This 100% matches my experience. I can’t remember missing energy in the early days, but could potentially be that you are just taking less fuel on board overall?
Not really. I completely jumped off in first few weeks from any structured training. Then I started one custom plan, then cancelled it for a different one, then cancelled that for another… I’ve been better since start of January sticking to a custom Gravel plan (4 week base, now on 4 week build), but that’s only coincided with a couple of kilos drop so not my main phase of weight loss.
Strong recommendation on adding weight training though. I was very lucky that I didn’t need to add muscle whilst also trying to cut weight, just had to try and cling on to what I already have. Wish I’d done DEXA scans like you’re planning!
GLP1’s like semaglutide will directly cause weight loss independent of calorie intake. IE, if you take two sets of people on the same amount of calories & macros, the one taking semaglutide will still lose more weight (including muscle).
I also have heard there is little performance loss microdosing it, but when you’re doing 15-25 hour weeks, I would guess the biggest issue is getting enough carbs, not eating too many of them. Since it also slows down digestion, is absorption rate enough to support big hours on the bike? Maybe it’s used infrequently during the holidays or something?
I haven’t heard that GLP1s themselves cause weight loss, I have always heard that the weight loss is due to lower calorie intake. Do you have any more info on that? They somehow limit the uptake of calories from the digestive system?
I’ll see if I can find the exact meta analysis I read that said this. My guess is hormonal changes that affect nutrient storage and utilization, similar to genetics, exercise, etc.
I am avg person skinny but cyclist heavy. Working hard with TR to increase my ftp but clearly lowering weight is helpful for w/kg.
I definitely have food noise in my head but also performance noise. I’m really curious about a peptide to cut some of the hard to lose fat (after bad diets over the years)
Careful with extra protein and the kidneys. It can backfire.
I enjoyed the hell out of a BMI in the low/mid teens years ago, and now post pandemic am around a 29. I’ve been tempted to do the shots, but my doc (LP actually) has been 100% against them for me, and I agree. If I would have to stay on that stuff long term, I’d rather ride more and hope I can do that. Ride far more Z2 and 3, and maybe drink less IPA’s. But it’s possible that age is catching up with me, but I had to take ~2 months off the bike too, This staying healthy idea sure isn’t easy, but I’m trying. “I’m not overweight, I’m under tall!”
My main concern is like the drugs that lowered cholesterol, they can really cause a huge crash and all kinds of nasty. But if they/it works for you, RIDE ON!!
Don’t fall for this, it’s just wrong.
If you don’t change your diet either passively due to supressed appetite, or the less lucky ones who still have to manage their intake even while being on, you will stay as you are.
And always remember, if you have a shitty diet low on fiber, protein and nutrients on e.g. 3000kcal and you go on GLP1 and lower intake to maybe 2200kcal without changing anything else, you will now be on a way shittier diet than before and loss of cycling performance is maybe just the smaller of your issues.
Always fix you diet first, or at least make that part of the process.
Lift weights, at least once you pass below the 20% bf mark.
Some lean mass will be lost. Same as some lean mass (25%) will always be gained in people not training and just getting fat. That’s not of concern as long as you lift weights.
And keep the drug dose minimal to lose weight. No need to increase it as long as you make progress with your current dosage.
Did you track your RHR/HRV and exercise HR during this? I started Semaglutide about 2 months ago at 0.125 mg (so half the normal starting dose). I am now up to 0.25mg and don’t plan to go higher. The only side effect I have noticed is RHR is up about 10 bpm and HRV is maybe down 20-50%. It certainly seems to drop significantly more than it used to after hard training. My recovery day HRV is about the same, but even just one endurance ride and it is quite low. Of course I confounded measurements by taking ~1 month off the bike due to excellent skiing conditions so have lost a bit of fitness but now that I’m back pushing effort again on the bike my HR during hard efforts is also about 10 bpm higher than previously for these efforts.
I had about 1 month of “easy” training right when I started Sema, per my coach, and I noticed ZERO negative effects except for having to be much more careful about fueling. If I did not have CHO within 45 minutes my blood glucose would be in the 70s (per CGM). This did not occur prior to Sema as I frequently rode 1-2 hours with no fueling and had BG in the 130+ range. My coach limited me to nothing harder than tempo but I was easily able to maintain that for 60 minutes (on the high end of the prescribed range).
I am taking it to help with binge eating disorder which I have tried nearly everything for in the 25 years I’ve struggled with it and this is literally the only thing that has ever helped. I have gone 2 months without a binge. I was hoping to lose a little bit of weight - I’ve lost only 4-5 lbs in 2 months and haven’t lost any in a month. At most I had 10lbs to lose though, so perhaps that will just never happen. My lifts in thy gym have progressed too. With the small dose I’m on the daily decrease in calories has been minimal though - it is the really bad days of 3000 excess calories that are gone - so perhaps that is why I’ve had none of the usual side effects - no GI issues, no nausea, no lightheadedness, no fatigue… I feel 100% completely fine. And if it weren’t for my Garmin I wouldn’t know about the HR/HRV “side effects”.
