The Truth About Ozempic: What Burnaby Gym Owners Actually Think

[Josko]
So, you know what the funny thing is? You had like Jim the trainer who would say like oh just go into a calorie deficit which is just a more complicated way of saying just eat less. It also assumes that it’s just willpower but it’s not as simple as that. So just to minimize weight loss into just go into a calorie deficit or just eat less is the most asinine thing that you can do. Welcome back to the power podcast.

Ozempic has been around for maybe about three years now or somewhere around there. I remember initially talking about it about three years ago and uh now it’s grown to be a massive scene in fitness, health, and weight loss. And it’s gone way past just like a drug for diabetes. And so now you have people that are of all sizes, whether you’re extremely overweight or whether you’re just trying to lean out, even bodybuilders that are trying to lean out for a competition that are using GLP1s, whether it’s Ozempic, whether it’s tirzepatide. There’s so many people that are using all of these GLP1s. And initially, I was as a trainer, as somebody who owns a gym, I was adamantly against it. You know, you’re potentially destroying your health and taking like some random drug just so you can lose weight. Like you can just lose weight by eating less, you know, like you don’t have to do that. So yeah, I’ve changed my mind, you know. I do think that there are strong benefits to taking Ozempic, semaglutide, all that stuff, all the GLP1s. That some people may want to potentially entertain, you know, like I’m not adamantly against it anymore. I think that it is something that somebody can take. And it’s funny because the fitness industry – I wasn’t alone in my thoughts, right?

[Brandon]
Oh, I was there, too.

[Josko]
Yeah. There was tons of people in fitness who were against all of these GLP1s. And so, yeah, we were no different than anybody else. But there’s still tons of people, especially trainers, especially people who are coaches and stuff coaching weight loss who are against GLP1s. In this podcast, I think that we want to maybe potentially start a conversation about it, dismantle some of the ways that people are thinking about Ozempic and all of these GLP ones and just start a conversation and say like maybe it’s not as bad as people have once thought. And I think that the reason why trainers specifically and coaches and weight loss experts are against it is because their jobs are on the line. You know, it’s like this drug removes hunger and then people lose weight. And so I think that they’re just freaking out. They think they’re going to lose their job. Whereas here at Kraken, we actually are looking at it a little bit differently. We’re thinking like, okay, well, great. You found something that can remove your hunger signals. You found something that can help you feel a little bit more full. You found something that can take away that food addictiveness, help you be a little bit more strict on the weekend. All right, so now let’s build some muscle and fix your sleep, you know? So it’s like we’re using it as a tool at Kraken as opposed to just being like, oh, no, you don’t need this drug, you know? So, yeah, we have tons of clients that are taking Ozempic and we don’t want people to feel ashamed in saying that they’re taking it. So that’s what we’re going to be talking about today.

[Brandon]
So what’s the science? GLP1s is essentially a synthetic peptide – like it’s something created to mimic a gut hormone and this gut hormone is released typically after you eat a meal. So something that would make you feel a little more satiated, make you feel a little bit more full. So these peptides, these GLP1s, they bind to that same receptor. But the crazy thing is they actually hold on and they stay on that receptor for a little bit longer, making you feel fuller for a longer portion, whether you’re eating or you’re not. So that’s going to really dampen someone’s hunger signals. And for a lot of people, like that’s the reason why they fall off their meal plan or their diet is because of that intense hunger signal for whatever reason – like we kind of alluded to, there might be other factors that have someone have a way higher signal for hunger than maybe a trainer who’s just yelling at them to use their willpower. And other ones like tirzepatide, they also will slow gastric emptying, which essentially means that your stomach and your digestive system are going to slow down about like 30 to 40%. Like the contents of your stomach will actually come out of it at a slower rate. And when that happens, you have stretch receptors in your stomach that signal to your brain to tell you again that you’re full and you don’t need to eat as much. So, there’s actually like a biological signal going to your brain which is going to stop you from going into or leaning into the habits that was previously making you binge and overeat. But there is a little bit of a trade-off that we probably need to talk about in this too – with any kind of weight loss, it’s not just going to be completely 100% fat loss for a lot of people. Like this is pretty well known in the bodybuilding community, but it might not be well known amongst the normal populace. Like when you go through a weight loss journey, you’re going to lose some fat and you’re going to lose some muscle. So, you know, the thing is, you’ve had all of these like experts chime in on Ozempic and they said like, oh, look at how much muscle all of these people are losing who are on Ozempic, but the reality is anybody who’s losing a ton of weight all of a sudden is going to be losing a ton of muscle along with the fat that they’re going to be losing. So the problem with Ozempic is people haven’t been really preparing their bodies for such insane amounts of weight loss. And this is where the trainers come in. This is where the gyms come in because if you train, that helps you maintain your muscle, right? The more you train, the more you exercise, especially weight training, the more you’re going to hold on to that muscle. So instead of just relying on just diet alone, you can also weight train and build some muscle so you can retain that muscle so that at the end of it all, it’s going to be easier for you to keep off that weight.

