Hi —
I want to talk about metabolism this week — specifically the thing that's almost never mentioned when people are trying to lose weight and can't figure out why it isn't working.
It's not your diet. Or at least, it's not only your diet.
It's your muscle.
Every pound of lean muscle on your body burns approximately 6 calories per day at rest. That sounds modest until you do the math: lose 10 pounds of muscle — which happens quietly through your 40s and 50s without deliberate effort to preserve it — and your daily calorie burn drops by 60 calories. Over a year, that adds up to more than 6 pounds of fat gained without changing a single thing you eat.
This is the mechanism behind the slow metabolic decline most people attribute to "just aging." It's real. But it's driven by muscle loss, not some irreversible biological clock.
Here's what I see clinically: patients on GLP-1 medications — semaglutide, tirzepatide, retatrutide — who are losing weight but not protecting their muscle. The medication reduces appetite. Reduced appetite usually means reduced protein intake. Reduced protein means the body starts breaking down muscle for fuel. The scale moves. But the underlying metabolic foundation gets weaker with every pound lost.
The fix is not complicated. Resistance training two to three times per week. Protein targets of 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of goal body weight — distributed across meals, not crammed into one. And if you're on a weight loss medication, this piece of the conversation should be happening with your provider. If it isn't, ask for it.
At NOVA, muscle preservation is built into every weight loss plan. Because the goal is never just the number on the scale. It's the body composition underneath it — the lean, metabolically active tissue that determines whether results last.
Worth knowing this week
Creatine monohydrate is one of the most studied and most underused supplements for adults over 40. Beyond its well-documented benefits for muscle strength and performance, emerging research supports meaningful benefits for cognitive function and bone density — particularly in postmenopausal women, who have significantly lower endogenous creatine stores than men. Five grams per day. Inexpensive. Well-tolerated. And it works best when paired with resistance training — it amplifies an existing stimulus rather than creating one on its own.
From the blog
Why Low Muscle Mass Is Slowing Your Metabolism — And What to Do About It
The full clinical picture on muscle, metabolism, and why the standard advice to "just eat less and move more" misses the most important variable entirely.
→ Read it at novawellnessut.com/blog
See you in two weeks. Reply any time.
Matt Nelson, FNP
Founder, NOVA Wellness · Orem, Utah
(801) 449-1402 · novawellnessut.com