The best way to Coach GLP-1 Purchasers: 7 Sorts to Know

Reviewed by Brian St. Pierre, MS, RD

“Is that this drug going to steal my job?”

That’s the thought many well being and health coaches had when GLP-1 medicines first hit the mass market.

Although semaglutide (Ozempic) turned obtainable in 2017, it initially felt like a theoretical menace. Prescription charges had been nonetheless very low; it appeared like nobody really knew anybody who was taking it.

Now, in 2026, over 1 in 10 US adults are taking a GLP-1 remedy. Most of us know somebody on it (or we’re on it ourselves).

With wider use, opinions in the direction of the remedy have softened too. Most coaches not see it as a menace, and fairly admire it as a helpful instrument for sure purchasers, with teaching as an additive complement.

Many nonetheless have considerations although, primarily about their purchasers’ long run well being on the remedy. (Among the many worries: Lack of muscle mass! Utilizing a “band-aid” answer! Bypassing foundational well being habits! And extra!)

Nonetheless, whether or not you depend your self as a GLP-1 supporter or a GLP-1 skeptic, there’s a framing that may change the way in which you consider your work on this subject:

“As a coach, you’re not within the GLP-1 world; you’re within the GLP-1 help world.”

That quote comes from Kate Solovieva, Tremendous Coach and PN’s Director of Group. She says that coaches want to acknowledge that their market isn’t “individuals on GLP-1s,” however fairly “individuals on GLP-1s who need help.”

Attempting to educate everybody taking a GLP-1 simply isn’t doable. And spending time eager about all of the individuals utilizing GLP-1s “the improper approach” is, bluntly, wasted power. A few of these individuals simply don’t need, want, or aren’t prepared in your assist.

In the meantime, there is a subgroup of individuals on GLP-1s who’re prepared, prepared, and in a position to obtain your help. Honing in on this group is the place you may really make a distinction (and the place your corporation can thrive).

Within the following article, we’ll cowl seven totally different GLP-1 consumer “varieties,” every with their very own degree of teaching readiness. Primarily based on our expertise teaching over 175,000 purchasers (of which an rising quantity are on GLP-1s), we’ll provide methods to take care of every.

Let’s get into it.

The 7 varieties of GLP-1 purchasers

Earlier than we start, a reminder: Folks change, and readiness isn’t fastened.

An individual who begins off saying “I’m doing wonderful alone” could finally morph into “I’m flailing and actually need another person in my nook”—and vice versa.

If the particular person in entrance of you matches right into a sure sort, that’s their sort proper now. So hear fastidiously to how your consumer speaks at each session, and reply dynamically.

On the whole, Coach Kate says somebody is often prepared for teaching once they display two issues:

• Their difficulty feels necessary, pressing, or distressing: Taking higher care of their well being feels particularly helpful proper now. (“This actually issues to me.”)
• They really feel they’ve the capability to commit some assets to the difficulty: Be it time, cash, or each, they’re prepared to just accept some type of value. (“I’ve house to take care of this.”)

Maintain that at the back of your thoughts as you work together with consumer prospects, and as you learn concerning the consumer varieties, which we’ve summarized within the under desk.

Now, on to our GLP-1 consumer varieties.

Consumer Sort #1: The Honeymooner

That is the one who’s began a GLP-1 remedy—and so they find it irresistible.

They’ve skilled minimal uncomfortable side effects, and have gotten nice outcomes on a comparatively low dose.

They haven’t modified a lot about their train habits or their weight loss plan (besides the consuming much less half, which the remedy has taken care of), however they’re seeing what they need to see on the size, in order that they don’t really feel motivated to alter something.

Teaching transfer:

It is likely to be tempting to “lure” this sort of consumer in by warning them of the risks of utilizing a GLP-1 remedy with out including in long-term well being behaviors (like resistance coaching and strategic vitamin), however one of these strategy can backfire.

At finest, it’s possible you’ll sound like a downer. At worst, it’s possible you’ll sound like an energetic antagonist.

