How to Make GLP-1’s Work Better: An Exercise Professional’s Guide

TL;DR – How to Make GLP-1’s Work Better

• Objective: to provide you with effective strategies on how to make GLP-1’s work better for your health
• GLP-1 medications are genuinely effective for weight loss and metabolic health — but they’re a tool, not a fix.
• How well they work for you depends on why you’re using one and what you’re doing alongside it. It’s not just the medication itself.
• The two biggest risks: losing muscle mass and staying nutritionally poor while eating less.
• Pairing a GLP-1 with resistance training, real nutrition, and honest reflection on your relationship with food matters more than the drug alone.
• Start small — use “Minimum Viable Progressions” (tiny, sustainable changes) in nutrition, exercise, and mindset. This is a sound idea whether or not you are using a GLP-1 medication.
• Bottom line: only you can decide if and how to use one. The goal is to make it work for your long-term health, not the other way around.

Introduction

GLP-1 medications might be the most talked-about — and most misunderstood — tool in health and fitness right now. If you’re already using one, or considering it, the real question isn’t just whether they work. It’s how to make GLP-1’s work better for your specific body, goals, and lifestyle. In this post, I break down the most well-established, holistic ways to use GLP-1 medications. Using them as I describe here will support a healthy, sustainable, and enjoyable life.

What follows is a mix of well-known, research-backed information about GLP-1 drugs, combined with my own approach. As a health and fitness professional to help people feel, function, look, and live better. And, in this case, to get more out of their GLP-1 experience than the medication alone can offer.

I hope you find this helpful.

This blog was adapted from a podcast of the same name. You can check it out on Spotify or watch it on YouTube below.

The Controversy Over GLP-1s

In the health and fitness world, GLP-1 usage is a genuine flashpoint.

On one side, there’s a camp that believes GLP-1s aren’t necessary. That they’re a substitute for the hard work required to reach your goals, or even a form of “cheating.”

On the other side, an equally passionate group argues that GLP-1 usage should be a first-line approach to weight loss. That there’s no wrong way to use these drugs and that nearly everyone would benefit from being on some dose.

The Truth Is in the Middle

As with most things, the truth about GLP-1 use sits somewhere between the extremes. The right answer for you — depends on the particulars of your health status, lifestyle, responsibilities, and goals. How effective GLP-1s are for you is also shaped by your worldview and how you relate to your own body.

My Professional View on GLP-1 Usage

I think zealots on both sides are doing people a disservice with their messaging.

The “there’s a pill for that” crowd does a disservice by denying your agency to improve your health through effort. These are professionals and advocates who’d have you externalize every health issue into a medication or medical procedure.

Alternatively, those who call GLP-1’s unnecessary, cheating, or worse are insisting that their worldview and life experience are the truth. And that you’re wrong for not adopting it.

I have my own biases, just like anyone else. But as a professional in the health space, I believe my foremost responsibility is to set those biases aside. Instead, I must look at the evidence:

• What research shows
• What experts in the field say
• Most importantly, what I see in my clients’ experiences as we work through their health and exercise processes together.

What We Seem to Know About GLP-1s So Far

Here’s what the current evidence and experience seem to tell us:

• They’re extremely effective at suppressing appetite. This helps people eat in a caloric deficit (consuming less energy than they expend. Through this mechanism, GLP-1’s are excellent tools for weight loss and for managing metabolic issues like Type II diabetes.
• This is measurably changing obesity rates in the parts of the world where the problem is most prevalent. In other words, largely wealthy, Western countries. This is worth a pause. Obesity shows up differently depending on whether it’s tied to wealth or to poverty. That distinction matters for how we think about solutions.
• These compounds appear to be the most effective weight-loss tool discovered to date.
• There is growing evidence that they may influence impulse control and help curb addictive behaviours more broadly. This includes drug and alcohol use and gambling.
• There’s even early, budding evidence of a possible preventative effect on dementia. My hunch is that this would simply be an extension of the other benefits, but that remains to be seen.
• Some emerging research suggests GLP-1s could play a role in cancer prevention.

GLP-1’s are clearly excellent tools to help prevent obesity, food-related addictive-like behaviours, and metabolic disorders like Type II diabetes. That matters because obesity is linked to an increased risk of other prevalent chronic diseases. Namely: cancer, dementia/Alzheimer’s, and metabolic disease.

The Other Side of GLP-1s

GLP-1s aren’t free of downsides, and it’s worth being honest about them. They are not free of side effects. I won’t go deep into these. They don’t necessarily have to deter you from trying them. And your physician will walk you through them in detail if you decide to pursue treatment.

Do you have the guts? (Haha)

The most commonly reported side effect seems to be gut and digestive irritation. For some people, this side effect makes GLP-1s unusable. That raises an important question about your broader health and weight-loss process — one we’ll come back to.

