Mounjaro and Exercise: The Complete Guide

If you’ve been reading up on Mounjaro and how its active ingredient (tirzepatide) helps weight loss, you’ll undoubtedly have heard about the importance of taking the medication alongside regular exercise. But why is this the case?

The short answer is that pairing Mounjaro and exercise together with a healthy diet is the best possible method for achieving the results you’re looking for. Not only that, but staying active while taking weight loss injections can have an extremely positive impact on both your physical and mental health.

In this article, we’ll delve into the special relationship between Mounjaro and exercise, explaining why it’s important, providing example workout routines, and offering essential tips and tricks to help you achieve success. Let’s get started. 

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Can You Exercise on Mounjaro?

Absolutely! Exercise and Mounjaro go hand-in-hand, so it’s less about whether you can exercise on Mounjaro, but more that you should. When paired with a healthy lifestyle, physical activity can optimise tirzepatide’s effects, improve your cardiovascular health, and boost your mental wellbeing.

Some of the benefits of combining exercise and Mounjaro include:

• Increased weight loss results: Physical activity may enhance the fat loss effects of Mounjaro, reduce your appetite, and suppress cravings.
• Improved muscle tone: Strength training helps prevent muscle loss that often accompanies weight loss, allowing you to maintain a toned physique.
• Better heart health: Regular exercise can support your heart health, lowering the risk of heart disease and stroke, and reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels. 
• Improved mood: When you exercise, your body releases endorphins that boost your mood, alleviating stress and improving your overall mental health.
• Increased energy: Even light activities, such as walking, can help manage some Mounjaro side effects, including constipation and fatigue, making your weight loss journey more manageable. 
• Better bone health: Exercise, particularly strength or resistance training, helps build and maintain bone density, reducing the risk of injury and fractures. This is especially important as we age, because we are at a greater risk of developing conditions such as osteoporosis.

Why Do You Have to Exercise on Mounjaro?

Exercise doesn’t just complement Mounjaro’s effects; it enhances them. On its own, Mounjaro aids weight loss, but combining it with exercise yields the best results. While tirzepatide will bind to glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP) receptors to suppress your appetite and improve glucose metabolism, exercise will create a calorie deficit, build muscle, and improve your metabolism.

Clinical trials show that Mounjaro’s effectiveness is complemented by diet and exercise changes. Following a Mounjaro diet plan while taking the medication is important because, when your treatment ends, sticking to a healthy lifestyle is critical to maintain your achievements and prevent weight gain. 

Can You Lose Weight on Mounjaro Without Exercise?

Although it is possible to lose weight with tirzepatide alone, combining Mounjaro and exercise is the most effective way to achieve results. When it comes to losing weight, physical activity is a significant contributor, especially when combined with a calorie-controlled diet. These positive lifestyle changes can also help you maintain your weight beyond Mounjaro treatment.

A study published in The Lancet found that individuals on weight loss medications, such as Mounjaro, who also engaged in regular exercise, lost significantly more weight than those who used medication alone. The study also demonstrated that one year after treatment had ended, those who used a GLP-1 agonist alone gained 6kg more than those who stopped supervised exercise. They also regained 2.5 kg more than those who stopped combination treatment (weight loss jabs and exercise). However, it is essential to note that this study utilised generic liraglutide injections (Nevolat) rather than Mounjaro or its active ingredient, tirzepatide. 

In the SURMOUNT-1 trial, where the average weight loss on a weekly Mounjaro maintenance dose of 15mg was 22.5%, this was achieved alongside a lifestyle intervention consisting of:

• regular lifestyle counselling sessions
• a healthy diet with a daily deficit of 500 calories 
• at least 150 minutes of exercise per week

Overall, these studies strengthen the argument that exercise has a significant and lasting impact when combined with weight loss injections, compared to medication alone. 

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• Online prescription - No doctor visit

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What is the Best Mounjaro Exercise Plan?