In Motivational Interviewing, a communication strategy generally utilized in teaching, that is known as the “righting reflex.” It’s the urge that coaches, counselors, and therapists usually have to assist or “appropriate course” for his or her consumer. You see them doing one thing “improper,” and also you need to assist them “repair” it.

Nonetheless, following this intuition may very well strengthen a consumer’s defenses, and forestall change.

If an individual is flying excessive on their present strategy, their readiness for teaching is extraordinarily low.

As Coach Kate says, “they’re simply not my particular person but.”

Your finest transfer with this sort is to genuinely rejoice their present outcomes, then plant the seed for help ought to they want it sooner or later.

For instance, you would say: “It should really feel so good to see all these constructive outcomes! In the event you ever really feel such as you need to work on one other layer, like resistance coaching or optimizing your vitamin, I’d like to work collectively.”

Then, simply keep obtainable. (“My door is at all times open!”)

Consumer Sort #2: The Ambivalent Candidate

That is the one who hasn’t began a GLP-1 remedy—and would possibly by no means, regardless of being an excellent candidate for one.

Possibly their physician has already prompt the remedy to them and they’ve learn every little thing they’ll on the subject.

And but, they’re frozen with worry on the beginning line. They’re afraid of uncomfortable side effects, of being on remedy for all times, of not holding up their finish of the cut price. (“I’ve been making an attempt to start out power coaching for years. If I take this remedy it issues much more… What if I nonetheless can’t do it?”)

Toni Bauer, Tremendous Coach and PN’s Director of Teaching and Schooling Operations additionally says that, in some circumstances, a consumer’s hesitation isn’t about uncomfortable side effects. “A few of our purchasers surprise, ‘Am I a superb particular person or a foul particular person if I begin taking a GLP-1 remedy? Am I weak? Am I giving up?’” Coach Toni says these considerations aren’t distinctive to GLP-1 medicines, however they appear to be particularly widespread.

She causes, “When you have excessive ldl cholesterol, are you weak for taking ldl cholesterol remedy? No. However usually individuals don’t view weight problems as a illness at a societal degree, so the dialog is totally different right here.”

Whatever the root reason behind this particular person’s hesitation, the recommendation under may help them discover readability.

Teaching transfer:

First, let’s be clear: Deciding whether or not or to not take a drugs isn’t a training determination, and falls out of your scope of observe. That alternative is finally as much as your consumer and a medical supplier who can assess whether or not a GLP-1 is acceptable given their medical historical past.

That stated, purchasers should come to you wanting to debate their choices.

So the query turns into: How do you help somebody via a call you may’t make for them?

Coach Toni advises: “You possibly can share information and knowledge. For instance, research outcomes and what you’ve seen with different purchasers. However you may’t say, ‘For you, that is the correct alternative.’”

As a substitute, the most important teaching alternative right here is to assist purchasers articulate what’s really driving their hesitation.

This hesitation about whether or not to do one thing totally different or keep the identical is named ambivalence, and it’s a traditional (albeit uncomfortable) stage of change.

Downside is, with out the correct instruments, an individual can keep caught in ambivalence for months and even years. And, very like being caught at an airport in between two locations, it sucks.

However at PN, we’ve got a cool train to take care of consumer ambivalence. It’s known as the 4 Loopy Questions. Basically, you discover:

• What’s GOOD about altering?
• What’s BAD about altering?
• What’s GOOD about NOT altering?
• What’s BAD about NOT altering?

On this context, the questions may help a consumer discover the danger of beginning a GLP-1 (which they’ve most likely already voiced), but in addition the danger of not beginning, which they could not have thought-about but.

Our 4 Loopy Questions worksheet can encourage purchasers to discover the professionals and cons of each decisions. With these concerns laid out explicitly, most individuals really feel much more clear about their subsequent steps—or at the least what questions they should ask their medical supplier earlier than they’ll transfer ahead.

