What the Data Shows

The caution tracks with what's showing up in the research. A 2026 white paper from HFA, From Weight Loss to Lasting Value: Structured Exercise and the Economics of GLP-1 Therapy, found that pairing GLP-1 therapy with structured exercise produced a 496% 10-year return on investment in the US, largely by keeping the muscle on and the weight off. The paper, developed by FTI Consulting’s Center for Healthcare Economics and Policy, notes that GLP-1 patients typically lose lean muscle mass equal to 20% to 50% of their total weight loss, well above the 6% to 26% seen with diet and exercise alone.

Exercising while undergoing GLP-1 treatment is essential. Bueme reached the same conclusion by simply observing from the floor of her own club.

"So many people think, ‘I'll just take the shot, and I'll be fine,’" she says. "They never set foot in a gym. People treat it like a diet pill. That's not how it works."

Weight loss drives most of the traffic, but Apex MD's menu goes further, offering hormone therapy and peptides aimed at hair, skin, and general longevity. Those categories pull less volume than GLP-1s, though members tend to add them once they've already sat for that first blood panel. The blood panel does the selling. Most people have never seen that much data about their own bodies before, and once they have it, the rest of the menu is an easier conversation.

Members pay out of pocket for both the medications and the blood panels, a gap the HFA white paper flags, calling on payers and policymakers to consider reimbursement and tax-preferred models for structured exercise tied to GLP-1 treatments. For now, cost is still what keeps some members from starting treatments.

Selling It Right

While more national franchises continue to add telehealth partnerships, the structure of these relationships are still a work in progress. A smaller brand like Catalyst must build the marketing campaign, training program, and pricing plan, and Bueme is still in the process of fine-tuning the offering to her members. Catalyst promotes the program through its website and social media posts, and her staff earns a percentage of whatever a member spends through Apex MD. Yet, awareness still lags.

"I really need to make [the program] visible the second someone joins," Bueme says. "Right now, it's an amenity people have to go looking for."

A bigger source of friction has been staffing, not marketing. Bueme's team skews young, mostly 19 to 24, and educating them on the benefits and nuances of GLP-1 treatment has taken longer than getting the medical partnership running.

"Getting them to talk about it as a health tool instead of just another upsell has been the real work," she says.

Catalyst's trainers already refer members to the website, but Bueme wants a packaged offering that combines personal training with the medical program at a single price point, sold at sign-up instead of discovered later.

"We're working on packaging the training and the medical side together with one price," she says. "It's taken a while to figure out what that should look like."

Until it's done, the medical service and gym services are still sold separately. It’s an example that these partnerships are still evolving, but a true integration of medical care with gyms is looking like a trend that could change the fitness industry for the future—and for the better.