Why Do People Move Less After Starting Zepbound or Wegovy? What New Research Found

Share this article via:

Quick Answer: A 2026 study found that people taking GLP-1 medications like Zepbound and Wegovy took fewer steps and exercised less after starting treatment — the opposite of what most people expect. Researchers think muscle loss, joint pain, and a “the medication’s handling it” mindset may all be part of why. Here’s what the data actually shows, and a few low-effort ways to stay ahead of it.

Here’s an assumption almost everyone makes (including me!) until I read this study: lose weight, and moving around gets easier, so naturally you start moving more.

Makes sense, right? Except that’s not what actually happens for most people.

Do GLP-1 Users Actually Move Less? Here’s What the Study Found

Researchers presented findings at ENDO 2026, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, after tracking 753 adults with obesity who started a GLP-1 medication. They used real Fitbit data pulled from the NIH’s All of Us Research Program — not the kind of study where people just guess how active they’ve been, but actual step counts, before and after.

The results: average daily steps dropped from 5,047 to 4,487. Time spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity fell from about 28 minutes a day to 22.

The declines were steepest in men and in people who already had joint or muscle pain. And here’s the part that surprised the researchers themselves — there was no evidence that losing weight on these medications led to more activity, at any point.

So if you’ve noticed yourself moving a little less since starting your medication, you’re not imagining it, and you’re definitely not alone. This appears to be the norm, not the exception.

READ NEXT: Why You Feel Like a Zombie on Zepbound (and How to Fix Your Energy Levels)

Why Zepbound and Wegovy May Make You Less Active

The honest answer is that researchers aren’t entirely sure yet — but the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Sajana Maharjan, has offered a few real leads, and she’s upfront about which ones are more solid than others.

• Muscle loss may be creating a bit of a feedback loop. A meaningful share of the weight lost on these medications is muscle, not just fat. Less muscle can mean less physical capacity and less natural drive to move — which means less activity, which can mean even more muscle loss. It’s the kind of quiet spiral that’s easy to miss until it’s already underway.

• Joint or muscle pain may be holding people back even as the scale drops. This lines up with the data: people who already had joint or muscle pain saw the steepest declines in activity. Makes sense — losing weight doesn’t erase existing pain overnight, even if it eventually helps.

• There may be a mental shift, too. Maharjan herself flags this one as the most speculative of the three: some people may feel like the medication is “handling” the weight loss, so exercise starts to feel less necessary than it used to. Totally human reaction — just worth noticing in yourself if it’s happening.

One detail makes the muscle-loss and pain explanations more convincing: the drop in activity showed up no matter how much weight someone had to lose.

If this were simply about carrying less weight making movement physically easier, you’d expect the pattern to look different for people with more weight to lose versus less. It didn’t. That rules out the simplest explanation and points toward something more biological or behavioral going on.

Why This Actually Matters (Especially to your muscles!)

This isn’t just a curious side note. GLP-1 medications already come with a known risk of losing muscle along with fat — it’s something we’ve covered before.

Pair that with quietly moving less, and you’ve got two things working against your muscle at the same time instead of just one. Neither is a dealbreaker on its own, but together, they’re worth paying attention to.

A Few Ways to Stay Ahead of It

Nobody’s asking you to train for a marathon here. These are meant to be realistic, not another item on your to-do list that adds guilt.

• Notice it first. This kind of decline tends to happen gradually enough that you don’t clock it in the moment — you just feel a little less like doing things. Tracking your steps (more on cheap and free ways to do that below) is the easiest way to catch it early instead of realizing it six months in.
• Set a floor, not a goal. A short daily walk — even ten minutes — does more for consistency than an ambitious plan you’ll abandon in two weeks.
• Add a little resistance work. A couple of short sessions a week, even just bodyweight or light bands, is specifically about protecting muscle, not about becoming a gym person.
• Bring pain up instead of working around it. If joint or muscle pain is part of why you’re moving less, that’s worth mentioning to your prescriber directly — there may be more support available than you realize.
• Anchor movement to something you already do. A walk right after your weekly injection, or during a phone call you were going to take anyway, tends to stick better than relying on motivation alone.

PRO TIP: It never hurts to look at your protein intake too. Check out this article next: How to Hit Your Daily Protein Goals on GLP-1 Without Overeating.

How Can You Track Your Steps & Movement Without Buying Anything?

Save

You don’t need a fitness tracker to catch a decline early — there’s a good chance you already have one in your pocket.

• iPhone: The Health app comes pre-installed and tracks your steps automatically using your phone’s built-in motion sensor. No setup, no extra app, completely free — just carry your phone with you the way you normally would.
• Android: Most Android phones track steps automatically too, through Google Fit or the phone maker’s built-in health app (Samsung Health, and similar). Also free, also usually already there.
• These won’t catch every single step — if your phone’s sitting on the counter while you’re moving around the house, that time won’t count. But they’re accurate enough to spot a trend, which is really what matters here. You’re not chasing a perfect number, you’re watching for whether this month looks different than last month.

If you’re just starting a GLP-1 medication, this is a great moment to check your current step count and just let it sit as your baseline. Then a month or two in, take a look again.

If you want more precision down the road, a basic fitness band or a Fitbit is an inexpensive step up, and something like an Apple Watch is the most full-featured option — but none of that is required to get started. The free option already on your phone is enough.

Quick Self-Check

• Has my energy for everyday movement quietly dropped since I started this medication?
• Do I have joint or muscle pain I’ve been pushing through instead of addressing?
• Have I been assuming the medication is “doing the work,” so moving more feels optional?

If any of those land, that’s useful to know — not something to feel bad about.

Can GLP-1 Medication Make You Less Active? FAQs

Does Zepbound or Wegovy cause fatigue that explains this? Fatigue is a commonly reported side effect, especially early on or after a dose increase, and it’s reasonable that feeling more tired could contribute to moving less. But the research on activity decline didn’t single out fatigue specifically — it points more toward muscle loss, pain, and behavior as the likely factors.

Do I actually have to exercise for my GLP-1 medication to work? The medication itself doesn’t require exercise to produce weight loss. But this research is exactly why exercise still matters — it’s one of the best tools for protecting the muscle these medications can take along with fat.

How much movement is actually enough to make a difference? You don’t need a formal workout plan. Consistent daily movement, even in small amounts, plus a little resistance work each week, goes a long way toward protecting muscle — more than any single big effort here and there.

Will muscle I’ve already lost come back if I get more active later? Muscle generally responds well to resistance training and adequate protein, even after some has been lost — but the easier path is catching a decline early rather than rebuilding after the fact.

Is this the same thing as the “Ozempic energy crash” people talk about online? Not exactly. What people describe as an energy crash is usually about how they feel day to day, while this research measured actual movement patterns over time. They can certainly be related, but they’re not the same thing.

Do I need a Fitbit or Apple Watch to notice if my activity is declining? No. Most smartphones already track steps for free — the Health app on iPhone and Google Fit or Samsung Health on Android both do this automatically in the background. It’s not perfectly precise, but it’s more than accurate enough to notice a trend, which is really what matters here.

This article reflects current research as of publication and isn’t a substitute for individualized medical advice.

Sources:

• The Endocrine Society, “Exercise decreases among people taking GLP-1 medication” (2026)
• Medscape, “Weight Down, Steps Down: The GLP-1 Catch” (2026)
• Healio, “Exercise declined in patients with obesity after starting a GLP-1” (2026)
• ScienceDaily, “People taking GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Ozempic started moving less” (2026)

Share this article via: