Semaglutide is not on the WADA list

[EB]

This surprised me. Power/weight is everything in road racing, and weight loss is one way to achieve an improvement, assuming power doesn’t decrease at the same rate. These drugs are proven to provide an advantage in weight loss vs doing it au natural.

But no ban.

I could speculate on why - perhaps the science isn’t there yet, or perhaps semaglutide’s effects on appetite are detrimental to other parts of a training program. Or maybe it doesn’t have very much of an impact on people that are already very skinny relative to the general population. Still, it’s interesting - I wonder if it’s being used by the pros.

[Louis]

Originally Posted by EB

Power/weight is everything in road racing

Michael Rasmussen says "Hmmm, if my math is correct, this can work if my favor..."

[benb]

Seems extremely unlikely given the horrific and common side effects that would make it basically impossible to train. And even if they could if you take that at sub 10% body fat you’re just going to waste lean muscle mass away and make your body composition worse.

I think cycling filters anyone with 1% of the level of issue required to use those drugs out way before the elite level.

[unterhausen]

One person we know that's on ozempic says it makes them, "eat like a normal person." This doesn't seem like something that would work well for pros. Even the emaciated looking pro bike racers are probably eating enough food for 2 or 3 normal people.

[hypnos]

It is basically a naturally occurring gut peptide. Is there actually a method to screen for this?

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by benb

Seems extremely unlikely given the horrific and common side effects that would make it basically impossible to train.

100%

There is no way to use this as a performance enhancing drug - one of the reasons this works for diabetics is slowing the amount of blood sugar which will be detrimental to any sort of training.

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by hypnos

It is basically a naturally occurring gut peptide. Is there actually a method to screen for this?

Yes. It is a mimetic.

[edgerat]

was on it for three months, lost zero pounds, did have a handful of the side effects though.

[Wolfman]

I'm surrounded by many patients on it... I don't totally agree that the side effects are majorly severe for the majority, but do agree that, if you're optimizing your training and fitness with a goal beyond a BMI/scale weight, it's probably net negative.

There's some that use it for a kick-start and then, when they reach a target goal, drop back from weekly to every-other or every-third week injections, but we haven't seen how that's working out in the long haul yet. And although we haven't really been tracking muscle mass % when on it, it's anecdotally clear that many get less strong...

[Baron Blubba]

I know people who were on it. I went for a hike with one of them, very casual, they had to stop several times when they almost passed out.
Another person kept getting sick to the point of hospitalization.

To be fair, I don't remember exactly what the latter person's symptoms were and it's possible that they were not a side effect of the semaglutide injections. But they were definitely more sick more often while using it, and I don't think it's a coincidence.

The doctor who prescribed the semaglutide in both cases encouraged the people to try it, and neither one was obese. One had plateaued with weight loss at an overweight state but a far far cry from obesity.
The other person, a 5'8" male, had maybe 20 lbs to lose in order to be positively trim looking.
In both cases, a simple alteration in diet and exercise would have been sufficient for healthy weight losses.
Doing anything that screws with the brain-stomach relationship on such a fundamental level seems like a very bad idea.

[rothwem]

Originally Posted by Baron Blubba

Doing anything that screws with the brain-stomach relationship on such a fundamental level seems like a very bad idea.

For very obese people, they got that way because their brain-stomach relationship is already screwed. I *do* think that Ozempic is overprescribed and that it is a poor substitute for healthy habits, but most of the very very obese people out there have no signals to build that healthy lifestyle off of.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by .RJ

100%

There is no way to use this as a performance enhancing drug - one of the reasons this works for diabetics is slowing the amount of blood sugar which will be detrimental to any sort of training.

At the pro level, I'd tend to agree.

But, for the Masters racer? I could see using it in cycles to manage weight.

The amount of food tolerated by users seems to vary between people and also based on dose.

[benb]

The people I know who have taken it are all obese, it would amaze me if anyone got a prescription for it without really needing it. I don't know if they miraculously found a way to make huge amounts more of it but I had been reading there was a big shortage of it, and they wanted it going to diabetics first and then people with very serious obesity issues.

You read some of the articles by people who have been on it and they will say things like "I didn't eat anything today".

It seems to have very very powerful effects on some people.

Everyone I know has alluded to very serious GI side effects.

Maybe there is some weird non-approved way someone could microdose it, but I thought it was already miniscule doses and to take 1/10th the prescribed dose might not be easy. The prescribed doses are < 1mg IIRC.

[.RJ]

Originally Posted by Alistair

But, for the Masters racer? I could see using it in cycles to manage weight.

Sure, but you would have to basically stop training while on it.

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by .RJ

Sure, but you would have to basically stop training while on it.

Even on the minimum dose used for weight less (0.25mg)? That's an eighth of the smallest dose used for diabetics (2mg) [IANAMD, doses are what I saw online for Wegovy and Ozempic]

Either way, I could see using it through the winter holiday season to avoid weight gain, or maybe during a low-volume base training block. I agree that using it through a build period or race season would be a bad idea.