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Welcome to Running: A FEVER. My name is Michael Davis, and this is a show about fitness, diet, and medicine. My goal is to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the very end. It's all about livin' long and lovin' life. Today's topic is one a lot of people are quietly living through right now: weight-loss shots — the GLP-1 medications — and what they may be doing to your muscle. You've heard the brand names. Ozempic. Wegovy. Mounjaro. Zepbound. Semaglutide. Tirzepatide. Millions of Americans are on them, and for good reason: they can drop blood sugar and body weight in a way diet alone often can't. I'm not here to bash the drugs. I'm here because the other half of the story is finally catching up — the muscle half. What is a GLP-1 drug, in plain English? These medicines mimic hormones that help regulate appetite and blood sugar. You feel fuller. You eat less. Weight comes off. That part works. Here's the catch. When you lose weight fast on a big calorie cut — whether it's from a shot, surgery, or a crash diet — you don't only lose fat. You lose lean mass too. Lean mass includes muscle. Studies and clinical summaries commonly put that lean-mass share somewhere around a quarter to as much as about forty percent of the weight lost if you don't specifically protect muscle. That means the scale can look like a victory while your strength, metabolism, and long-term resilience quietly take a hit. And it's not just the scale composition. At ENDO 2026 (the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society), researchers using wearable tracker data reported that adults on GLP-1 medications actually moved less after starting treatment — fewer steps, less moderate-to-vigorous activity. A lot of people assume that once the pounds come off, you'll naturally get more active. This study said: not so fast. Activity went down, and that matters because activity — especially resistance training — is one of the main ways you keep muscle while the weight falls. Why should you care if you're "only" losing a little muscle? Muscle is not vanity. Muscle helps you get out of a chair, climb stairs, catch yourself when you trip, and keep your metabolism from crashing. Older adults already fight sarcopenia — age-related muscle loss. Pile rapid weight loss on top of that without a plan, and you're trading one problem for another. So what do the people who study this recommend? 1. Protein. Guidance that keeps showing up for adults on GLP-1 therapy during active weight loss is about 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day — if your kidneys are healthy and your doctor agrees. Spread it across meals. Think roughly 20 to 40 grams per eating occasion when you can. When appetite is crushed, a protein shake isn't cheating — it's strategy. 2. Resistance training. Not endless cardio. Lifting, bands, machines, bodyweight — two to three sessions a week with progressive overload. Compound moves: squats, hinges, presses, rows. Cardio still matters for the heart. Strength work matters for the meat on your bones. 3. Don't race the dose. Some clinicians are advising slower escalation when weight is falling extremely fast, and monitoring how you feel — energy, strength, dizziness, vomiting. Rapid loss plus lots of vomiting is a red flag to call your doctor. 4. Watch the micronutrients. When you barely eat, vitamins can fall behind. Thiamine — vitamin B1 — has been in the news with rare but serious neurological problems tied to prolonged vomiting and rapid loss on these drugs. I'm not saying panic. I'm saying: if you're sick for weeks, get medical help and ask about nutrition, not just the next dose. 5. Creatine and recovery tools. Creatine monohydrate has strong evidence for strength and is showing up in a lot of "protect the muscle" conversations around GLP-1 users. Sleep and recovery still count. Talk to your clinician before adding supplements, especially if you have kidney disease. Personally, I care about living long and loving life — strong enough to keep walking trails, lifting groceries, and not becoming fragile at 70 or 80. If a medicine helps your weight and blood sugar, fantastic. Pair it with a plan that keeps the muscle that makes the rest of life possible. Bottom line: GLP-1 drugs can be powerful tools. They are not a complete program by themselves. Protein plus resistance training is the one-two punch that keeps the weight loss from eating your strength. Talk with your doctor, especially before changing dose, diet, or supplements. Until next time, if you've got the fever, keep it burning, and if you don't, catch the fever, and I will talk to you next time on Running: A FEVER. References: https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2026/maharjan-press-release-endo-2026 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12661421/ https://www.ccjm.org/page/aace-2026/wernicke-encephalopathy https://nypost.com/2026/09/11/health/2-popular-glp-1-drugs-linked-to-rare-life-threatening-brain-disorder/ https://nypost.com/2026/09/11/health/doing-3-minutes-of-key-exercise-beats-90-mins-of-cardio-study/ Show notes and references: http://RunningAFEVER.com/483 Subscribe / follow: • Website: http://RunningAFEVER.com • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@runningafever • Apple Podcasts / Spotify: search Running: A FEVER

What cataracts are, how they're diagnosed, and what surgery and IOLs actually involve — plus Michael's own cataract surgery after years of steroid drops following a cornea transplant, and why clear vision matters on the trail.

