New pill builds muscles 'as good as gym' without working out

A pill has been touted as helping to build muscle 'as good as the gym' after the first test was conducted on humans.

The pill is called ATR-258, and may be a way to help patients who are taking GLP-1 drugs in order to lose weight.

While GLP-1 medications have been shown to be extremely effective in helping people to lose weight, one of the potential side effects can be that in addition to losing fat, patients can also lose muscle.

This can be mitigated with a properly managed program of exercise to help someone to maintain muscle while they lose fat, as well as improving their overall fitness from the exercise.

However, it is possible that the pill could offer an alternative way to help people to avoid losing muscle, which could be useful for patients who may struggle to maintain an exercise program due to underlying health conditions, for example.

The drug is still in early developmental stages, but its developers hope that it could also help to support a program of exercise in addition to any benefits it may provide.

In the study at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, thirteen men who were overweight were given the tablets each day for eight weeks.

The small scale study gave promising results (Getty Stock)

By the end of the trial, the study found that the men had lost an average of around 1.1kg, and gained around 800g of muscle, while their leg strength was 13 percent higher.

People participating in the trial did not report any stomach issues or soreness from the trial, which are both common side effects of GLP-1 medication.

The pill works by triggering receptors in the muscles to absorb blood sugar, which they then burn and produce more muscle fibres.

This is still a very early stage of the development and trials, but developers Atrogi hope that this initial test has produced promising enough results for them to now try more trials and investigate further.

The study's principle investigator Morten Hostrup said in a statement: "These findings give us a genuinely intriguing signal about the role of GRK2-biased signalling in muscle physiology, and a strong rationale for taking ATR-258 forward into larger clinical trials.”

Paul Little, CEO of Atrogi, said: “We got fat loss at the same time as muscle gain . . . and the muscle is functional, too.

The developers have also suggested that results could be improved with exercise (Getty Stock)

“What we’re seeing gained is essentially the amount of muscle power you’d lose over four to five years of ageing.

“The results look as good as the gym. It’s exciting because we didn’t have to tell the patients to change their lifestyle.

“People talked about how they found it easier to carry their shopping up the stairs.”

Professor Tore Bengtsson is the Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of Atrogi, and said: “These first clinical data give us important confidence that our approach is translating. To see fat loss alongside an increase in lean muscle mass and improvement in muscle function represents a truly differentiated profile, and is highly encouraging.

"We are immensely proud and thankful to the investigators of this trial, which represents an important milestone in Atrogi's journey.

"Beyond muscle-sparing weight loss, we believe this mechanism also warrants investigation in sarcopenia and rare diseases marked by substantial muscle loss and weakness.”