The weight is coming off. That part is working. The problem nobody warned you about is that some of what you’re losing is muscle, and muscle is the thing you need to keep the weight off after you stop.
This is a training article, not a medical one. Apex Personal Fitness is a private gym in Niagara County, and its coaches are not doctors, dietitians or pharmacists. Your prescriber owns the medication, the dose, and anything to do with side effects. What a coach owns is the resistance training and the protein target that decide how much muscle survives the process.
Why Muscle Loss Happens on a GLP-1
Any rapid weight loss costs some lean mass, not just fat. On a GLP-1 the effect gets amplified by two things happening at once: you’re in a large calorie deficit, and appetite suppression makes it genuinely hard to eat enough protein to defend the muscle you have.
That matters beyond the mirror. Muscle is a big part of what you burn at rest, so losing it lowers the ceiling you’ll be maintaining against later. It’s also what gets you off the floor, up the stairs, and through a day without being wrecked.
What Actually Protects Muscle
Two things, and only two things, do most of the work: resistance training two or three times a week, and hitting a protein target you’d probably find high.
Cardio is not the answer here. Walking is good for you and worth doing, but it gives your body no reason to keep muscle it isn’t using. Lifting does. That’s the whole mechanism.
The point is not to lose slower. It’s to change what you lose.
The Protein Problem, and How Anthony Handles It
Telling somebody with a suppressed appetite to eat 160 grams of protein tomorrow is how you get a client who quits in a week. Anthony’s approach predates GLP-1s and happens to be exactly right for them.
I taper them up. If I want them at two hundred grams and they’re at a hundred and twenty now, we increase slowly, week by week or every other week, so we get there in a reasonable amount of time without forcing them to jump right in.
Anthony Kukovica, owner and head coach at Apex Personal Fitness, coaching since 2013
Tapering is more important on a GLP-1 than off one, because the constraint isn’t willpower, it’s capacity. Adding 15 grams a week to a target you can actually finish beats a number you abandon on day three. In practice that usually means protein first at every meal, and drinks doing some of the lifting when solid food is unappealing.
The other half is not fearing the rest of your plate.
One of the biggest nutrition myths is “if I eat carbs I’ll be fat”, thinking you can never eat carbs and you have to only eat chicken, broccoli and brown rice. It’s just not true. I come from the standpoint that somebody can eat anything. It’s a matter of working it into your macros for the day, and what you eat around that to hit those numbers.
Anthony Kukovica, owner and head coach at Apex Personal Fitness, coaching since 2013
On a limited appetite, carbs are also what makes a lifting session possible. Cutting them while eating 900 calories a day is how people end up too flat to train, which is the opposite of what you want.
FREE CONSULTATION
Get the Lifting Half Written Properly
Bring your prescriber’s guidance to a free consultation in Niagara Falls or Youngstown and the training gets built around it. Your medication stays with your doctor. The program is our job.
What the Training Should Look Like
Two or three full body resistance sessions a week, non consecutive days. Compound movements first, machines to add volume without the balance demand, and honest logging so you can see the load moving. The same structure works whether or not there’s a medication involved, and it’s laid out in full in building muscle after 50.
Expect the sessions to feel harder than the weight suggests. In a deficit that large, recovery is slower and energy is inconsistent, so a good week and a bad week can look very different. That’s normal and not a reason to change the program.
Judge progress on the working weight, not the scale. The scale is already moving for reasons that have nothing to do with your training. If your leg press is climbing while the scale falls, the plan is doing exactly what it should.
Plan for the Part After the Medication
This is the part worth thinking about now rather than later. Appetite comes back. If you spent that time building a training habit and holding onto muscle, you come out of it with a higher maintenance ceiling and a routine already in place.
If you spent it only losing weight, you arrive at the end lighter, weaker, and back to negotiating with a normal appetite. That’s the version people describe as the weight coming straight back.
Anthony’s frequency rule is the useful anchor: never more than two days without exercise, which puts you at three sessions a week. Building that while the weight is coming off easily is the cheapest time to build it, and a $45 membership covers the days you train on your own.
Common Questions
Do Apex coaches prescribe or manage GLP-1 medication?
No. Apex is a gym. Nobody here prescribes, sources, doses or adjusts medication, and nobody advises on side effects. That’s your prescriber’s job and it stays there.
Can I lift if I’m feeling nauseated?
Ask your doctor about symptoms. On the training side, a shorter and lighter session is usually better than skipping entirely, and 20 minutes counts. Tell your coach how you’re feeling that day so the session gets adjusted rather than pushed.
How much protein should I be eating?
It depends on your weight and your starting point, which is why the number gets set at a consultation rather than on a web page. What’s consistent is the method: set a real target and taper up to it.
Is 30 minutes enough?
For preserving muscle, yes, if it’s resistance training and the load progresses. A 30 minute session is $35 at Apex and packages run from 4 to 20 sessions, so three a week beats one heroic hour. Full pricing is on the services page.
Train at Apex. No crowds, no contracts.
Private 24/7 gyms in Niagara Falls and Youngstown. Coaching from $35 for 30 minutes, membership $45 a month, first consultation free. If you want the fat loss to stick, the lifting is the half that makes it stick.
Questions? Call 716-248-0250.
About the Author
Anthony Kukovica, NCSF Certified Personal Trainer, B.S. Health Sciences, Founder of Apex Personal Fitness
Anthony opened Apex on October 1, 2013 and has coached in Niagara County ever since, including clients who have lost more than 100 pounds. He is a personal trainer, not a medical provider, and defers anything clinical to the client’s own physician. Apex has two locations, 2416 Military Rd in Niagara Falls and 445 Main St in Youngstown.