While there is no specific Mounjaro exercise plan, consistency and variation are key. Whether you prefer cardio, strength training, HIIT, or a combination of all three, choosing activities you enjoy will make it easier to stick to your Mounjaro exercise routine.  

Here are some of the options to consider when looking to combine Mounjaro and exercise:

Cardiovascular Exercise

Cardio, also known as aerobic exercise, refers to activities that raise your heart and breathing rate. This enables your body to use more oxygen, so you can exercise for longer and improve the health of your heart and blood vessels. Cardio activities include things like:

• Walking: A low-impact and cost-effective way to stay active. 
• Jogging: A great way to enhance your endurance and burn fat, consider stepping up to jogging if walking becomes too easy.
• Cycling: A joint-friendly, cardio workout either on a bicycle or an exercise bike.
• Swimming: A low-impact, full-body workout that has little stress on the body, but is great for cardio and endurance.Dancing: Can be a great way to work out socially, and there are various styles to suit all abilities and ages.   
• Skipping: An excellent cardio workout that burns a high level of calories and provides a full-body workout. 
• Stair Climbing: A relatively low-impact workout that can improve cardiorespiratory fitness, even in short bursts.

All adults aged 19 to 64 should aim to complete at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, including cardio workouts. You should spread this out over several days and allow your body time to recover, preventing injury. 

Strength Training

Strength or resistance training is designed to increase muscle strength and power, involving the challenging of your muscles with resistance — either through weights, resistance bands, or your own body weight. Ideally, you should aim to complete strength activities that work all of your major muscle groups — legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms — twice a week. Resistance training will build muscle and boost your metabolism, preventing muscle loss and aiding weight loss. 

Examples of strength training exercises you can do on Mounjaro are:

• Bodyweight Exercises: These include activities such as push-ups, squats, planks, and lunges, which are easy to perform and utilise your own body weight as a point of resistance to improve muscle strength and tone.  
• Free Weights: Using equipment like kettlebells, dumbbells, and medicine balls to perform exercises such as squats, lunges, and bicep curls is an effective way to build strength, improve balance, and burn calories.
• Resistance Band: A great alternative to weights, offering a portable and budget-friendly way to work out.

You should incorporate strength training into your exercise routine 2 to 3 times per week, allowing your muscles to rest and recover between sessions. 

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT is a popular type of exercise that alternates between short bursts of intense exercise and brief periods of rest, pushing your heart rate to at least 80% of its maximum. HIIT is an effective way to burn calories and improve your cardiovascular fitness. Short bursts of running, burpees, jumping jacks, and stair climbers are all effective HIIT activities.   

Studies suggest that exercise, including HIIT, can help you lose, on average, 1.5 to 3.5 kilograms. Further research shows that HIIT has beneficial effects on blood glucose levels. Following a 12-week programme consisting of 4 HIIT sessions per week, participants’ peripheral insulin sensitivity was 20% higher the day after the final exercise session than pre-training. It’s also a great way to burn calories and improve carbohydrate and fat metabolism.

Alongside their health benefits, HIIT workouts are ideal for those with limited time to exercise, as they are typically completed in short bursts, such as 10 to 20 minutes. They are also highly adaptable, so you can increase their difficulty as your fitness improves and incorporate exercises you enjoy to stay motivated.  

Flexibility Training

Stretching activities, such as yoga and Pilates, can help improve flexibility, reduce muscle tension, and support overall mobility. Although these activities will not burn a significant number of calories, they can aid weight loss by increasing calorie burn during exercise, reducing stress, and improving your posture. These activities are also good for recovery days and for preparing to start your Mounjaro exercise plan, especially if you’re new to working out. 

• Yoga: Perfect for strengthening core muscles, improving stability, and enhancing flexibility. 
• Pilates: An ideal activity for improving core strength, flexibility and balance. It’s also a great stress reliever and can help prevent injury.
• Stretching Exercises: Stretching can enhance your range of motion and improve flexibility, helping reduce the risk of injury from other activities and supporting better posture.

