THE ARISING · Longevity & Healthspan
Coaching Program Linked to Greater Weight Loss in GLP-1 Users
Weight loss on a GLP-1 drug is not only fat loss, and a new study asks whether exercise coaching can change what the body gives up. The fat and muscle figures below come from press coverage, and the study was run by the programme's own provider.
The work is a quasi-experimental trial, published in 2026 in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. A quasi-experimental design compares groups without randomly assigning people to them, so it is weaker evidence than a randomised trial. It enrolled 245 adults with obesity. All had started GLP-1 therapy for weight loss no more than eight weeks before the study began. Of these, 151 joined a 12-week virtual programme and 94 received usual care.
The researchers start from a known problem. According to the paper, GLP-1 receptor agonists can produce rapid weight loss, but that loss is often accompanied by a disproportionate loss of lean mass, especially early in treatment. Lean mass includes muscle. The authors note that physical activity, particularly resistance training, is the most effective behavioural strategy for boosting fat loss while preserving lean mass.
The intervention was a virtual GLP-1 lifestyle companion programme that included personalised, strength-focused physical activity coaching. The control group received usual care. Body composition was captured with home bioelectrical impedance scales. These estimate fat and muscle by passing a weak electrical current through the body. The main outcomes were differences between the groups at 12 weeks in weight, percent body fat and percent muscle mass.
The study reports that participants in the programme lost an adjusted average of 6.0% of their baseline body weight, compared with 3.3% in the control group. That is a between-group difference of 2.8%.
Those figures come from press coverage by Longevity.Technology, which says body fat percentage fell by 3.3% in the programme group versus 1.6% in the usual care group. It also says muscle mass percentage rose by 0.6% versus 0.2%. That is a gap of about 0.4 of a percentage point.
The authors conclude that personalised, virtually delivered physical activity programming "may meaningfully improve the quantity and quality of weight loss during GLP-1 therapy." The wording is cautious, and it is an association rather than proof of cause.
There are reasons for caution. According to Longevity.Technology, the work came from the programme provider Omada Health's own research initiative, so the company evaluated its own programme. The coverage also says 26% of the usual care group used another lifestyle or wellness programme during the study. Twelve weeks is short, and the coverage notes it is unclear whether the gaps persist or whether people kept any muscle they gained. Home impedance scales are convenient but are generally considered less precise than clinical imaging.
Omada's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Thomas Tsang, told Longevity.Technology: "GLP-1 care is about more than how much weight you lose. It's about the quality of the weight loss, as losing too much muscle can make it harder to keep the weight off long-term." That is the company's reading, not a finding of the study.
The longevity link is muscle. Keeping lean mass matters for physical function as people age. If many people stay on these drugs for years, how much muscle they keep may matter alongside how much weight they lose. Longer follow-up, ideally with randomised groups and more precise body composition scans, to show whether the early differences last.