Importantly, this train doesn’t have a “proper” consequence. Some individuals work via it and fill the prescription. Others resolve the remedy isn’t for them, and that’s wonderful. (It’s additionally value reminding purchasers that beginning isn’t essentially everlasting: With their supplier’s enter, a trial run on the remedy is a superbly legitimate approach in.)

Both approach, there are alternatives to help your consumer. As Coach Toni places it: “Whether or not you go ‘pure’ or whether or not you go GLP-1, the foundational habits are primarily the identical.”

Consumer Sort #3: The Prepared-to-Quitter

That is the one who began a GLP-1 with a number of optimism—and now looks like they’ve a plague that gained’t finish.

In a merciless twist, this particular person would possibly really be seeing nice fats loss outcomes. And but, they’re nauseated, exhausted, dreading their subsequent dose, and questioning whether or not it’s value persevering with this remedy.

Including to their sense of defeat, they could even be evaluating themselves to a “Honeymooner” of their life, so they could even be questioning if there’s one thing improper with them. (“It labored so effectively for my buddy! I should be damaged indirectly.”)

Teaching transfer:

First, provide some impartial schooling to depersonalize their expertise.

Specifically, they need to know that uncomfortable side effects are extraordinarily widespread: About half of customers report nausea, a 3rd report diarrhea, and a fifth report vomiting.¹ So, what this particular person thinks is phenomenal would possibly really simply be a traditional adjustment. (This doesn’t make the expertise suck much less, but it surely can provide them some hope.)

Additionally, getting GLP-1s proper is a means of trial and error: the correct remedy, the correct dose, and the correct dietary methods to scale back signs.

If their signs are extreme, get them to loop of their physician. Remedy sort and dosing is beneath the purview of a medical skilled, so involving them is crucial.

After that, your finest teaching transfer is to counsel an experiment.

▶ Ask about dose. To be clear, you’re asking about it, not adjusting it. Says Coach Toni: “Typically, when persons are experiencing excessive uncomfortable side effects, they’ve ratcheted up their dose too rapidly. Typically the best strategy to preserve any person on a GLP-1 who’s experiencing excessive uncomfortable side effects is to decrease their dosage.” Coach Toni makes clear that whereas dosage isn’t a coach’s area, you can assist draw a consumer’s consideration to it.

▶ Begin a meals journal. It doesn’t must be day-after-day—simply across the meals that precede the worst signs. You’re in search of three issues:

• Fats content material: GLP-1 medicines decelerate digestion. That is what contributes to its satiety results, but in addition its uncomfortable side effects in the beginning. Fat additionally decelerate digestion, so high-fat meals and meals (oils, nuts and seeds, and fried meals) can compound signs.
• Quantity: Once more, as a result of slowing of digestion, a big meal can really feel extraordinarily uncomfortable to digest. A portion that felt regular a month in the past could now be far an excessive amount of without delay.
• Random triggers: Spicy meals, tomatoes, chocolate, caffeine. All types of meals could set off signs like nausea, acid reflux disorder, or diarrhea in a consumer who used to tolerate them. These meals gained’t at all times be apparent GLP-1 symptom triggers, so one of the simplest ways to hunt them down is by way of a meals log.

▶ Strive smaller parts, eaten extra usually. Coach Toni says when you solely attempt one factor, this one is probably the most dependable technique. GLP-1 purchasers could also be tempted to chop meals when signs are excessive, however this will increase the chance of undereating and nutrient deficiencies. The purpose, in her phrases: “Can we get sufficiently small, frequent sufficient meals that we get vitamins in, however they by no means really feel overwhelmed or tremendous full?”

To remain inside your scope of observe, language issues.

Don’t say: “You’re nauseous, so you need to eat smaller meals.”

As a substitute, say: “People who’re nauseous generally do higher with smaller, extra frequent meals. Need to attempt it this week and see what you discover?”

Within the first instance, you’ve supplied a “prescription” (which coaches can’t legally do). Within the second instance, you’ve supplied an experiment to contemplate.

Consumer Sort #4: The Muscle-Loss Threat

That is the particular person whose outcomes look nice, however much less seen modifications are creating long run dangers.