Flexibility-based exercises, such as yoga and pilates, are low-impact activities, making them suitable for all ages and abilities. Regular stretching will make your muscles more elastic and allow your joints to move more freely. Together, these will benefit your overall physical performance and make daily movements easier to manage. Aim to incorporate flexibility exercises into your routine 2-3 times a week. 

What Exercise is Best on Mounjaro?

A combination of cardio, strength, and flexibility training will help you burn calories, build muscle, and recover well. They will also keep you motivated as you transition through different types of exercise and intensities throughout the week, limiting boredom.

Aerobic or cardio exercises have the greatest effect on weight loss and body mass index (BMI), but HIIT workouts are most effective for reducing waist circumference, blood sugar levels, and triglyceride levels. So, combining both of these to meet your 150 minutes per week target, along with gentler stretching exercises, will help you reap Mounjaro’s benefits. 

Mounjaro and Exercise: How to Stay Motivated

Staying motivated to exercise on Mounjaro can be difficult, but with a few key strategies, it can become easier in time. Focusing on small, realistic goals and finding activities you enjoy can make it more sustainable. Even simple things like adding your favourite music to your workouts can leave you feeling more motivated to work out. 

Set Small, Realistic Goals

Set small, achievable goals, such as walking 5,000 steps per day or completing 60 minutes of exercise per week, and gradually increase them as your fitness improves. If you set unrealistic goals too early in your routine, it can leave you feeling demotivated, especially if you do not reach them. It also increases the risk of injury if you push your body too hard, which will have a greater impact on your progress. Celebrate the small wins as you go, keeping you edging closer to your target weight.

Track Your Progress

Use a fitness tracker app or a journal to monitor your activity levels, endurance and strength improvements, so that you can see how far you’ve come. This will also help you monitor when you may need to adjust your approach by increasing the intensity or difficulty of your exercise plan to achieve even greater results.

Choose Activities You Enjoy

Quite simply, if you hate the thought of a certain activity, don’t do it. There’s little point in persevering with something you don’t enjoy because it will affect your motivation and may even increase your risk of injury. Instead, choose activities you find fun and engaging. You may need to try a range of activities to find the ones you love. 

Turn the Music Up

If you love music, use it to your advantage when you are exercising. If you need to get your blood pumping, blast out some dance tunes or use soothing relaxation sounds to help you perform flexibility activities. Creating a playlist for your workouts can be a great, but simple way to sustain your motivation.

Exercise and Mounjaro: Key Tips and Tricks

If you’re new to regular exercise, you may feel apprehensive about getting started. Don’t worry, it’s normal to feel like that, and many people feel daunted, even if it’s not new, but they’re starting a new routine. As long as you devise a consistent, varied, and challenging Mounjaro exercise plan, you can’t go far wrong.

Here are some top tips to navigate your Mounjaro and exercise journey:

• Begin slowly: If you’re new to exercising, it's essential to start slowly by incorporating more movement into your routine and gradually increasing it as your fitness improves. Try to do some form of exercise every day, even if it means walking to work instead of taking the car, taking the stairs instead of the lift, sweeping the leaves in the garden, or vacuuming the house. All of these activities increase your heart rate and burn calories, helping you ease into exercising regularly.
• Keep it varied: Experiment with different types of exercises to help keep you motivated. Boredom is a common reason people stop exercising, so it’s important to find activities you enjoy. You should also incorporate a variety of exercises, such as HIIT, strength training, and cardio, to promote effective weight loss. 
• Get a buddy: If you’re struggling to work out on your own, exercising with others can be a great motivator. Some research suggests that doing this can increase your motivation, enhance performance, and make you more accountable, so you’re more likely to smash your weight loss goals.

