Losing weight is one thing. Feeling strong enough to enjoy life is another. That is why I pay attention to research on muscle, while being careful about what an early result can tell us.
Researchers in the German National Cohort compared 58 adults with diabetes who started a GLP-1 medicine with 130 similar adults who did not. MRI scans were around 4.6 years apart.
Muscle volume fell by about 7.1% in the first group and 4.5% in the comparison group. The researchers reported a matched difference of 2.75 percentage points.
An early finding, with important limits
This is a preprint, meaning it has not yet been peer reviewed. Treatment was not assigned by chance, and other differences between groups could help explain the connection.
It does not establish a specific effect of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic, in postmenopausal women. A change in muscle volume on a scan is also not the same as a measured change in strength.
I see this as a reason to keep asking about function alongside weight, rather than a reason to predict an individual woman’s outcome.