This particular person is prone to be fairly sedentary, and whenever you ask what they do for train, they could let you know “I stroll.” However they’re not the outlier sort who constantly will get 20,000 steps a day. They only… stroll a little bit.

Ladies usually tend to fall into this class, particularly if they arrive from a era or tradition the place power coaching merely wasn’t a factor girls did (or had been welcomed to do).

Moreover, this particular person is likely to be operating on a decades-long plain-toast-and-coffee breakfast behavior, with decrease protein consumption already ingrained earlier than remedy additional decreased urge for food.

The size is dropping although, in order that they’re thrilled. It’s simply that no person’s measuring what type of weight is dropping.

Teaching transfer:

Your job is to carry consciousness to the invisible. As a result of as soon as this particular person sees what’s at stake, they’ll be extra prone to see the worth in altering their habits, and in teaching.

Nonetheless, theoretical warnings about muscle loss are simple to dismiss.

This is likely one of the explanation why Coach Kate says, “I don’t care if I coach you or not—please simply get a DEXA as a baseline.”

When an individual has a quantifiable, goal measure of their muscle composition, it’s usually extra motivating than any quantity of summary concern.

Ideally, each one that begins a GLP-1 remedy ought to get a DEXA scan earlier than they begin, then once more at six or twelve months to see how they’re progressing.

If a consumer can’t or gained’t do a DEXA, assess power and performance in different methods. Ask: “How do the steps really feel in contrast to some months in the past? What about carrying groceries?” Collect goal knowledge too, recording baselines for squat, deadlift, and bench press (or different accessible workout routines) to check to over time. Declines in any of those areas can reveal potential muscle loss, and may encourage a consumer to take motion.

With out protecting methods, as much as 40 p.c of weight misplaced from GLP-1 medicines can come from lean mass, with a majority of that being muscle.²

To be able to forestall that from occurring, there are two behaviors to prioritize:

▶ Protein at each meal. When urge for food is suppressed, each chew has to earn its place. Purpose for 25-40 grams of protein at each meal and 15-20 grams for snacks. (On days when urge for food is severely suppressed, protein powders is usually a extra palatable strategy to attain that concentrate on.)

▶ Energy coaching, scaled to what they’d really do. The time period “weight lifting” would possibly overwhelm an individual who’s by no means set foot in a gymnasium, so don’t begin there. Begin the place PN at all times begins: Ask what they may do twice this week that they’re 9-out-of-10 assured they’d really do. Sit-to-stands off the sofa. A couple of strikes with a resistance band. Body weight something. Scale up from there, one week at a time.

Consumer Sort #5: The Underneath-Fueler

That is the particular person for whom the remedy has labored a little bit too effectively.

Their urge for food hasn’t simply decreased—it’s gone.

They’re not consuming sufficient, and sometimes don’t discover till you ask. “When did you final eat?” you say, and so they say, “Ummm… Yesterday afternoon? I believe?”

Their protein and general calorie consumption is plummeting, and shortly their power ranges will too.

Plus, one thing extra delicate may also be occurring: Meals stops being a pleasure and turns into a chore, or perhaps a supply of dread.

For some, this would possibly look like an the other way up world. They could have spent their entire life preventing to eat much less. The concept of preventing to eat extra feels fully absurd—and completely off their radar.

Teaching transfer:

Earlier than anything: If there’s an energetic consuming dysfunction within the image, this remedy probably shouldn’t have been prescribed. A vulnerability to disordered consuming can each contribute to or be triggered by the above state of affairs.

So, scope of observe first. Ask this particular person in the event that they’ve ever struggled with disordered consuming. If the reply is sure, refer out to a physician or a dietitian. You possibly can completely keep concerned as a information, however not as the one skilled within the room. Have your referral community prepared earlier than you want it.

However generally, you gained’t know. Your consumer could have been screened and cleared. Or, they could not have disclosed. So your job is to determine what you’re really taking a look at—and that begins with what Coach Toni calls the “present me” strategy.

