The scale is the reason this problem hides.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
It cannot tell 2 lb of fat from 2 lb of muscle, and on a GLP-1 it is going down either way. So the single number most people check every morning is the one number that cannot answer the question they should be asking, and it keeps giving them good news while the answer gets worse.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
You do not need a DXA scanner. You need four measurements, three of which cost nothing, and a baseline taken early enough to compare against.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Take the baseline now.<\/strong> Not after you have lost 20 lb. The comparison is the whole point, and a measurement with nothing to compare it to tells you almost nothing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This is the most sensitive early signal you have, and if you are following a program you are already collecting it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The protocol:<\/strong> keep the same lifts for at least eight weeks, and record the load and reps for each set at a consistent effort level. Not your maximum \u2014 maximum testing in an energy deficit is a bad trade. Use a fixed rating of perceived exertion: the weight that leaves you about three reps short of failure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it tells you:<\/strong> if the weight that leaves you three reps short is drifting down over a month, while your bodyweight is also dropping, something is going in the wrong direction. Holding your loads while losing weight means your strength relative to your size is improving<\/em>, which is the outcome you actually want.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it does not tell you:<\/strong> it is confounded by sleep, stress, fuelling on the day and technique. One bad session is a bad session. A four-week trend is data.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This is why the Preserve program keeps the same lifts for all eight weeks \u2014 goblet squat, trap bar deadlift, Romanian deadlift \u2014 and moves only the sets, reps and effort. A fixed lift turns the logbook into a measuring instrument.\r\nThe app logs every set, so the trend is already there<\/a>\r\nrather than something you have to reconstruct.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Grip is the most widely used clinical screen for low muscle strength, it takes thirty seconds, and a dynamometer costs about as much as a month of protein powder.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The protocol:<\/strong> seated, elbow at 90\u00b0, upper arm against your side. Three squeezes per hand, maximum effort, thirty seconds between. Record the best of the six. Same protocol, same time of day each time, ideally not straight after training.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The clinical cut-points<\/strong> (EWGSOP2, the European consensus definition used for probable sarcopenia). They were set for older adults; if you are younger, the change from your own baseline matters more than these numbers:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it tells you:<\/strong> crossing below those numbers, or dropping substantially from your own baseline, is a reason to talk to your clinician. It is a standard clinical screen, not a fitness metric.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it does not tell you:<\/strong> grip is a proxy. A strong grip does not prove your legs are fine, and forearm-heavy training inflates it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Lower-body function, no equipment, thirty seconds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The protocol:<\/strong> a standard chair against a wall. Arms folded across your chest \u2014 no pushing off. Stand fully upright and sit back down, five times, as fast as you safely can. Time it from “go” until you are fully upright for the fifth time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The cut-point:<\/strong> more than 15 seconds<\/strong> for five rises is the EWGSOP2 cut-point for low muscle strength. Alongside grip, it is used to flag probable sarcopenia.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it tells you:<\/strong> leg strength and power, which is the thing that decides whether you can get off the floor at 75.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it does not tell you:<\/strong> it is affected by knee and hip pain, and by practice. Do it twice at baseline and use the second one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Unfashionable, and better than it sounds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The protocol:<\/strong> front, side, back. Same spot, same light, same time of day, same minimal clothing, every four weeks. Relaxed, not flexed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it tells you:<\/strong> body composition changes that the scale is hiding in both directions. Four weeks apart they are useless; four months apart they are frequently the clearest evidence you have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What it does not tell you:<\/strong> anything on its own week to week, and nothing you should judge yourself by on a bad day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Over three months on a GLP-1, with protein and lifting in place:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Flat strength on falling bodyweight is a win.<\/strong> It means you are getting stronger relative to your size, and it is the normal outcome when the two levers are in place \u2014 not an exceptional one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Any of those, in combination with the medication, is worth a conversation with whoever prescribed it. Faster is not better in this one respect, and a dose that is driving weight off at a rate your protein intake cannot support is a thing your prescriber can adjust.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n If you are already below the grip or sit-to-stand cut-points, that is a reason to see somebody, not a reason to train harder.<\/strong> Those are clinical screening thresholds. Treat them as such.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n You will find plenty of tables saying a man should squat his bodyweight or deadlift 1.5\u00d7. Those are coaching conventions, not research, and they are close to useless for this purpose.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The reason is simple: you are changing the denominator. If you squat 100 kg at 100 kg bodyweight and then squat 95 kg at 85 kg bodyweight, every standards table says you improved, and what you want to know is whether you lost 5 kg of squat. General population norms answer a different question than the one you have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n On a GLP-1 the only benchmark that means anything is your own, taken early.<\/strong>\r\nThat is why this post has protocols and your-own-baseline comparisons in it rather than a table of what other people can lift.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Take all four measurements this week. It is about twenty minutes, once, and it is the difference between knowing what your weight loss is made of and guessing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Then read the two posts that explain what the measurements are for:\r\nhow much muscle actually comes off on a GLP-1<\/a>, and the two levers that protect it<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n1. Your working loads, at a fixed effort<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
2. Grip strength<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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\r\n \r\n<\/th>\r\n Below this is a flag<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/thead>\r\n \r\n Men<\/td>\r\n 27 kg<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n \r\n Women<\/td>\r\n 16 kg<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 3. Five-times sit-to-stand<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
4. Photographs, in the same place and the same light<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What a good trajectory looks like<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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What should worry you<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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On “strength standards” tables<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Start here<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n