Find out how to Coach GLP-1 Purchasers: 7 Varieties 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 drugs first hit the mass market.

Although semaglutide (Ozempic) turned out there in 2017, it initially felt like a theoretical risk. 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 risk, and reasonably admire it as a helpful instrument for sure shoppers, with teaching as an additive complement.

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

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

“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 Neighborhood. She says that coaches want to acknowledge that their market isn’t “folks on GLP-1s,” however reasonably “folks on GLP-1s who need help.”

Making an attempt to educate everybody taking a GLP-1 simply isn’t attainable. And spending time fascinated about all of the folks utilizing GLP-1s “the flawed means” is, bluntly, wasted power. A few of these folks simply don’t need, want, or aren’t prepared to 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’ll be able to really make a distinction (and the place your enterprise can thrive).

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

Let’s get into it.

The 7 varieties of GLP-1 shoppers

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

An individual who begins off saying “I’m doing high-quality alone” might finally morph into “I’m flailing and really want 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 pay attention rigorously to how your consumer speaks at each session, and reply dynamically.

Normally, Coach Kate says somebody is normally prepared for teaching after they display two issues:

• Their problem feels vital, 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 dedicate some assets to the difficulty: Be it time, cash, or each, they’re prepared to just accept some sort of value. (“I’ve house to cope with this.”)

Preserve that behind your thoughts as you work together with consumer prospects, and as you learn concerning the consumer sorts, which we’ve summarized within the beneath desk.

Now, on to our GLP-1 consumer sorts.

Consumer Sort #1: The Honeymooner

That is the one that’s began a GLP-1 remedy—they usually find it irresistible.

They’ve skilled minimal unwanted 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-reduction 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 dimensions, in order that they don’t really feel motivated to vary something.

Teaching transfer:

It could 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 such a method can backfire.

At greatest, chances are you’ll sound like a downer. At worst, chances are you’ll sound like an energetic antagonist.

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

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

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

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

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

For instance, you can say: “It should really feel so good to see all these optimistic 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 out there. (“My door is at all times open!”)

Consumer Sort #2: The Ambivalent Candidate

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

Possibly their physician has already urged the remedy to them and they’ve learn every part they’ll on the subject.

And but, they’re frozen with concern on the beginning line. They’re afraid of unwanted side effects, of being on remedy for all times, of not holding up their finish of the discount. (“I’ve been attempting to begin energy 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 Training Operations additionally says that, in some circumstances, a consumer’s hesitation isn’t about unwanted side effects. “A few of our shoppers marvel, ‘Am I a great 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 issues aren’t distinctive to GLP-1 drugs, however they appear to be particularly frequent.

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

Whatever the root explanation for this particular person’s hesitation, the recommendation beneath 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 choice, and falls out of your scope of apply. That alternative is in the end 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 mentioned, shoppers should still come to you wanting to debate their choices.

So the query turns into: How do you help somebody by a choice you’ll be able to’t make for them?

Coach Toni advises: “You’ll be able to share details and knowledge. For instance, research outcomes and what you’ve seen with different shoppers. However you’ll be able to’t say, ‘For you, that is the correct alternative.’”

As a substitute, the most important teaching alternative right here is to assist shoppers 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 similar to being caught at an airport in between two locations, it sucks.

However at PN, we’ve got a cool train to cope with consumer ambivalence. It’s referred to as the 4 Loopy Questions. Primarily, 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 chance of beginning a GLP-1 (which they’ve in all probability already voiced), but additionally the chance of not beginning, which they could not have thought of but.

Our 4 Loopy Questions worksheet can encourage shoppers to discover the professionals and cons of each selections. With these concerns laid out explicitly, most individuals really feel much more clear about their subsequent steps—or no less than what questions they should ask their medical supplier earlier than they’ll transfer ahead.

Importantly, this train doesn’t have a “proper” end result. Some folks work by it and fill the prescription. Others resolve the remedy isn’t for them, and that’s high-quality. (It’s additionally value reminding shoppers that beginning isn’t essentially everlasting: With their supplier’s enter, a trial run on the remedy is a superbly legitimate means in.)

Both means, 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 that began a GLP-1 with a lot of optimism—and now appears 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 flawed with them. (“It labored so properly for my pal! I have to be damaged in a roundabout way.”)

Teaching transfer:

First, supply some impartial training to depersonalize their expertise.

Particularly, they need to know that unwanted side effects are extraordinarily frequent: 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, however it can provide them some hope.)

Additionally, getting GLP-1s proper is a technique 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. Treatment sort and dosing is below the purview of a medical skilled, so involving them is important.

After that, your greatest 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 unwanted side effects, they’ve ratcheted up their dose too rapidly. Generally the simplest strategy to hold any individual on a GLP-1 who’s experiencing excessive unwanted 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 have to be on daily basis—simply across the meals that precede the worst signs. You’re searching for three issues:

• Fats content material: GLP-1 drugs decelerate digestion. That is what contributes to its satiety results, but additionally its unwanted side effects originally. 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 might now be far an excessive amount of without delay.
• Random triggers: Spicy meals, tomatoes, chocolate, caffeine. All types of meals might 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 best ways to hunt them down is by way of a meals log.

▶ Strive smaller parts, eaten extra usually. Coach Toni says for those who solely strive one factor, this one is essentially the most dependable technique. GLP-1 shoppers could also be tempted to chop meals when signs are excessive, however this will increase the probability of undereating and nutrient deficiencies. The objective, 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 apply, language issues.

