Health
Ozempic and Wegovy could lead to muscle loss, experts say, but prevention is possible
Ozempic and Wegovy could help you shed unwanted pounds and keep obesity-related disease at bay — but you could lose some muscle in the process, some experts warn.
Rapid weight loss can result in a condition called sarcopenia, defined as “the gradual loss of muscle mass, strength and function,” according to Healthline — but there are steps you can take to reduce the risk while still maintaining a healthy weight.
Semaglutide medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy cause weight loss through a combination of mechanisms, including delayed gastric emptying and the GLP1 hormones that signal the stomach to feel full, noted Andrew Y. Sun, M.D., a board-certified urologist and chief medical advisor for Marius Pharmaceuticals in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas.
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“Both of these result in a caloric restriction that causes weight loss,” he told Fox News Digital.
When people shed pounds, it results in a combination of both fat loss and muscle loss.
“In the clinical studies for drugs in the GLP1 class, the data indicated that 40% to 50% of the weight loss comes from lean muscle mass instead of fat,” Sun said. “When you lose muscle mass, your resting metabolic rate, or the rate the body burns calories, also declines.”
Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurologist and longevity expert, shared strategies for preserving muscle mass while taking weight-loss medications. “Our muscle is our resilience,” he said. (Dr. Brett Osborn)
While all patients are susceptible to the loss in muscle mass, women tend to lose more than men, noted Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurologist, longevity expert and bodybuilder.
“One of the primary factors has to do with circulating testosterone levels,” he told Fox News Digital.
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“Women have lower levels naturally and have lesser muscle mass at base level. In a caloric deficit, testosterone levels further decrease, and there is potential for significant muscle loss (sarcopenia). This similarly occurs in the aged population.”
‘More susceptible to falls’
The health effects of losing muscle can be more dangerous for certain patients than others, Sun noted.
“When you lose muscle or when you have insufficient amounts of muscle tissue, you are more susceptible to falls and fractures,” he warned.
Preventing muscle loss starts with heightened surveillance from both the patient and the physician, a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“It makes recovery from illness and injury more difficult and, in general, leads to frailty and a more sedentary lifestyle that can, in extreme cases, increase the likelihood of death.”
Older patients are particularly at risk, he said, but all adults start losing muscle mass as a natural part of the aging process.
“This begins as early as your 30s and 40s, picking up significantly as adults approach 65,” Sun said. “Some suggest that adults may lose up to 8% of muscle mass each decade.”
“When you lose muscle or when you have insufficient amounts of muscle tissue, you are more susceptible to falls and fractures.”
Then, “when you take a semaglutide drug like Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, you’re significantly increasing this muscle loss — and that can be concerning if you’re an at-risk patient.”
Osborn emphasized the importance of muscle as a protector from disease.
“Our muscle is our resilience,” he said. “In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, muscle tissue serves as a protein depot from which antibodies form, allowing us to fend off pathogens.”
One way to stimulate appetite is through strength training, which also helps to temper muscle loss. “Muscle is critical to your health,” said one physician. (iStock)
Muscle also acts as a “glucose filter,” he noted, which helps to regulate blood sugar and reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
“The less muscle you have, the more susceptible you are to these diseases — so, muscle is critical to your health.”
‘Pay close attention’
People can take certain steps to counter the risk of semaglutide-related muscle loss, experts agree.
“It starts with heightened surveillance from both the patient and the physician,” Osborn told Fox News Digital.
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He recommends that physicians conduct regular body measurements of patients and adjust the medication dosage if benchmarks are not being met.
“Patients need to pay close attention to their waistlines and their muscle mass relative to their total body weight,” said Osborn. “A male’s body weight ideally should be comprised of 50% muscle and a female’s should be 45%.”
Achieving that ratio will help stave off age-related diseases such as coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s, the doctor said.
In some cases, doctors may prescribe hormone therapy to support an individual’s muscle mass. (Rory Doyle for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“It will also protect you from frailty and the associated lack of mobility that place you at a high fall risk, which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in people over the age of 50,” he said.
It’s also critical that every patient attempts to meet their prescribed daily calories, Osborn said.
“The less muscle you have, the more susceptible you are to diseases — so, muscle is critical to your health.”
“In my clinic, we shoot for a caloric intake equal to one’s sedentary basal metabolic rate, or BMR,” he said. “We allow the medication to create a slight caloric deficit to assist in weight loss, but we do not recommend that patients starve themselves, as is often seen in the media.”
One way to stimulate appetite is through strength training, Osborn noted, which also helps to temper muscle loss.
Sun agreed that patients on semaglutide therapy should adopt strength and resistance training — combined with a high-protein diet — to offset the effects of muscle loss.
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In some cases, Osborn also prescribes hormone replacement therapy to support an individual’s muscle mass.
“Using this protocol, we can maintain muscle despite Ozempic usage while driving fat loss, which is a double bonus — and truly the best of both worlds,” he said.
“In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, muscle tissue serves as a protein depot from which antibodies form, allowing us to fend off pathogens,” a doctor said. (iStock)
Looking ahead, Sun said he hopes that the next generation of weight-loss drugs will be more focused on balanced body composition rather than fat loss.