Most people who start on a GLP-1 drug will experience some gut irritation at first. The question becomes more about the severity of irritation and how long it persists.

Complex vs Complicated

Some clients have told me GLP-1 use has left them feeling listless and dulled the joy they’d normally get from a celebratory meal on a special occasion. That has to be weighed against the drug’s effectiveness in helping you reach your goals. Weighing it requires making a complex decision, not a complicated one. Those aren’t the same thing.

Using the drug is not complicated by nature. You take it, you eat less, and through that mechanism weight is lost.

The complexity of using it is more about the subjective aspects of your experience. Are you willing to lose a degree or total joy around the food and experiences you love the most? Maybe that is a necessary part of your process. It could also be one you never anticipated.

GLP-1 Usage and Better Nutrition

Because GLP-1’s are so effective at suppressing hunger and food intake, a few realities need to be front of mind.

First, food intake is about more than calories.

Nutrition is a far more intricate subject than simply “how much?”. This is essential to how our approach to Nutrition Coaching at Striation 6 differs from a pure calorie-counting mindset.

If your food intake lacks full, optimal nutrition, restricting it further might leave you less nourished than before. Early on, there may be real benefits as unwanted weight comes off. But the law of diminishing returns eventually kicks in, and you may end up less healthy or with a lesser quality of life than before.

Another major concern with undereating and losing weight is muscle loss. That’s not just an aesthetic issue — it’s a legitimate health concern, especially if any of the following apply to you:

• You’re over 40 (this is roughly when age-related muscle loss accelerates)
• You have no history of resistance training and may already be under-muscled
• You have health conditions or take medications that can also contribute to muscle loss

If any of that sounds like you, don’t panic — worrying about it won’t help. My point isn’t to alarm you; it’s that solutions exist, and they don’t have to be complicated or expensive. At Striation 6, we work with a lot of people navigating exactly this. If you’re listening to the podcast episode, check the show description for how we can help.

Food intake is about more than just calories. You deserve to be fully nourished to fuel your highest possible quality of life.

Tools: The Hammer Analogy

Let’s talk about tools — because GLP-1 drugs are tools.

I find it useful to think of the various inputs into a health and exercise process simply as tools. This includes specific pieces of equipment, foods, medications, and more. Framing them this way helps me make more detached, rational professional decisions about them for a given person’s process.

Whenever you’re evaluating any tool — literal or metaphorical — there are four things worth considering:

1. The effectiveness of the tool itself
2. The qualifications of the user
3. The appropriateness of the tool for a given situation (including the possibility of misuse)
4. The limitations of the tool

These often overlap. Let’s use a hammer as a simple example.

• A hammer is a great tool for putting nails into wood — and for correcting mistakes made along the way. (There are other effective off-label uses too, but that’s not the point here.)
• Arguably, you don’t need rigorous qualifications to use a hammer — though a construction professional’s skill with one far exceeds mine.
• If the job is putting nails into wood, a hammer is among the best and most appropriate tools for it. A nail gun might be more effective, but a hammer still gets the job done. And for some jobs, a nail gun would be overkill or irrelevant.
• A hammer can also be misused — even to cause harm to another person. That’s an inappropriate use of the tool, even though it might technically be “effective.”
• A hammer can be used as a makeshift garden shovel. Every gardener reading that just winced — and rightly so. It might “work” in a pinch. But it’s a poor fit for the job, which makes it an inappropriate tool in that context.

Using GLP-1s as a Tool

Let’s run GLP-1s through that same filter. A few disclosures first:

• I’m not a doctor, and none of this constitutes medical advice.
• I’m approaching this purely from wanting the best possible outcomes and a healthy relationship with your body for you. I’m not judging you. My job as an exercise professional is to meet you where you are and make decisions together.
• I also have my own ongoing personal experience with the psychology, physiology, and social dynamics of food and eating. So there’s real lived perspective behind this, even though I’ve never personally used GLP-1’s.

Effectiveness

There’s not much to debate here. Many experts consider GLP-1’s the most effective weight-loss tool ever developed, and huge numbers of people are seeing dramatic health improvements. Detached from any individual case, their overall effectiveness is undeniable. The real questions worth sitting with are: Why are you using — or wanting to use — a GLP-1? What problem are you actually trying to solve?

If your weight challenge is a straightforward physiological matter, then taking a GLP-1 is no different than someone with high blood pressure taking relevant medication. But there’s a good chance that at least part of your relationship with food has an emotional or psychological component. In other words, it’s not as straightforward as taking in fewer calories. Eating less food might be a good start, but it isn’t a complete solution for most people.