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

As a substitute, say: “People who’re nauseous typically do higher with smaller, extra frequent meals. Wish to strive 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 Danger

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

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

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

Moreover, this particular person could be working on a decades-long plain-toast-and-coffee breakfast behavior, with decrease protein consumption already ingrained earlier than remedy additional lowered urge for food.

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

Teaching transfer:

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

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

This is without doubt one of the 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 energy and performance in different methods. Ask: “How do the steps really feel in contrast to a couple months in the past? What about carrying groceries?” Collect goal knowledge too, recording baselines for squat, deadlift, and bench press (or different accessible workouts) to check to over time. Declines in any of those areas can reveal potential muscle loss, and might encourage a consumer to take motion.

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

As a way to stop that from taking place, there are two behaviors to prioritize:

▶ Protein at each meal. When urge for food is suppressed, each chunk 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 fitness center, so don’t begin there. Begin the place PN at all times begins: Ask what they might do twice this week that they’re 9-out-of-10 assured they’d really do. Sit-to-stands off the sofa. Just a few 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 bit too properly.

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, they usually say, “Ummm… Yesterday afternoon? I feel?”

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

Plus, one thing extra refined may also be taking place: 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 might have spent their entire life preventing to eat much less. The thought 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 seemingly shouldn’t have been prescribed. A vulnerability to disordered consuming can each contribute to or be triggered by the above situation.

So, scope of apply 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 health care provider or a dietitian. You’ll be able to 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 typically, you gained’t know. Your consumer might have been screened and cleared. Or, they could not have disclosed. So your job is to determine what you’re really —and that begins with what Coach Toni calls the “present me” method.

Slightly than appearing on a hunch, accumulate one thing concrete, reminiscent of a number of days of meals logging (in writing or by way of pictures).

From there, it branches two methods.

▶ In the event that they’ll monitor, do some meals math, and the numbers might do the give you the results you want. When some shoppers 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 proscribing; they genuinely simply had no concept.

For this consumer, establishing an consuming routine is one of the best 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 special cue. Meaning consuming on a schedule, seemingly each 3–4 hours, together with protein at each a type of events. Parts will be small if urge for food could be very low, however they need to be nutrient-dense.

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

Coach Toni means that for those who suspect that disordered consuming is within the image and a consumer is actually resistant about monitoring, it could be time for a essential dialog—an usually uncomfortable, however sincere and important dialog between a consumer and a coach.

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

“I would like you to know it is a secure house to speak. My objective as a coach is at all times to prioritize your total well being. Nonetheless, there have been a few stuff you’ve shared not too long ago which have me questioning whether or not we’re defending your physique’s primary wants.”

Then identify the particular stuff you seen, sticking to details. (“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 are able to see extra clearly what’s taking place, 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 monitor” 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 that obtained the outcomes they needed with the remedy, and is now selecting to wean off.

They’re not quitting due to crappy outcomes or insupportable unwanted side effects, they’ve merely determined they don’t need to be on a GLP-1 endlessly.

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 must.

Teaching transfer:

Ideally, you begin working with this consumer whereas the remedy remains to be doing among 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 petering out interval, your consumer will likely be in a significantly better place.

Be sure that the beforehand talked about habits—like resistance coaching and optimizing protein—are already firmly established. In case your consumer is managing these habits persistently (not completely, however persistently), even on their busiest, most traumatic, most side-effect-disrupted days, then they’re extra seemingly to have the ability to preserve them after 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 dimensions, however the scale will transfer—some regain is regular. So, ask them early: What does success appear to be if the dimensions ticks up eight kilos however your habits maintain?

Be sincere concerning the odds, too. Individuals who modified nothing whereas on the remedy nearly universally regain a lot of the weight—normally 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 occasions higher at sustaining a ten % or increased weight reduction after they come off the remedy.⁴

Consumer Sort #7: The Priced-Out

That is the one that was additionally getting nice outcomes on the remedy—besides as an alternative of selecting to go off it on their very own time, they’re pressured to stop resulting from exterior circumstances.

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

About 50 % of GLP-1 customers cease the remedy inside the first yr of utilizing it.⁵ Some cease resulting from unwanted side effects, and others cease as a result of they’ve gotten the outcomes they need they usually need to see if they’ll preserve them drug-free. However many are merely priced out. The latter is an particularly irritating situation as a result of, for this particular person, a “resolution” 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 might or might not present up in your teaching, however it’s good to organize for them anyway.

Teaching transfer:

First, reassure this person who it is a system failure, not a private one.

Whether or not somebody can entry inexpensive remedy comes all the way down to their insurance coverage plan, the area they stay in, and their socioeconomic standing—also referred to as the social determinants of well being. These forces form well being outcomes way over 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 arms and saying, “Properly, I’m screwed!” Slightly, 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 beneath exhibits you the way it works.

Entry, worth, and protection should not on the checklist of controllables, and preventing these realities might solely compound frustration.

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

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

What can coaches actually promise in terms of getting and sustaining GLP-1 outcomes?

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

Nonetheless, weight-reduction plan and way of life habits massively have an effect on what form 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 quantity 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.”

In fact, “coming off” isn’t the endpoint for everybody. Many suppliers now deal with weight problems as a power situation and these drugs as long-term remedy—the identical means 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 preserve consistency with their behaviors as in the event that they had been nonetheless on the remedy. Like nothing adjustments.”

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’ll be able to nonetheless see these ruts as we speak—they’re nonetheless there. Habits are the identical means: In the event you lay down these neural pathways and reinforce them sufficient occasions whereas your consumer is on the remedy, then they’ll have a greater likelihood of continuous on the identical path even after they go off the remedy.”

In order that’s the precise promise.

It’s not: “You’ll hold it off.”

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

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

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

References

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

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