[Josko]
Exactly. I think I saw a study where, you know, in a typical weight loss scenario, you’re probably going to lose, let’s say, the total body weight – so let’s say you lose about 20 pounds of body weight. And because we’re doing it on a GLP1, this happens fairly quickly, too, right? Let’s say a normal body weight loss would be in a calorie deficit would be like 75% fat, 25% muscle loss. Now, I saw a study where people who were actually doing strength training while on GLP1s and eating enough protein – those people lost only about like 3% of muscle loss in comparison to let’s say a 25% who is just doing just diet, calorie deficit alone. So, that just again proves your point where you know the trainer does have a place. They even have more of a place – I would even argue – because they’re reinforcing the habits that need to happen in conjunction with this weight loss to ensure that they’re just not withering away and losing total body weight and more so lean muscle mass. So, I also do want to talk about something as well, which is how it removes the hunger signals, right? There are so many reasons why somebody might have like insane hunger signals. Whereas like you’re a trainer, you’re a fitness professional and you’re telling people like, oh, all you have to do is eat this and this and do this and this. But you could have crazy hunger signals from the way that you were raised by your family, you know, like these could be lingering mental issues that could be preventing you from losing weight. Like let’s say for example you throughout your entire life like your parents just fed you like processed food and Oreos and chips and all these hyper palatable foods. Later down the line it’s going to be harder for you to maintain a lower weight because of the hunger signals that are going to come along with that. With Ozempic you get to remove the hunger signals. Now the issue though is that even though like you lose a lot of weight and you obviously are now at your new body composition, you lost a bunch of weight, you feel a lot better and you’re like, okay, you know what? Maybe it’s time for me to get off of Ozempic. Okay, this is where the issue comes in because as soon as you come off, those hunger signals are going to come back. So it’s like do you plan on being on Ozempic for the rest of your life? And for a lot of people the answer is no. Like they don’t want to have to inject Ozempic or any kind of GLP-1 for the rest of their life. I’m sure there’s tons of people who have accepted their fate, but there’s a lot of people who don’t want to do that. So, that means that you still have to work on all of your mental health. You still have to work on your sleep. You still have to work on all these other things that are going to help your hunger signals when you are off the drug. People need to in conjunction work with the GLP1s as well as build their foundational health habits like strength training, sleep, and also like fixing the contents of their diet while they’re eating in a lower calorie state.

[Brandon]
Yeah. And as you slowly come off of it, it’s like those habits persist after you’ve come off the drug. One of the hardest parts for people when they’re losing weight is like, okay, I lost 10 lbs and then I gain it back. I lost 20 pounds and then I gained it back, right? The reason why you gained it back is because you never actually fixed all of those things that were causing you to gain weight. Like for example, your sleep, how much you’re exercising, how much muscle mass you have, what you’re eating, and all that stuff. So you still have to fix all of that – at some point you’re going to have to tackle all of those things. Like yes, the GLP1s do make it easier and it’s more motivating. So then you end up losing a bunch more weight, but at the end of it all, you’re still going to have to fix all those issues. And you’ll see this time and time again with our clients at Kraken. Like I even talk to a lot of our trainers who coach the nutrition program here. And I always say, you know, coaching nutrition goes well beyond just being like, eat this much protein, eat this much calories. Like of course, like you can get that from any app or any source on the internet. Where the real coaching comes into play is helping people get to bed on time, making sure that they’re avoiding screens, making sure they’re getting enough activity in the day, making sure they’re filling their days worth of nutrition with nutrients rather than processed foods. Because like you said, after they got to their desired body composition, it’s like these are the things that are going to help them maintain, if not continue to progress.

[Josko]
By the way, if you’re watching this thinking, I wish I had a coach like that. You can. We coach people online. You get a real dedicated Kraken coach writing your program, checking in every single week through video, all through your phone. The links in the description.

