Topics Approved By

Topics

Approved By

Provider: Diabetes Motion Academy, LLC
Type: Online Course
CEC Credits: ACE 0.1 CECs

Support clients across a range of health and weight-management goals, including those with diabetes, with practical movement and lifestyle strategies for navigating weight-loss medications.

Prescription weight-loss medications are changing the conversations fitness professionals are having with clients, especially those managing overweight, obesity, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes. This course gives you an overview of how body weight can affect health and physical activity, how current and emerging medications work, and where fitness pros can provide meaningful support. You will learn why movement, resistance training, nutrition habits, and daily activity remain essential even when medication is part of a client's care plan.

Led by Sheri R. Colberg, PhD, FACSM, an international expert on diabetes and exercise, the course connects medication education with practical coaching considerations for health and fitness professionals. You will explore GLP-1 receptor agonists, GIP-related medications, common side effects, discontinuation challenges, and the importance of medical oversight. The content also emphasizes scope-aware support, helping you understand the medication landscape without stepping into diagnosis, prescribing, or medical treatment decisions.

Most importantly, this course brings the conversation back to what fitness professionals do best: helping people move more, build strength, preserve muscle, and create healthier routines they can sustain. You will review aerobic, resistance, flexibility, balance, dietary, and daily-movement strategies that can support fat loss, metabolic health, and weight maintenance. Use what you learn to better serve clients who are using or asking about weight-loss medications while strengthening your professional relevance in a rapidly evolving area of practice.

Upon completion, you will be able to:

  • Explain how excess body weight, diabetes, and physical inactivity can affect health, wellbeing, and exercise participation.
  • Describe major prescription weight-loss medication classes and how GLP-1, GIP, and related gut-hormone actions may support weight loss.
  • Recognize common side effects, reasons clients may stop medication, and lifestyle habits that can support safer, more sustainable progress.