What this quiz is scoring
The six questions are the risk areas from the Muscle-Risk Audit — the traffic-light self-check in the Muscle Preservation Blueprint. Each answer is worth 0, 1, or 2 points, and the total is expressed as a score out of 100.
What matters is why these six and not others. Every one of them is a variable that clinical research ties to how a deficit splits between fat and lean tissue — and five of the six are things you can change this week.
| Factor | Why it’s scored |
|---|---|
| Rate of weight loss | The single biggest muscle-risk variable. A body in a deep, fast deficit pulls fuel from muscle as well as fat. Roughly 1% of body weight per week or less is the pace muscle and skin cope with best. |
| Protein intake | Without enough raw material, muscle protein synthesis cannot hold ground against the deficit. The target is 3–4 planned protein feedings of 30 g or more, not a daily total hit by accident. |
| Resistance training | The mechanical signal that tells your body this tissue is doing work and should not be burned. No supplement replicates it, and cardio does not send it. |
| Everyday strength | The most honest read available without a DXA scan. Stairs, groceries, and rising from a chair should get easier as you lose weight. If they are getting harder, strength is falling faster than body weight explains. |
| Fluids, digestion, and energy | A tolerance signal. Vomiting, dehydration, or faintness means the deficit is too deep for your current intake — and that is a prescriber conversation before it is a training one. |
| Age | Anabolic resistance rises with age: the same protein and the same training build less muscle after 40 than before it. Not a problem, but it does raise the required dose of both. |
What your score band means
75–100, Protected. The fundamentals are in place. The work now is holding them through dose escalations, which is exactly when most people slip — appetite drops further, training gets skipped, and a protected score quietly becomes a fork-in-the-road one.
45–74, At The Fork. The most common result, and the most useful one. Nothing has gone badly wrong. But the yellow answers are the ones that turn red over the following 8–12 weeks if nothing changes. Pick the lowest-scoring row and fix that one first rather than trying to fix everything.
Under 45, High Risk. This is the pattern that muscle loss, strength decline, and drug intolerance come from. It is not a verdict — every row in the quiz is modifiable, and the two with the largest effect (protein and resistance training) are also the two that move fastest.
What to do with the result
A score is only useful if it changes what you do on Monday. In order of leverage:
- Fix protein first. It is the highest-leverage variable and the one most people are furthest from. Get your exact daily and per-meal numbers from the protein calculator, and the reasoning behind them from how much protein you actually need on Ozempic.
- Add the loading signal. Two to three resistance sessions a week is the minimum effective dose, and it does not require a gym — the best exercises to preserve muscle on GLP-1 drugs covers the four movement patterns that matter.
- Check your pace. If you are losing much faster than about 1% of body weight per week, that is a titration conversation with your prescriber, not a failure of willpower.
- Understand what you’re seeing. If you want the full picture behind the warning signs — what they feel like and how to track them month to month — Are You Losing Muscle On Ozempic? is the long-form version of this quiz.
- Then consider creatine. Once protein and training are consistent, creatine is the one supplement with enough evidence to add next. Not before.
Frequently asked questions
How accurate is a muscle loss quiz without a body composition scan?
It is directional, not diagnostic. A DXA scan is the gold standard and nothing replaces it. What this quiz does is score the six behaviours and signals that clinical research associates with lean-mass loss during a caloric deficit — rate of loss, protein, resistance training, functional strength, tolerance, and age. Those factors are what actually drive the outcome, so scoring them tells you whether you are on a protective track or a risky one, even without a scan.
What does my score actually mean?
Scores are grouped into three bands. 75–100 is Protected: the fundamentals are in place, and the job is holding them through dose escalations. 45–74 is At The Fork: nothing has gone badly wrong yet, but without a counter-protocol the yellow answers tend to become red ones over the following 8–12 weeks. Below 45 is High Risk: the answers match the pattern that muscle loss, strength decline, and drug intolerance come from. Every factor in the quiz is modifiable, which is the point of scoring them.
Why does the quiz ask my age?
Because anabolic resistance is real and it changes the required dose of everything else. The same protein intake and the same training session build measurably less muscle at 60 than at 30. Age is not something you can change, but it does determine how aggressive the protein and training targets need to be, so leaving it out would make the score misleading for the people most at risk.
I got a red flag answer. What should I do?
Red answers — losing weight very fast while feeling weak or unable to eat, most days low-protein from nausea, vomiting or dehydration or faintness — are signals to talk to your prescriber or a dietitian before changing anything else. Specifically, do not add hard training on top of a body that cannot currently eat or hydrate. That sequence makes things worse, not better.
Does this quiz work for Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound too?
Yes. The mechanism is the same across the class: appetite suppression produces a large caloric deficit, and a body in deficit draws on muscle as well as fat unless protein and resistance training give it a reason not to. Tirzepatide tends to produce more total loss and faster, which raises the stakes on the same fundamentals rather than changing them.
Is the quiz free, and do I have to give my email?
The quiz is free and your score appears immediately without an email. The optional email step is only for the free 12-page audit workbook that goes with the score — a protein log, the low-appetite hierarchy, and the tracking sheets. You can read your result and leave.