[mikenew]

I understand the point. Mine is that an ordinary untrained person will see health benefits and a statistically longer life from more muscle. An overweight person would have more muscle than their non-overweight counterparts (mostly localized to the legs, not upper body), and that is the one and only positive of being overweight. Willfully throwing that away will harm your health, full stop. The muscle loss problem with these drugs is talked about a lot because it is in fact a problem. Not because the medical field is mistaken in thinking it's a bad thing.

[Retric]

There’s negative cardiovascular effects from excess muscle just as with excess fat.

Normally that’s offset by the health effects of the exercise required to gain and maintain them as well as the lack of medical conditions that prevent exercise etc. But a fat person losing weight should inherently lose muscle mass long term assuming no changes to lifestyle.

[cthalupa]

This is one of those statements that is technically true but not particularly relevant. Obese people are almost never at a level of lean body mass that they would overall be at a good amount of muscle even for a healthy total weight, and rapid weight loss has consistently been shown in studies to reduce more lean body mass than slower weight loss.

Getting to the same level of additional weight from muscles as there is from fat is also incredibly difficult. The average 5'8 person not utilizing AAS would take years of dedicated training, dialed in diet and recovery, etc., to get to 200lb at 15% bodyfat. People get there much faster and much easier putting on fat.

[obvi8]

I was looking for this comment! Not a doctor, but as I understand it muscle is roughly equivalent to fat as far as your heart’s workload is concerned. I thought I also read that muscle movement helps with blood return.

[hombre_fatal]

Your complaint doesn't make sense to me. The negative health impact of being obese isn't equalized by having a little more muscle mass.

Also, if this is your stance, then GLP-1 is a red herring because you have the same issue with weight loss in general. Weight loss, without increasing resistance training, leads to muscle loss.