I knew someone who got their ‘stomach stapled’, and did not alter their diet, and started gaining weight again, and had issues with their now smaller stomach having problems handling the amount of stuff it was being filled with. Yes, you should alter your diet. And on these new drugs the same should be rather obvious. And if these ‘wonder drugs’ do anesthetize the stomach, filling it with more stuff seems very ill advised, doesn’t it?
‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten’.
Really annoyingly I was trying a different watch when I started so didn’t have a good comparison for my RHR. But, now I am back using a similar watch to before, I’d say my RHR is consistently up 10bpm to pre-jabs. I’d also say my HR goes higher in workouts, particularly at top end. It’s the only concern I have about using this long term to be honest.
Congrats! I know exactly how you’re feeling. And, for me at least, I’ve stayed binge free the entire time I’ve been on Tirzepatide so it doesn’t go away. Liberating.
For sure, the goal should be having an appropriate diet that supports health and wellbeing, and for some GLP’s / GIP’s help a lot with that. My point was that similar to how anabolic steroids will cause an increase in lean muscle mass because of how it affects nutrient partitioning, nitrogen balance, etc, GLP’s cause weight loss (both fat and muscle) through hormonal and metabolic changes outside of diet. I’m not saying one should rely on that for their weight loss, but this effect does exist.
I also have changed my mind on cyclists using this drug to lose weight, at least high level cyclists that train at a high volume. Even at 15-18 hours, I find it hard to eat enough to not lose weight, period. At 25-30 hours, taking drugs that reduce hunger further would seriously impact my ability to recover and would likely lead me to a point where I can’t even train. Sure, maybe at < 10 hours / week for the casual cyclist, but not at the training volume that even somewhat serious athletes are doing.
Yeah, the HR stuff is the only thing that worries me long term too. But as my physical therapist pointed out - all it has done is raise my HR from borderline low to normal… so maybe it isn’t that bad GLP 1 does have receptors on the AV node in the heart so that could be why - and the studies about it helping with heart failure are reassuring I suppose…
I’m just getting back into hard training. Have you tried any high end stuff?
That’s what has me concerned about the societal ‘need’ for this drug. I know a bit about drug trials and also the lack of follow-on research, the dangers of some of these wonder cures is so great… Even the basic drug clinical testing is riddled with problems.
I’m ‘fat’, yeah between depression and surgeries and ‘life’, I have a 30+ BMI, and find getting off the bullshit I’m feeding myself hard to do, but am so grateful that my fam doc hasn’t been pushing the needle. But neither has my wife’s doc. Both seem to be really hesitant/resistant to push us into that mess. Some might be due to availability issues, but I think they might also be looking at the research and the sudden explosion of these meds as a disturbing fad that will come with a larger cost down the road. But who knows. Meanwhile the disease machine keeps pumping out new ways to treat manufactured diseases for more and more profit. Ride on…
Not looking to start a war here… just noticing the dichotomy in the response to these drugs (they’ll kill you! don’t take them! they’ve only been around 20 years!) vs the injection that came out 3 years ago over which some of us lost our jobs.
I’m glad your doctor isn’t pushing this on you. They shouldn’t. It is your body. They are there to make suggestions, hear your concerns, offer their interpretation of the literature that perhaps you don’t have the time to read, their clinical experience, etc. Not on them to make decisions for you. That is for ED docs when you are coding - otherwise the choice should be yours.
Not looking to start a war here… just noticing the dichotomy in the response to these drugs (they’ll kill you! don’t take them! they’ve only been around 20 years!) vs the injection that came out 3 years ago over which some of us lost our jobs.
I’m glad your doctor isn’t pushing this on you. They shouldn’t. It is your body. They are there to make suggestions, hear your concerns, offer their interpretation of the literature that perhaps you don’t have the time to read, their clinical experience, etc. Not on them to make decisions for you. That is for ED docs when you are coding - otherwise the choice should be yours.
Well, yes and no. I’ve been ‘marketed’ by many physicians over my career as a human: Getting ‘the new hotness’ shoved into my hand, or been given a prescription for it and a pat on the head. Having them not shove us out the door with the new hotness is kind of unusual.
And, ‘technically’ you lose your choice only when you arrive unconscious, where if you can say ‘NO CODE!!’ before you pass out, you can direct the ‘ED docs’ to stop their heroic quest to save you. (One physician joked about ‘consent’ by saying that if you look deranged and ‘of questionable mental state’ on arrival and declare that you want to be saved, and a family member comes in and declares you a no code, it can complicate things. It might actually be their word over yours. (Depending on state and/or locality, whether they believe them, the hospital lawyer’s bravery, and any paper they might have to back them up))
GLP 1 does have receptors on the AV node in the heart so that could be why - and the studies about it helping with heart failure are reassuring I suppose…