That’s where things get more complex. A GLP-1 might solve the physical weight issue in part. However, it is unlikely to resolve the underlying drive toward overconsumption or poor food choices on its own. Johann Hari’s book Magic Pill, which explores GLP-1 drugs, touches on a similar idea. For some people, the medication simply results in eating less of the “bad” food. It does not address what was driving the behaviour towards that food in the first place.

Qualifications

You shouldn’t be using GLP-1s without medical supervision. Grey-market peptides of any kind are never worth the risk.

The (In)Appropriateness and Limitations of GLP-1s

This is the section that might get me in trouble with some readers. Please hear me out. Only you can make the final call about your own health.

As an exercise professional, my job is to meet you where you’re at and help you as best I can. I will refer you elsewhere if I cannot help. Reading the next part might touch a nerve for you. Please know it comes from a place of wanting you to feel, function, look, and live your best.

In my view, GLP-1 use can be inappropriate — or simply suboptimal — in a few situations:

1. When it leads to unhealthily low weight. This is my biggest concern. I know we’re not supposed to comment on other people’s bodies. However, the level of thinness I’ve seen in some GLP-1 users points to a distorted self-view. Recent, high-profile examples of this are, in my opinion, genuinely harmful. Being overweight and being underweight both carry real health risks. This is not about aesthetics. It is a real health and safety concern.

2. When someone isn’t ready for them and there’s no immediate health threat. This is where I risk sounding judgmental, which is not my intention. If you fall into this category and come to me for Nutrition Coaching, Muscle System work, or personal training, I’ll meet you with openness and zero judgment. I’m not saying you’re wrong for using GLP-1s under these circumstances. I will always do what I can to help you achieve your healthiest, best life. If you are rightly wondering what being “ready” to make the most of a GLP-1 means, see below.

Full GLP-1 Readiness

In my view, you are fully ready to make the most of GLP-1 drugs if you are also willing to do the following things.

Progress your nutrition toward something more nourishing.

If your diet is calorie-abundant but nutritionally poor, restricting those calories will help you lose weight — but you’ll still be malnourished. As Dr. Jacqueline Cooper-Lemmon pointed out when I interviewed her, you might actually end up more malnourished as a result. Non-nourishing diets tend to be low in protein, vitamins and minerals, fiber, and water. This often shows up as heavy reliance on fast food or processed food. It can also manifest as an “extreme” diet pursued for weight loss rather than a specific health condition, like an autoimmune issue. Some examples of extreme approaches would include eating entirely raw vegan or carnivore. It might also include extreme versions of time restricted eating, such the One Meal A Day plan. While these diets can have specific physiological benefits, pursuing them for weight loss is not necessary.

Engage in progressive, regular exercise, particularly resistance training.

This is one of the most reliable ways to get more out of your GLP-1. Some, including me, would even say it is the most essential component to making the most of your GLP-1 usage. There’s been a lot of talk about muscle wasting with GLP-1 use. However, this can happen with any successful calorie-restriction strategy. We’re just seeing it more with GLP-1s because they’re so effective at reducing food intake. Call it the other edge of that sword.

Two client stories illustrate what’s possible when resistance training and nutrition are prioritized:

A male client in his late sixties recently lost forty pounds through daily walking, resistance training with me three times a week, and cleaning up his diet. Once he was about twenty pounds in, we started tracking body composition. Over his final twenty pounds of weight loss, he lost essentially zero muscle mass — a genuinely impressive outcome, especially given his age and an existing neuromuscular condition.

A female client in her early seventies came to me for Nutrition Coaching wanting to reduce inflammation, improve energy, and build strength and muscle. “If I lost a few pounds, that would be great, but I don’t really have much weight to lose,” she told me — and she was right. Alongside Nutrition Coaching, she kept up her 3–4x/week ISOPHIT 30inThirty classes and regular neighborhood walks. Over three months, she released 10 pounds — only 0.1 pounds of which was muscle.

Here is the clincher with these two examples: neither of these clients used a GLP-1.

I share this point not to dismiss the drugs, but to illustrate that you may not need them to get results. These were not extreme protocols. They were realistic, minimum-effective-dose approaches to good nutrition and progressive exercise. You might need a process that starts even smaller than these — and that’s fine. Any progression in effort is still progress.

Address the deeper “why” behind your drive to use a GLP-1.

This often starts with your relationship with food and eating. I’ve personally struggled with this, so if that’s you too, I’m right there with you. Here are a few questions worth your consideration:

1. If you tend to overeat, what’s actually driving that behavior?
2. Have you given a genuine effort to releasing unwanted weight without a GLP-1?

This is an ongoing process without a single, simple answer. But if you’ve never explored it, there’s a good chance something in your decision-making around food or in how you see yourself, is still unaddressed.

