my habits than the drug honestly

idk, curious whether anyone here actually got a DEXA before starting, since without a baseline the after scan doesn't tell you much. I skipped mine and regret it now

I lift four days a week and my last scan showed lean mass basically unchanged, so my own numbers line up with the idea that the drug difference is small next to the training. The trial gap people cite seems like a footnote compared to whether you're actually resistance training.

I'm curious how far along you were before you bothered getting one done.

I did a DEXA at the start and one around month four, and honestly the lean mass number barely budged, which surprised me since I wasn't lifting much then. Curious whether you've seen anything head to head or is it all just reanalysis of the same trials

I think the SURMOUNT-1 substudy is the closest thing to what you're after, though it still isn't head to head. I've only tracked strength numbers on my own, no scan, so take that with a grain of salt.

I never got a baseline scan either, so I'm going off how my strength numbers hold up at 12.5mg. Curious whether anyone's actually seen a head-to-head trial rather than the pooled stuff.

I did a DEXA at month four mostly out of paranoia and the lean mass number had barely budged, which surprised me since I was eating so little. My guess is the protein and the two gym days a week carried it, not the vial.

Six pounds in is early for body comp to show much either way, so I wouldn't read too much into it yet.

The DEXA angle is what I keep coming back to. I have not paid for one myself yet, mostly because I lift four days a week and would not know how to read the number without overreacting to normal noise

no DEXA for me either, I'm just going off how my lifts feel, and honestly they've held steady since I started. Curious whether anyone here has actually paid for a scan out of pocket and felt it was worth the money.

I've been doing a DEXA scan every three months since starting, mostly because I wanted to know if I was losing muscle along with the fat. So far the lean mass line has barely budged, which surprised me given how little I was eating early on.

I did a DEXA at the start and again a few months in, and the lean mass drop was smaller than I expected given how fast the weight came off. Still no head-to-head study out there that settles it though, so my own scan is the only comparison I actually trust

I skipped the DEXA and just watched my lifts, which is crude but it caught me getting weaker on squats around month two and I added protein after that. Has anyone here actually paid for a second scan yet?

Only a couple pounds in so I'm mostly just listening, but the secondary-endpoint point lands. I'd rather see your six-month DEXA than another abstract.

honestly, i never did a baseline DEXA and regret it now that I'm further along. Are you planning to scan before you switch anything up

Down 43 on tirzepatide and my DEXA at the one-year mark showed less lean loss than I expected, though I can't separate the drug from the fact I started lifting the same month. The appetite suppression hit protein hardest for me too, so I started front-loading it early in the day when I still had appetite. The muscle loss research is mostly secondary endpoints anyway, so I've stopped waiting for a clean paper and just track my lifts.

Curious whether you had a DEXA before starting or just the one-year scan, since without a baseline it's hard to know what your lean mass looked like going in.

Curious whether you had a DEXA before starting or just the one at the year mark, since without a baseline it's hard to know what you actually held onto.