EverStrong

For people on Zepbound (tirzepatide)

Losing weight on Zepbound? Keep the muscle.

Zepbound takes care of the appetite. Nobody is looking after your muscle. Pooled across 20 randomised trials, 25.4% of the weight people lost on tirzepatide was lean mass, and losing the same weight by diet alone cost about as much. The muscle comes off because the weight comes off. This page is the part of the prescription nobody provides.

Work out your protein targetSee the Keep Muscle Kit

Zepbound is tirzepatide approved for weight management in the US. Weight loss is fast, which is precisely why the muscle question needs answering early.

A notebook with weekly numbers written in it
Three numbers, every Sunday. That is the whole system.

What the trials measured

25.4%

of weight lost on tirzepatide was lean mass in people given the medication and nothing else.

Eisa N et al, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 2026, 20 trials, 15,782 people. Diet alone cost 26.2%.

1.2g

per kg of goal body weight (0.55 g per lb) is the protein floor. Under it, your body pulls the material from your own muscle.

17.5%

is the same figure once resistance training is added, the best result of any approach studied. Two 30-minute sessions a week.

On Zepbound specifically

Three things to do in your first month

  1. Set your protein target from your goal weight, not your current weight

    Typical Zepbound dosing runs a weekly injection, started low and stepped up by your prescriber. Appetite drops before habits change, so most people we hear from are eating 60 to 70 g of protein a day by month two without realising. The floor is 1.2 g per kg of goal weight, or 0.55 g per lb. The calculator does it in ten seconds, in kilos or pounds.

  2. Eat protein first at every meal

    On Zepbound you may only manage a few bites before you feel full. If those bites are toast, the protein never arrives. Protein first, then everything else, every time. Injection day and the day after get their own protocol.

  3. Pick one strength test and do it every week

    Goblet squats, push-ups, or a 30-second sit-to-stand from a chair. Fat loss does not make you weaker, so a number that drops for three or four weeks in a row is a real signal and it is fixable. It measures what you can do, not how much muscle you have.

The Keep Muscle Kit

Twelve weeks on Zepbound, written down step by step

The workbook, the 2-Day Strength Plan, meal plans at your protein level, the Sunday tracker and the injection-day card. 107 pages, instant download.

See the kit

A$47 / US$29 / £23 until 6 October. 14-day refund.

Articles for Zepbound users

Where the figures on this page come from: Eisa N et al, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 2026, 20 randomised controlled trials, 15,782 participants. Every number we state, with its range and how much weight to put on it, is on the evidence page. Last reviewed 18 September 2026.

Nutrition and strength coaching, not medical advice. Zepbound dosing is between you and your prescribing doctor. How we work sets out what we are and are not qualified to tell you, and we are not clinicians.