How you can Coach GLP-1 Purchasers: 7 Sorts to Know

Reviewed by Brian St. Pierre, MS, RD

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“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 accessible in 2017, it initially felt like a theoretical risk. Prescription charges have been nonetheless very low; it appeared like nobody truly knew anybody who was taking it.

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

With wider use, opinions in the direction of the treatment have softened too. Most coaches now not see it as a risk, and somewhat recognize it as a priceless device for sure shoppers, with teaching as an additive complement.

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

Nevertheless, 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 way in which you consider your work on this area:

“As a coach, you’re not within the GLP-1 world; you’re within the GLP-1 assist 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 “individuals on GLP-1s,” however somewhat “individuals on GLP-1s who need assist.”

Attempting to teach everybody taking a GLP-1 simply isn’t attainable. And spending time excited about all of the individuals utilizing GLP-1s “the flawed manner” is, bluntly, wasted vitality. A few of these individuals simply don’t need, want, or aren’t prepared on your assist.

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

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

Let’s get into it.

The 7 forms of GLP-1 shoppers

Earlier than we start, a reminder: Individuals change, and readiness isn’t mounted.

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

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

Basically, Coach Kate says somebody is often prepared for teaching once they show two issues:

• Their difficulty feels essential, pressing, or distressing: Taking higher care of their well being feels particularly priceless proper now. (“This actually issues to me.”)
• They really feel they’ve the capability to dedicate some sources to the difficulty: Be it time, cash, or each, they’re prepared to simply accept some form of value. (“I’ve house to cope with this.”)

Maintain that behind your thoughts as you work together with consumer prospects, and as you learn in regards to the consumer sorts, which we’ve summarized within the under desk.

Shopper Sort	Readiness Degree	Teaching Transfer
The Honeymooner	Very Low	Construct rapport and encourage reflection, whereas additionally respecting their option to not pursue teaching in the event that they’re not prepared but.
The Ambivalent Candidate	Low-to-moderate
The Ready-to-Quitter	Average	Deliver consciousness to alternatives and dangers—particularly, that strategic diet and coaching could make treatment extra tolerable and safer long run.
The Muscle-Loss Risk	Average
The Under-Fueler	Average-to-Excessive
The Graduate	Excessive	Discontinuing treatment could make shoppers really feel weak, realizing the chance of regain is excessive. Mood expectations and work on sustaining habits—which is the perfect guess to maintain outcomes.
The Priced-Out	Excessive

Now, on to our GLP-1 consumer sorts.

Shopper Sort #1: The Honeymooner

That is the one that’s began a GLP-1 treatment—they usually adore it.

They’ve skilled minimal unwanted 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 treatment has taken care of), however they’re seeing what they wish to see on the size, so that they don’t really feel motivated to alter something.

Teaching transfer:

It could be tempting to “lure” this type of consumer in by warning them of the risks of utilizing a GLP-1 treatment with out including in long-term well being behaviors (like resistance coaching and strategic diet), however any such method 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 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 wish to assist them “repair” it.

Nevertheless, 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 individual but.”

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

For instance, you might say: “It should really feel so good to see all these optimistic outcomes! For those who ever really feel such as you wish to work on one other layer, like resistance coaching or optimizing your diet, I’d like to work collectively.”

Then, simply keep accessible. (“My door is all the time open!”)

Shopper Sort #2: The Ambivalent Candidate

That is the one that hasn’t began a GLP-1 treatment—and may by no means, regardless of being an important candidate for one.

Perhaps their physician has already prompt the treatment to them and they’ve learn every thing they’ll on the subject.

And but, they’re frozen with worry on the beginning line. They’re afraid of unwanted effects, of being on treatment for all times, of not holding up their finish of the discount. (“I’ve been making an attempt to begin energy coaching for years. If I take this treatment 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 instances, a consumer’s hesitation isn’t about unwanted effects. “A few of our shoppers marvel, ‘Am I an excellent individual or a nasty individual if I begin taking a GLP-1 treatment? Am I weak? Am I giving up?’” Coach Toni says these issues aren’t distinctive to GLP-1 medicines, however they appear to be particularly frequent.