Quite than performing on a hunch, acquire one thing concrete, akin to a couple of days of meals logging (in writing or by way of photographs).

From there, it branches two methods.

▶ In the event that they’ll observe, do some meals math, and the numbers could do the give you the results you want. When some purchasers see that their calorie consumption is hovering round 800 to 1,000 Energy per day, it’s the one get up name they want. They weren’t deliberately limiting; they genuinely simply had no thought.

For this consumer, establishing an consuming routine is the perfect subsequent motion.

Your consumer could also be used to following urge for food as a cue to eat, however now that remedy has eliminated it, they want a unique cue. Which means consuming on a schedule, probably each 3–4 hours, together with protein at each a type of events. Parts may be small if urge for food may be very low, however they need to be nutrient-dense.

▶ In the event that they gained’t observe—and particularly in the event that they resist in a approach that feels purposely avoidant—that resistance itself is data.

Coach Toni means that when you suspect that disordered consuming is within the image and a consumer is de facto resistant about monitoring, it is likely to be time for a essential dialog—an usually uncomfortable, however trustworthy and important dialog between a consumer and a coach.

She suggests main with non-judgement and security. For instance:

“I need you to know it is a secure house to speak. My purpose as a coach is at all times to prioritize your general well being. Nonetheless, there have been a few stuff you’ve shared just lately which have me questioning whether or not we’re defending your physique’s fundamental wants.”

Then title the particular stuff you observed, sticking to information. (“You’ve talked about you’ve been dropping hair and struggling extra throughout exercises. These can each be indicators of undereating. Would you be open to revisiting meals journaling for a brief stretch so we will see extra clearly what’s occurring, or telling your physician about your signs?”)

If this dialog is sufficient to assist a consumer see the worth in monitoring, observe the recommendation after “In the event that they’ll observe” above.

If what surfaces is a genuinely troubled relationship with meals, refer out, whereas providing to remain concerned for help as wanted.

Consumer Sort #6: The Graduate

That is the one who bought the outcomes they wished with the remedy, and is now selecting to wean off.

They’re not quitting due to crappy outcomes or insupportable uncomfortable side effects, they’ve merely determined they don’t need to be on a GLP-1 without end.

The teaching alternative right here is, partly, about tempering expectations.

Most individuals think about coming off because the end line. As a substitute although, it’s extra like beginning a totally different endurance course: The remedy has been managing their urge for food, and now they should.

Teaching transfer:

Ideally, you begin working with this consumer whereas the remedy remains to be doing a number of the heavy lifting with urge for food regulation. In the event you can have six months to construct the correct habits in addition to put together mentally for the really fizzling out interval, your consumer shall be in a a lot better place.

Be certain that the beforehand talked about habits—like resistance coaching and optimizing protein—are already firmly established. In case your consumer is managing these habits constantly (not completely, however constantly), even on their busiest, most traumatic, most side-effect-disrupted days, then they’re extra probably to have the ability to keep them once they’re off their remedy and meals distractions re-enter the image.

After that, work on the way you’ll proceed to outline success. This consumer has been accustomed to measuring it on the size, however the scale will transfer—some regain is regular. So, ask them early: What does success appear to be if the size ticks up eight kilos however your habits maintain?

Be trustworthy concerning the odds, too. Individuals who modified nothing whereas on the remedy nearly universally regain many of the weight—often inside the first yr and a half or so³—as a result of the urge for food that went down comes proper again up.

Nonetheless, individuals who combine and maintain more healthy vitamin and train behaviors whereas they’re on remedy are 4 instances higher at sustaining a ten p.c or larger weight reduction once they come off the remedy.⁴

Consumer Sort #7: The Priced-Out

That is the one who was additionally getting nice outcomes on the remedy—besides as a substitute of selecting to go off it on their very own time, they’re pressured to stop on account of exterior circumstances.

Possibly their insurance coverage stopped overlaying it, or they misplaced the job that got here with the advantages, or the one drug they tolerated turned out to value 4 instances as a lot because the one they couldn’t tolerate.

