Newsletter 7 - Moderate Weight Loss VS Excessive Weight Loss

Moderate weight loss is healthy, but excessive weight loss is unhealthy. While losing excess weight is helpful for one’s overall health and metabolic function, excessive weight loss can be damaging and dangerous.

Currently, GLP-1 medications, and the latest addition to this group Retatrutide ( but not yet FDA approved) can cause a reduction of weight that approaches 30% of one’s prior weight. Retatrutide is a more powerful GLP-1 agent because it contains three incretin hormones that help control appetite, energy balance and metabolism; GLP-1,GIP, and Glucagon, whereas Ozempic has one incretin agent and Zepbound has two incretin agents. This excessive loss of muscle, fat and protein can damage the heart, liver, kidneys and brain. Another newly recognized problem with the GLP-1 medications is that some overweight and even normal weight individuals are using these agents to such an extreme that causes them to develop or exacerbate an eating disorder like anorexia nervosa. The power of the GLP-1s, as one anorexic patient put it, is that these agents are like an 'anorexic heroin that affects their brain chemistry’, initially helpful, but later for some eating disorder patients, they are hard to stop. Excessive weight loss makes an individual fragile, gaunt, weak and to some extent immune-compromised, and their health is harmed and not helped by such severe weight loss.

It is advised that overweight individuals consult with a responsible and experienced health care professional before and during their use of the GLP-1 medications. One suggestion that can help prevent protein and lean muscle loss and preserve their health is to eat enough high-quality protein, often recommended to be between 0.5 grams to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of their current weight per day, and depending upon the individual’s unique or specific medical and psychological condition. But remember, using GLP-1 medications is only the beginning, changing your eating behavior is key for achieving a stable, lasting and healthy weight.