After getting sick for weeks at a stretch a couple times a year, Michael goes through a sinus CT and an ENT visit for recurrent sinusitis. The daily regimen: NeilMed saline rinse, Flonase, and Astelin — and a reminder that long recoveries may have a fixable cause.

Back on the Lake Fayetteville Trail on a mid-summer day (~93°). After weeks mostly off exercise, Michael walks and talks through getting back toward flying  private pilot license, FAA medicals, and sport-pilot rules that lean on a driver's license. Also: how aviation and GPS have changed since the 90s, a word on community and hope for mankind, and a one-mile day that still counts.

What is the prostate, what does it do, and what should men know about prostate cancer, BPH (enlarged prostate), and prostatitis? Treatments from lifestyle to meds to TURP. Full post: http://RunningAFEVER.com/479

Restless leg syndrome can make your legs (and sleep) miserable — crawling, creeping, electric feelings that only ease when you move. What it is, risk factors, and what actually helps. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/478

Today we're back at Kessler Mountain Regional Park — the Razorback Greenway is still closed after months of work, so Plan B is the Saddle Up Trail through the woods in southwest Fayetteville. It's a green (easy) multi-use trail with a little mud after the rain, maintained in part by Ozark Off-Road Cyclists. Along the way: medical department (echocardiogram and a coronary calcium score), hydration in a 60° hoodie, and a forest-communities plaque on oakhickory habitat.   Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/477

Lately, I've been having headaches. Every day. I suspect it may be related to my recent sinus infection, but I'm not sure. So I thought I would dig into the topic and see what I could find out. I was surprised to find that there are many types of headaches. So I suppose the first thing I should do is try to classify mine and then go from there to remedies. My headaches have been occurring every day, starting mid-morning. I'm usually able to treat them with pain relievers, but it takes more than the usual dose, for example, four aspirin and four ibuprofen. The pain is located in the upper part of the sides of my head and cheekbones. I just started documenting the occurrence, so only a couple of days so far, but I will continue to document, as that seems to be a factor in diagnosis. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/476

If you look at the top ten list of the longest-lived people of all time, you'll notice that three of them are from Japan, more than any other country represented. The second oldest woman of all time was Japanese, Kane Tanaka, over 119 years old when she died. The top ten overall are all women, of course, but if you look at the top 10 oldest men, you'll also see Japan on there multiple times. Two of them are Japanese, including the oldest man ever, Jiroemon Kimura, at 116. The United States is well-represented on the men's list, with three of the top 10, but other than that, no other country besides Japan has more than one on either list. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/475

So here it is, the episode on pickles. We're going to go through the definition of a pickle, the history of pickles, the health and diet aspects of it, production, varieties, I don't know, I just don't know. We're going pickle crazy today, and I don't care if they take me away in a straight jacket; I'm going to talk about pickles! Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/4741

We're just going to walk around. The last time I was here on the first aborted run, it was a lot colder, and I was less inclined to just kind of cruise around here. But I wasn't going to achieve my objective. But today, well, it's a very nice day here at Mount Kessler Regional Park. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/473

I do have an upcoming series on cycling in Northwest Arkansas, so I will probably be thinking seriously about getting into the sport around that time. But perhaps sooner, I don't know. I suppose I could try it at any time. But it's interesting to me. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/472

It's all about living long and loving life. That's what it's about. I'm hoping to go for two hours today. Two hours. Got to really ramp it up with this new attitude because it's starting to pork out and starting to be really kind of annoyed at it. So gotta get some movement in. Gotta keep on moving, don't stop. Yeah, like I said, it's very windy today. I think the gusts are up to 45 miles an hour. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/471

So today we're shining a light on an organization that's doing something truly powerful with bikes. Pedal It Forward is a non-profit organization that takes donated bicycles, refurbishes them with the help of volunteer mechanics, and places them in the hands of people who need them. Kids, adults, families, veterans, folks in recovery, people getting back on their feet, anyone who could use the freedom and opportunity a bike provides. They've got locations in Bentonville, Rogers, and Springdale. Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/470

Latinas en Bici (LEB) was founded in 2019, when Olivia Barraza had a vision to create inclusive cycling opportunities for Latina women. It's now grown into Northwest Arkansas's most welcoming cycling community. The motto is "Ride, Connect, Thrive." Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/469