• Listen to your body: It’s paramount that you listen to your body and avoid pushing yourself too hard. If you do, you risk injury or becoming demotivated, which could lead to setbacks and plateaus, ultimately impacting the stages of weight loss. 
• Incorporate rest days: It may sound counterintuitive, but rest days are as important as activity days because they allow your muscles to recover, preventing injury. You can build in active recovery days to reduce muscle soreness and improve circulation. Consider activities like stretching, Pilates, and walking. 
• Stay hydrated: Remember to drink plenty of water before, during, and after exercise. Because you’ll be exerting energy, your water requirements will increase; therefore, it is essential to stay hydrated and avoid dehydration. Water is also a great way to help keep you feeling full and curb unnecessary snacking and cravings. 
• Get your nutrition right: When you start your weight loss programme, your clinician will provide guidance on what to eat and avoid on Mounjaro to help you maximise your results. It’s important that you choose lean proteins, unrefined carbohydrates, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains before and after workouts.
• Remain consistent: When building your Mounjaro exercise routine, prepare a timetable and stick to it as much as possible. By remaining consistent, it won’t be long before working out becomes a habit and an activity you’re more likely to stick to. 
• Consult your clinician: When you first start Mounjaro, your clinician will be available to help you make safe and impactful lifestyle adjustments. If you're unsure, please don't hesitate to reach out to them with any questions you may have. 

Mounjaro

Rated 0 out of 5 based on 0 reviews

Rated 0 out of 5 based on 0 reviews

• Approved Weight Loss Treatment
• Suitable for adults with a BMI of +30kg/m²
• Pre-filled injection pen

• Discreet delivery next working day
• Online prescription - No doctor visit

Prices from £179.99 Review More Prices

Start Order More Info

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Mounjaro, Diet, and Exercise: The Perfect Combination

For optimal weight loss results, Mounjaro should be used in conjunction with a balanced diet and regular physical activity. This powerful combination will help to maximise weight loss, improve your metabolism, and increase insulin sensitivity, contributing to better overall health.

When you start treatment with Prescription Doctor, you’ll gain access to useful resources, such as a Mounjaro diet plan to help you better plan what you eat to support your weight loss journey. Our 7-day diet plan for weight loss includes a downloadable meal plan packed with meals and snacks to help keep you feeling satisfied while shedding the pounds. You’ll also find a handy shopping list with an estimated cost, so you can plan and budget ahead.

If you’re following a vegan diet for weight loss, we’ve also got you covered. Although most protein comes from meat and dairy sources, there are plenty of vegan-friendly protein-rich foods, including legumes (lentils, chickpeas, beans), nuts and seeds (almonds, peanuts, chia seeds, etc.), wholegrains (quinoa) and soy products (tofu, edamame), that will help keep cravings at bay and build and tone your muscles.

By aligning diet, Mounjaro, and exercise, you can support better long-term weight loss results and maintain a healthier lifestyle long after your treatment has ended. 

Kick-Start Your Weight Loss Journey with Prescription Doctor

Now that you understand the importance of Mounjaro and exercise, it’s time to take your place on the starting grid and discover the potential weight loss benefits for yourself. The good news is you won’t need to go through everything alone, as Prescription Doctor is here to help.

We don’t just stop at providing your weight loss medication; we’re also on hand to provide advice on how to manage potential side effects, how to use your injection pen, and much more besides. Our dispensing pharmacy is also registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), so you can be assured you’re in safe and professional hands.

Ready to start pumping some iron in the pursuit of your ideal body? Start your Mounjaro consultation today. 

Authored By

Leanne Edermaniger

Medical Content Writer

Leanne is a science and health content writer focusing on human health and biology while utilising her solid academic background.

Published on: 12/06/2025 Re-Published on: 12/11/2025

Reviewed By

Mohamed Imran Lakhi

MPharm - Lead Pharmacist

Imran Lakhi is the superintendent pharmacist and founder at Prescription Doctor. He has been at the core of our team.

Reviewed on: 12/11/2025