You, and Using GLP-1’s “Inappropriately”

If any of these apply to you, it’s possible that using a GLP-1 could do you more of a disservice. To be clear — as always, my job is to meet you where you’re at. This is not about me or my opinions of appropriateness regarding your use of GLP-1’s. It is about you getting healthy in a way that fits your goals and your vision of your best self.

Regarding that potential disservice, it tends to show up in two ways.

First, if you do not change your exercise, nutrition, or your food psychology, you are wholly externalizing an internal issue. With that said, given what we know about GLP-1s, using one might expand your bandwidth to consider those things. And some early weight loss can be genuinely motivating. So, there may still be a case to say that trying GLP-1’s under these circumstances leads to holistically positive results.

Second, there’s always a chance a GLP-1 simply will not deliver YOU positive results. For example, it might help you eat less and lose weight, but leave “food noise” fully intact in your head. This happened to one of my personal training clients.

Or the side effects might be severe enough that using the drug is not sustainable. If that happens, the real question becomes: what would you do next? Give up on your health, or look for another solution?

How to Make GLP-1’s Work Better

Now that I’ve laid out my perspective, I want to offer some actual solutions to the problems I’ve raised.

As I have said, my goal is to meet you where you are at. Whether that is through this blog or as a client at Striation 6, I have one mission:

To help you feel, function, look and live your best.

Finding Your Minimum Viable Progression (MVP)

When it comes to progressing your exercise, nutrition, and mindset around weight and food, step one is finding your Minimum Viable Progression.

The biggest mistake people make when starting a health journey is trying to overhaul everything at once. Ie. You try to do it “perfectly” on all fronts, and — unsurprisingly — fail. A few people do succeed with this, and if that’s genuinely you, go for it. But if the idea of starting tomorrow with a raw vegan diet, daily 10K runs, an hour of meditation, journaling, a therapy or ChatGPT session, greens powder, and a continuing-education course — all before 6 a.m. — makes you laugh, wince, or roll your eyes, then don’t do that to yourself. By the way, no shame to anyone who practices some or all of that routine. Good on you if you practice and are seeing progress.

A Progressive Problem-Solving Approach

Here’s a different approach — one far more likely to help you make real, sustainable progress. I call it:

Minimum Viable Progression: the smallest meaningful positive change you can make to your health process that is sustainable, affordable, appreciated, and — ideally — enjoyable.

I frame exercise and health as progressive, process-oriented, problem-solving models. This is a concept I picked up from one of my teachers, Greg Mack, of the Muscle System Specialist program. This MVP framework deserves its own full episode down the road. For now, let’s apply it specifically to using GLP-1s effectively.

For each of the categories below, I have included some simple options, plus one that takes a bit more effort.

Nutrition MVPs might include:

• Start your day with a glass of water. Just place it on your nightstand the night before. Aim for at least 8 ounces or 250 millilitres of water.
• Switching from sugary to artificially sweetened beverages. Unless you have specific health concerns with artificial sweeteners, this is a much better option.
• Make sure each of your meals includes 30-50 grams of protein from a good source.

For a free guide on how to make easy changes to your nutrition, click here.

Exercise MVPs might include:

• A five-minute walk when you wake up — and maybe another on your lunch break
• Joining a gym and, for week one, simply showing up, looking around, and leaving. (I borrow this one from the book Atomic Habits)
• If you’re reasonably able-bodied, doing 10–20 air squats after each meal

Mindset and psychology MVPs might include:

• One minute of quiet breathing or meditation upon waking and/or before bed
• Reading through online forums for people navigating a similar situation
• Starting an honest conversation with a friend, a professional, or even a trusted AI tool. You could focus on weight, body image, or another issue affecting your health.

Closing Thoughts

All the noise around GLP-1 usage muddles what should be a personal, practical topic. Like a lot of issues in popular media, it can feel like you’re being pressured to “pick a side.”

The point I’ve tried to make here is this: the only side you should be on is your own. And that side should account for both who you are now and who you want to be in the future.

You might have some thinking to do, and that’s fine — you’re not locked into any one decision. As I’ve said, it is my job as an exercise professional to meet you where you are at. It is just as much your job to meet yourself where you’re at.

Once you’ve honestly acknowledged where you stand, the next step is simply deciding your next right move. That might be drinking more water, doing a few post-meal air squats, booking an appointment with your doctor to see if you’re a GLP-1 candidate, a minute of daily breathwork — or all of the above.

This is about your health. Full stop.

If this post helps even one person move a little closer to better health, fitness, or body confidence, then I’ve done my job.

FAQ: How to Make GLP-1’s Work Better

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Still wondering how to make GLP-1’s work better for you specifically? Striation 6 offers Open Gym, Personal Training, Small Group Fitness, Muscle System Specialist work, and Nutrition Coaching — reach out and let’s find your next right move together.