Strength Training on Foundayo
Foundayo (orforglipron) is a once-daily tablet licensed in the UK for weight management alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. For people who already lift, or who have been told they should start, that last phrase raises a narrower question than general exercise: what happens to the barbell, the weight machines or the resistance band once the tablet is part of the day?
What follows draws on public forum threads. They are personal accounts, not evidence of how often anything happens or why, and most of the writers are in the US.
The accounts cover lifters who carried on, people for whom the plan is still a plan, strength work done with a bad back or an office chair, the arithmetic of protein, and the awkward matter of measuring any of it.
Lifting, More or Less as Usual
Some of the clearest accounts come from people whose training was already routine before the first tablet. Six weeks in, one writer lays out a week built around lifting, rucking or walking, and counting everything that goes in.
"I'm down 18 pounds in 6 weeks. No side effects. I lift 4x weekly, ruck or walk 5x weekly, count every calorie, and aim for 200g+ protein daily."
– LiftingCode
Gym-based routines appear in the same matter-of-fact way, tucked inside a longer post about appetite and side effects. Here the weights are one item in a morning that begins with weighing in and taking the tablet.
"Then I go to the gym. Over the past three weeks, I've only missed the gym one day. I walk on the treadmill for 65 minutes at a pace where I average 2.8 miles. I work out at weight machines three times a week."
– Spiritual_Sea0613
Age shapes how the habit is described. For one person, a short daily session with weights is something to be done rather than debated.
"Also, I lift weights everyday - maybe for 15 to 30 mins. I am older and need to do that […]"
– PublicPrior3296
Not everyone is at that point, though, and a good many accounts are about the distance between meaning to lift and doing it.
The Plan That Hasn't Started Yet
Strength training shows up in these threads as an intention almost as often as a habit. Two months in, one poster had changed their walking and their waistline, and still had one item outstanding.
"(Still haven’t added a 3rd day of resistance training, though, I don’t know why that feels so tough to do.)"
– UnitedAside4734
For another, the gap has lasted longer and has a different shape. Years of steady walking have left a routine that works, and the suggestion of something heavier comes from the doctor rather than from the poster.
"I've been walking about 10,000 steps a day 6 days a week for years. Doctor wants me to do some strength training, but for now it's just walking."
– Ned-Racine80
Earlier in the journey, a poster just under two weeks into the starter dose had yet to begin exercising at all and was mapping out the order of things.
"Haven’t started exercising yet but plan to start daily walks and add resistance training."
– LongjumpingFact777
Reasons are rarely given. Elsewhere, the limit is plain: a back, a knee or a dislike of gyms changes what lifting can mean.
Strength Without the Gym
Not every account involves a rack or a membership. For people with injuries, pain or no wish to be in a gym, the same word covers something much smaller.
"I also have a bad back and a bum knee, all on the same side. I do leg lifts sitting at my office dest and also do seated arm curls with light weights. Every bit of exertion helps, […]"
– JGonzoX3
There is also the cheerful refusal. Eighty days in, and almost 40 pounds down according to the post title, one person describes a routine of weighted balls and walking on the spot, and does not do gyms.
"I don’t do gyms. I don’t do deadlifting. I’m hydrating and living, y’all."
– Finnatically
Whatever form it takes, strength work sits beside a preoccupation that is more about the plate than the weights.
Protein and the Pressure to Count It
In threads about lifting, protein comes up almost by reflex, often as a number. Someone who exercises daily and is working towards more strength training describes the figure they have been given and how often they reach it.
"I exercise daily. Working on adding more strength training. I feel alive since I now eat fairly healthy. The one thing I struggle with is protein. I'm supposed to be eating 162.2 grams daily. I struggle hitting that number. I'd say i'd hit that number 3 times. Most days I get about 110 grams. Maybe 120."
– cupofj47
The opposite reaction comes from someone three weeks in, who found the figures themselves to be a source of strain until a dietitian had been consulted.
"[…] high-protein is pushed a lot in the other glp1 spaces and in the broader (diet) culture as well, but it can be overhyped and it personally caused me a lot of stress trying to hit a certain amount per day before talking to my dietician about it."
– Ok-Sandwich2365
Between a target met three times and a target that causes stress, the accounts leave open what a reasonable figure would be, and the same uncertainty follows people to the scale.
What the Scale Doesn't Say
For people who train, the weekly weigh-in is a blunt instrument. One postmenopausal poster describes a high-protein diet and regular training before starting, with no movement on the scale to show for it.
"I eat a healthy pescatarian diet that’s high in protein and fiber, and I work out 3–4 times a week with a mix of strength training and cardio. Despite all of that, the scale hasn’t moved."
– inthehanginggarden
Another poster reports feeling leaner. After a month on the starter dose the number is modest, and a training habit that predates the tablet is offered as context for it.
"Down about 4 lbs so far (currently in a period-related water weight plateau, but feeling overall leaner). I’ve been strength training 4–6 times a week for 3 years, counting calories and eating in a caloric deficit."
– More_Cookie25
A third says the scale matters less, and the reasons given are about appearance rather than anything a scan would show.
"This makes perfect sense for those of us who lift on the regular. If you can get the V-taper and show definition, the scale is less important. I still weigh, but it matters less to me when my physique is drying out and showing all the work I have put in!"
– AlertWrangler5496
Taken together they describe three different ways of deciding whether strength work is paying off, none of them settled.
What Does Medino's Pharmacist Think?
"When losing weight on Foundayo, it's important to think about maintaining muscle as well as reducing body weight. Strength training can help preserve muscle mass during weight loss, particularly when combined with adequate protein intake. You don't need to lift heavy weights or go to the gym to benefit. Resistance bands, light dumbbells and bodyweight exercises can all be useful starting points. I'd encourage patients to build up gradually, choose exercises suited to their ability and focus on consistency rather than trying to achieve a particular number on the scales."
– Alessandro Grenci, Pharmacist at Medino
Many Kinds of Strength
Read together, these threads describe not one experience of lifting on Foundayo but a spread of them: the regular who simply carried on, the person with the plan still pending, the chair-based routine, the protein target one writer struggles to reach and another found stressful.
What the accounts share is that people are working these things out for themselves and then comparing notes with strangers, usually by describing what their own week looked like.