“Until then, there are circumstances where muscle loss should prompt conversations between the physician and patient about lifestyle changes and concomitant use of other drugs like testosterone to maintain muscle mass,” he added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, requesting comment on the medication’s potential to increase muscle loss.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.
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As colorectal cancer (CRC) is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50, a new report reveals some surprising shifts in the incidence of the disease.
Although rates of CRC have been declining among seniors, those 65 and under are facing a rise in diagnoses, according to a report titled Colorectal Cancer Statistics, 2026, from the American Cancer Society.
Adults 65 and younger comprise nearly half (45%) of all new colorectal cancer cases — a significant increase from 27% in 1995, states the report, which was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The disease is rising fastest among adults 20 to 49 years old, at a rate of 3% per year.
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in adults under 50. (iStock)
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. Although that age group is eligible to receive routine screenings, just 37% do so.
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The report also revealed that rectal cancer is on the rise, now accounting for about one-third (32%) of all CRC cases — an increase from 27% in the mid-2000s.
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“After decades of progress, the risk of dying from colorectal cancer is climbing in younger generations of men and women, confirming a real uptick in disease because of something we’re doing or some other exposure,” said Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, in a press release.
Among adults 50 and under, 75% of colorectal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Half of the diagnoses in that age range are made between the ages of 45 and 49. (iStock)
“We need to redouble research efforts to understand the cause, but also circumvent deaths through earlier detection by educating clinicians and the general public about symptoms and increasing screening in people 45-54 years.”
It is projected that 158,850 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed this year, and that the disease will cause 55,230 deaths, per the report.
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More than half of CRC cases can be linked to high-risk behaviors, the researchers said. Those include lack of nutrition, high alcohol consumption, smoking, lack of exercise and obesity.
“These findings further underscore that colorectal cancer is worsening among younger generations and highlight the immediate need for eligible adults to begin screening at the recommended age of 45,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society.
When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%. (iStock)
“The report also shines a light on the crucial importance of continued funding for research to help discover new therapies to treat the disease and advance patient care.”
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When the disease is caught at a local (early) stage, the five-year survival rate is 95%, the report stated.
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A new study suggests that middle-aged men may be more vulnerable to faster biological aging, potentially linked to exposure to “forever chemicals.”
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Aging, examined how perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as PFAS, could impact aging at the cellular level.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals commonly used in nonstick cookware, food packaging, water-resistant fabrics and other consumer products, the study noted.
Their chemical structure makes them highly resistant to breaking down, allowing them to accumulate in water, soil and the human body.
Chinese researchers analyzed blood samples from 326 adults enrolled in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2000.
A new study suggests that middle-aged men could face accelerated biological aging at the cellular level due to exposure to PFAS. (iStock)
The researchers measured levels of 11 PFAS compounds in participants’ blood and used DNA-based “epigenetic clocks” — tools that analyze chemical changes to DNA to estimate biological age — to determine how quickly their bodies were aging at the cellular level, the study stated.
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Two compounds, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA), were detected in 95% of participants.
Higher concentrations of those chemicals were associated with faster biological aging in men of certain age groups, but not in women.
“People should not panic.”
The compounds most strongly linked to accelerated aging were not the PFAS chemicals that typically receive the most public attention, the researchers noted.
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“The associations were strongest in adults aged 50 to 64, particularly in men,” Dr. Xiangwei Li, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the study’s corresponding author, told Fox News Digital.
“While this does not establish that PFAS cause aging, it suggests that these widely present ‘forever chemicals’ may be linked to molecular changes related to long-term health and aging.”
The study found that two of the compounds were detected in 95% of participants, and higher levels were linked to faster biological aging in men ages 50–64. (iStock)
Midlife may represent a more sensitive biological period, when the body becomes more vulnerable to age-related stressors, according to the researchers.
Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, may influence biological aging markers, potentially increasing vulnerability to environmental pollutants.
While Li said “people should not panic,” she does recommend looking for reasonable ways to reduce exposure.
That might mean checking local drinking water reports, using certified water filters designed to reduce PFAS, and limiting the use of stain- or grease-resistant products when alternatives are available.
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Meaningful reductions in PFAS exposure will likely depend on broader regulatory action and environmental cleanup efforts, Li added.
The researchers noted that midlife could be a particularly sensitive stage, when the body is more susceptible to stressors associated with aging. (iStock)
Study limitations
The researchers outlined several important limitations of the research, including that the findings show an association, but do not prove that PFAS directly causes accelerated aging.
“The study is cross-sectional, meaning exposure and aging markers were measured at the same time, so we cannot determine causality,” Li told Fox News Digital.
The study was also relatively small, limited to 326 adults age 50 or older, which means the findings may not apply to younger people or broader populations.
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Researchers measured PFAS levels using data collected between 1999 and 2000, and today’s exposure patterns may differ.
Li added that while PFAS is known to persist in the environment and the body, these results should be validated through larger, more recent studies that follow participants over time.
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