I guess if we were going to kind of put a bow on this, we can kind of talk about how trainers feel like they’re almost being displaced. The funny thing about it is when you were talking about earlier in the episode, I feel like GLP1s are kind of like AI to like desk job workers where they’re like, I’m going to be replaced because there’s AI. And so the trainers were feeling like that very much too. They’re like, I’m going to be replaced because everyone’s just going to be okay taking drugs. But I don’t know – as we kind of discussed – I would very much heavily argue that the trainer’s place is even more important. And we’ll start to see a lot of people especially with like the elderly population who yes they may lose a lot of weight but they can’t afford to lose that kind of muscle mass, right?

[Brandon]
So, I guess this begs the question then, how would you train a client who says, hey, I am on GLP1s?

[Josko]
So, you know what the funny thing is? You had like Jim the trainer who would say like oh just go into a calorie deficit – which is just a more complicated way of saying just eat less – and it also assumes that it’s just willpower, you know, that the person is just like, oh, all you have to do is just eat less and just stick to it. But it’s not as simple as that. There’s so many things that are playing into it. There’s your habits, your sleep, your exercise, there’s all those things that are playing into it. So just to minimize weight loss into just go into a calorie deficit or just eat less is the most asinine thing that you could even just recommend for somebody. So how we train somebody on Ozempic would be no different than how we train somebody who just comes in without one. It would be the exact same training. We look at the person’s lifestyle, their goals and then we make a plan for them and we’d be like cool, you’re on Ozempic. Sounds good. You still got to work on your sleep. You still got to work on what kind of diet you’re doing, what you’re eating. You still got to work on getting stronger. Sounds good, you know, not judging you at all.

[Brandon]
Well, I think the really cool thing about this is it actually allows trainers to help even more people because how many clients have you trained where they seem to be doing all the right things, right? They’re trying to work on their sleep. They’re doing like four or five workouts in the gym every week. They’re tracking their macros and everything, but they’re still having a hard time breaking through that plateau. So, if we can have something that helps them break through that plateau and then we start to again work on all those habits around it – that just allows us to get the ball rolling. That’s just going to help more people rather than us having to like shame people for a lack of willpower.

[Josko]
You know, coming from a – I’m Croatian, so food is such a big thing. And there’s tons of other cultures that can say the same thing – Mexicans can say, oh, food is massive. And Portuguese can say food is massive. And everywhere, right? Everybody everywhere always says that. The reality is, especially if you’re part of these cultures, like it is automatically harder for you to lose weight because every weekend, every month, there’s some sort of celebration. And it’s impossible to say no to grandma. It’s almost like you’re the worst person ever if you say, no grandma, I can’t eat my enchiladas. You know, you’re turning down grandma’s love. And she goes like, no, I’m trying to like lose a little bit of weight. And she’s like, but you look completely fine. She actually takes offense to it, you know. So there’s so many reasons why somebody can have a hard time with food. I’m just giving one example of why somebody might be having a hard time with overeating, right? And so it’s nice to have this help, a little bit of a boost through a drug that’s FDA approved, and you can say no to food a lot more easily. And that being said though, there are still like potential long-term side effects that you have to weigh out. Now, there’s also potential long-term side effects from being overweight. So it’s like you’re basically weighing it out. On this side there’s heart disease, diabetes, cancer risk. There’s so many things that can happen from being overweight. And then there’s also risks to taking Ozempic, right? Like I think there were some reports of people turning blind and stuff. And the funny thing is – if somebody’s been overweight for the last 20 years, let’s say obese, right? Obese for the last 20 years. They started taking Ozempic and they lost 50 lbs and then now they got some issue. Can you confidently say that it was the Ozempic, you know, or was it the fact that they were obese for 20 years?

[Brandon]
And I think there’s just a recency bias or like an unknown factor, but we definitely know the factor of being overweight and obese. And we can already tell with long-term studies of how damaging that is to not only the person but also the public health sector, right? If we go back to the United States, they’re like 40% of their populace is obese and overweight, maybe even more than that. And the amount of money that the government has to pour into helping people with heart issues, cancer issues, diabetes – it’s crazy. And so if you can relieve not only the pressure on yourself but also the entire populace too, it leaves room for everyone to grow. So if you think about it, this podcast basically highlighted all the things that we’ve been talking about over the last like 16 or 17 episodes that we’ve done. You still got to sleep, you still got to eat well. And yes, you have this drug that’s giving you a little bit of help, but you still have to work on all these other things. And so that’s why training and fitness and gyms are never going to die.