About 50 p.c of GLP-1 customers cease the remedy inside the first yr of utilizing it.⁵ Some cease on account of uncomfortable side effects, and others cease as a result of they’ve gotten the outcomes they need and so they need to see if they’ll keep them drug-free. However many are merely priced out. The latter is an particularly irritating state of affairs as a result of, for this particular person, a “answer” exists. It’s simply that, for them, the answer is out of attain.

Understandably, this particular person could also be indignant and even ashamed that they’ll’t afford this remedy. These emotions could or could not present up in your teaching, but it surely’s good to arrange for them anyway.

Teaching transfer:

First, reassure this individual that it is a system failure, not a private one.

Whether or not somebody can entry reasonably priced remedy comes all the way down to their insurance coverage plan, the area they dwell in, and their socioeconomic standing—also referred to as the social determinants of well being. These forces form well being outcomes excess of willpower does, and none of them are a measure of how laborious somebody has tried or how “worthy” they’re.

Acknowledging that actuality isn’t about throwing up your fingers and saying, “Nicely, I’m screwed!” Quite, it’s about accepting some depressing truths concerning the world, after which shifting from self-blame to problem-solving.

As soon as they’ve had an opportunity to course of some (very legitimate) anger and disappointment, it’s time to give attention to what they can management.

At PN, we name this the Spheres of Management train. The picture under exhibits you the way it works.

Entry, value, and protection will not be on the checklist of controllables, and preventing these realities could solely compound frustration.

In the meantime, they can management different influential components, like their protein consumption, their coaching, their sleep, their meals atmosphere, and perhaps their subsequent insurance coverage attraction.

Use the picture above to start a dialog together with your consumer about what’s inside their management, and lean in laborious on these components.

What can coaches actually promise with regards to getting and sustaining GLP-1 outcomes?

The reality is, you may’t predict how a consumer will reply to remedy. And, some regain after stopping it is anticipated.

Nonetheless, weight loss plan and way of life habits vastly have an effect on what type of weight is misplaced, plus the speed and quantity of that regain.

Says Coach Toni:

“I can’t promise anybody they’ll lose a certain amount of weight or that they’ll by no means regain it—and I’d be suspicious of any coach who did. What I can let you know is that the habits we construct whereas the remedy is doing its work are those that’ll nonetheless stand when it isn’t.”

After all, “coming off” isn’t the endpoint for everybody. Many suppliers now deal with weight problems as a persistent situation and these medicines as long-term remedy—the identical approach we’d deal with cardiac illness. Once more, whether or not somebody stays on, tapers, or stops is a dialog for them and their supplier.

However for many who do come off, Coach Toni says the individuals who maintain their outcomes share one factor: “They keep consistency with their behaviors as in the event that they had been nonetheless on the remedy. Like nothing modifications.”

She shares an analogy for why that works:

“Take into consideration the Oregon Path. The ruts within the path had been made by wagon wheels hitting the identical floor time and again and over. You possibly can nonetheless see these ruts right this moment—they’re nonetheless there. Habits are the identical approach: In the event you lay down these neural pathways and reinforce them sufficient instances whereas your consumer is on the remedy, then they’ll have a greater probability of constant on the identical path even once they go off the remedy.”

In order that’s the precise promise.

It’s not: “You’ll preserve it off.”

It’s: “Whereas the remedy is doing its work, we’ll minimize ruts deep sufficient that these pathways will nonetheless be there after the remedy is gone.”

Virtually, meaning common resistance coaching, rock stable vitamin, urge for food consciousness, and attending to the components of well being that by no means present up on a scale—sleep, power, temper, relationships, and id, which is the place Coach Toni lands:

“Ideally, your consumer could have embraced the id of a ‘new particular person.’ As in, ‘I’m the one who wakes up at 6 a.m. and walks two miles. I’m the one who eats protein at each meal. I’m the one who does resistance coaching as a result of it builds the tissue I have to age effectively.’ That’s the consumer who maintains.”

References

Click on right here to view the data sources referenced on this article.

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