Tesamorelin · research summary

Pharmacologic Treatments for the Preservation of Lean Body Mass During Weight Loss.

Journal of clinical medicine · 2026. Summary drawn from the study's full text. Each statement is followed by the exact sentence it comes from. This is a research summary, not medical advice.

Study type

Narrative review of randomized controlled trials and phase II/III trials
“The purpose of this narrative review is to discuss the mechanisms involved with lean body loss and capture the research landscape of the different classes of pharmacological agents being developed to address this problem.”

Subjects

Adults with overweight or obesity, including those with type 2 diabetes, undergoing weight loss interventions
“We queried PubMed, Medline, and Scopus for randomized controlled trials and phase II or phase III trials using key words to capture the breath of this topic—obesity, weight loss, muscle loss, lean mass, and muscle preservation.”

Reported findings

Weight loss via various methods is associated with a significant loss of lean body mass, with approximately 25% of total weight loss attributed to fat-free mass.
“In a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of caloric restriction on muscle mass it was found that 25.5% of weight loss was due to muscle mass in those without diabetes, and in those with T2DM, weight loss due to muscle mass loss was 27.5% of the total weight loss”
Pharmacological agents targeting the myostatin/activin pathway, such as bimagrumab and trevogrumab, have shown potential to preserve lean body mass during weight loss.
“The phase IIb BELIEVE trial looked at the effects of bimagrumab alone and in combination with semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity”
Enobosarm, a selective androgen receptor modulator, was associated with a reduction in lean body mass loss when combined with semaglutide.
“In the phase IIb QUALITY clinical trial, enobosarm’s use was associated with a 71% reduction in LBM loss and a 27% increase in fat mass loss, when taken in combination with semaglutide”

Limitations stated by the authors

The interpretation and analysis may be biased towards pharmacological agents that have been researched more extensively than others.
“The interpretation and analysis may have been biased towards pharmacological agents that have been researched more than the ones that have not.”

Source: PubMed 41598480 · DOI 10.3390/jcm15020541 · all study summaries

Subjects

Adults with overweight or obesity, including those with type 2 diabetes, undergoing weight loss interventions

“We queried PubMed, Medline, and Scopus for randomized controlled trials and phase II or phase III trials using key words to capture the breath of this topic—obesity, weight loss, muscle loss, lean mass, and muscle preservation.”

Reported findings

Weight loss via various methods is associated with a significant loss of lean body mass, with approximately 25% of total weight loss attributed to fat-free mass.

“In a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of caloric restriction on muscle mass it was found that 25.5% of weight loss was due to muscle mass in those without diabetes, and in those with T2DM, weight loss due to muscle mass loss was 27.5% of the total weight loss”

Pharmacological agents targeting the myostatin/activin pathway, such as bimagrumab and trevogrumab, have shown potential to preserve lean body mass during weight loss.

“The phase IIb BELIEVE trial looked at the effects of bimagrumab alone and in combination with semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity”

Enobosarm, a selective androgen receptor modulator, was associated with a reduction in lean body mass loss when combined with semaglutide.

“In the phase IIb QUALITY clinical trial, enobosarm’s use was associated with a 71% reduction in LBM loss and a 27% increase in fat mass loss, when taken in combination with semaglutide”