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

Whatever the root reason behind this individual’s hesitation, the recommendation under can assist them discover readability.

Teaching transfer:

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

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

So the query turns into: How do you assist somebody by means of a choice you may’t make for them?

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

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

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

Drawback is, with out the precise 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, now we have a cool train to cope with consumer ambivalence. It’s referred to 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 can assist a consumer discover the chance of beginning a GLP-1 (which they’ve most likely 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 issues 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” final result. Some individuals work by means of it and fill the prescription. Others resolve the treatment isn’t for them, and that’s advantageous. (It’s additionally price reminding shoppers that beginning isn’t essentially everlasting: With their supplier’s enter, a trial run on the treatment is a superbly legitimate manner in.)

Both manner, there are alternatives to assist 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 basically the identical.”

Shopper Sort #3: The Prepared-to-Quitter

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

In a merciless twist, this individual may truly be seeing nice fats loss outcomes. And but, they’re nauseated, exhausted, dreading their subsequent dose, and questioning whether or not it’s price persevering with this treatment.

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 nicely for my good friend! I should be damaged indirectly.”)

Teaching transfer:

First, supply some impartial schooling to depersonalize their expertise.

Specifically, they need to know that unwanted effects are extraordinarily frequent: About half of customers report nausea, a 3rd report diarrhea, and a fifth report vomiting.¹ So, what this individual thinks is phenomenal may truly simply be a standard adjustment. (This doesn’t make the expertise suck much less, however it may give them some hope.)

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

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

After that, your finest teaching transfer is to recommend 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 effects, they’ve ratcheted up their dose too rapidly. Typically the best option to hold anyone on a GLP-1 who’s experiencing excessive unwanted 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 by day—simply across the meals that precede the worst signs. You’re on the lookout for three issues:

• Fats content material: GLP-1 medicines decelerate digestion. That is what contributes to its satiety results, but additionally its unwanted 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, because of the 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 directly.
• Random triggers: Spicy meals, tomatoes, chocolate, caffeine. All types of meals might set off signs like nausea, acid reflux disease, or diarrhea in a consumer who used to tolerate them. These meals gained’t all the time be apparent GLP-1 symptom triggers, so one of the best ways to hunt them down is by way of a meals log.

▶ Attempt smaller parts, eaten extra usually. Coach Toni says if you happen to solely strive one factor, this one is probably the most dependable technique. GLP-1 shoppers could also be tempted to chop meals when signs are excessive, however this will increase the chance of undereating and nutrient deficiencies. The aim, 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: “Of us 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 provided a “prescription” (which coaches can’t legally do). Within the second instance, you’ve provided an experiment to think about.

Shopper Sort #4: The Muscle-Loss Danger

That is the individual whose outcomes look nice, however much less seen adjustments are creating long term dangers.

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

Girls 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 ladies did (or have been welcomed to do).

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

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

Teaching transfer:

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

Nevertheless, theoretical warnings about muscle loss are straightforward to dismiss.

This is likely 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 who begins a GLP-1 treatment 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 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 match to over time. Declines in any of those areas can reveal potential muscle loss, and may inspire a consumer to take motion.

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

As a way to stop 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. Intention 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 generally is a extra palatable option to attain that focus on.)

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

Shopper Sort #5: The Underneath-Fueler

That is the individual for whom the treatment has labored a little bit too nicely.

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 believe?”

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

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

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

Teaching transfer:

Earlier than anything: If there’s an energetic consuming dysfunction within the image, this treatment doubtless 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 apply first. Ask this individual 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 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 truly taking a look at—and that begins with what Coach Toni calls the “present me” method.

Relatively than performing on a hunch, accumulate one thing concrete, equivalent 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 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 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 treatment has eliminated it, they want a distinct cue. Meaning consuming on a schedule, doubtless each 3–4 hours, together with protein at each a kind of events. Parts could 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 manner that feels purposely avoidant—that resistance itself is info.

Coach Toni means that if you happen to suspect that disordered consuming is within the image and a consumer is de facto 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 need you to know this can be a secure house to speak. My aim as a coach is all the time to prioritize your total well being. Nevertheless, 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 fundamental wants.”

Then identify the precise stuff you seen, sticking to info. (“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 occurring, or telling your physician about your signs?”)

If this dialog is sufficient to assist a consumer see the worth in monitoring, comply with 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 assist as wanted.

Shopper Sort #6: The Graduate

That is the one that received the outcomes they needed with the treatment, and is now selecting to wean off.

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

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 completely different endurance course: The treatment has been managing their urge for food, and now they need to.

Teaching transfer:

Ideally, you begin working with this consumer whereas the treatment remains to be doing a few of the heavy lifting with urge for food regulation. For those who can have six months to construct the precise habits in addition to put together mentally for the really fizzling out interval, your consumer can be in a a lot better place.

Make certain 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 tense, most side-effect-disrupted days, then they’re extra doubtless to have the ability to preserve them once they’re off their treatment 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 sincere in regards to the odds, too. Individuals who modified nothing whereas on the treatment nearly universally regain a lot of the weight—often throughout the first yr and a half or so³—as a result of the urge for food that went down comes proper again up.

Nevertheless, individuals who combine and maintain more healthy diet and train behaviors whereas they’re on treatment are 4 occasions higher at sustaining a ten % or larger weight reduction once they come off the treatment.⁴

Shopper Sort #7: The Priced-Out

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

Perhaps 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 treatment throughout the first yr of utilizing it.⁵ Some cease as a consequence of unwanted effects, and others cease as a result of they’ve gotten the outcomes they need they usually wish to see if they’ll preserve them drug-free. However many are merely priced out. The latter is an particularly irritating state of affairs as a result of, for this individual, a “resolution” exists. It’s simply that, for them, the answer is out of attain.

Understandably, this individual could also be offended and even ashamed that they’ll’t afford this treatment. These emotions might or might not present up in your teaching, however it’s good to arrange for them anyway.

Teaching transfer:

First, reassure this person who this can be a system failure, not a private one.

Whether or not somebody can entry reasonably priced treatment comes all the way down to their insurance coverage plan, the area they dwell in, and their socioeconomic standing—often known 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 exhausting somebody has tried or how “worthy” they’re.

Acknowledging that actuality isn’t about throwing up your palms and saying, “Nicely, I’m screwed!” Relatively, it’s about accepting some depressing truths in regards to 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 deal with what they can management.

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

Entry, value, and protection will not be on the record 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 possibly their subsequent insurance coverage attraction.

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

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

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

Nevertheless, weight loss plan and way of life habits massively have an effect on what variety 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 treatment 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 medicines as long-term remedy—the identical manner 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 have been nonetheless on the treatment. Like nothing adjustments.”

She shares an analogy for why that works:

“Take into consideration the Oregon Path. The ruts within the path have been made by wagon wheels hitting the identical floor time and again and over. You possibly can nonetheless see these ruts at present—they’re nonetheless there. Habits are the identical manner: For those who lay down these neural pathways and reinforce them sufficient occasions whereas your consumer is on the treatment, then they’ll have a greater likelihood of continuous on the identical path even once they go off the treatment.”

In order that’s the precise promise.

It’s not: “You’ll hold it off.”

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

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

“Ideally, your consumer could have embraced the identification of a ‘new individual.’ 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 nicely.’ That’s the consumer who maintains.”

References

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

For those who’re a coach, otherwise you wish to be…

You possibly can assist individuals construct sustainable diet and way of life habits that can considerably enhance their bodily and psychological well being—when you make an important dwelling doing what you like. We’ll present you the way.

For those who’d wish to be taught extra, contemplate the PN Degree 1 Diet Teaching Certification. (You possibly can enroll now at an enormous low cost.)