Right here is the strain no one warns you about. Your urge for food drops, which is the entire level and is genuinely useful. However your protein requirement doesn’t drop with it. It goes up. That hole, between what your physique wants and what a suppressed urge for food will settle for, is the place many of the hassle I see really begins.
Why Necessities Go Up When Urge for food Goes Down
Throughout weight reduction your physique is in a deficit. It wants constructing materials to guard the tissue you wish to hold whereas releasing the tissue you don’t. Protein is that materials. Provide too little throughout a deficit and the physique pulls from someplace, normally muscle first, then the tissues it treats as much less pressing, like pores and skin, hair, and nails.
Decreased consumption on these medicines is substantial, and the medical vitamin literature now treats protein adequacy as a central concern slightly than an afterthought1.
The Quantity to Intention For
Steering for adults on GLP-1 remedy converges on not less than 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of physique weight per day, with as much as 1.6 grams per kilogram applicable for a lot of adults with out continual kidney illness1. In case you suppose in kilos, divide by 2.2 to get kilograms, then multiply. A 165-pound lady is 75 kilograms, which places her between 90 and 120 grams day by day.
After I say that out loud to sufferers, the response is all the time the identical. That appears like lots. It’s a lot, particularly on a small urge for food, and pretending in any other case helps no one. The remainder of that is about find out how to get there with out forcing down meals you do not need.
What Occurs When You Fall Brief
Lean Mass
Some lean tissue loss accompanies any vital weight reduction. What determines how a lot you retain is basically protein paired with resistance coaching. A broadcast case sequence adopted sufferers who intentionally prioritized lean tissue preservation, with protein on the greater finish of the vary and resistance coaching three to 5 days per week, and reported substantial fats loss with lean comfortable tissue held regular and even gained2. The variable was not the treatment. It was what they did alongside it.
Pores and skin, Hair, and Nails
These are constructed from protein and sit decrease on the precedence record than organs and muscle. When provide is tight, they’re among the many first locations you see it. Thinning hair, brittle nails, and pores and skin that appears uninteresting are frequent throughout fast weight reduction, and insufficient protein is without doubt one of the extra addressable causes behind them.
Not All Protein Does the Similar Job
That is the place lots of well-intentioned individuals go fallacious, so I wish to be exact.
Full Proteins Do the Muscle Work
Muscle upkeep is dependent upon all 9 important amino acids, and notably on leucine, which alerts muscle protein synthesis to change on. Full protein sources provide these, and they need to make up the majority of your day by day complete. I’ve written extra about how bone broth suits into that image in is bone broth an entire protein.
Collagen Does Completely different Work
Collagen is a protein and it counts towards your energy, however it’s not constructed for muscle. It’s low in leucine and incorporates no tryptophan. A 2023 trial gave members both 30 grams of collagen or 30 grams of whey after resistance train and measured muscle protein synthesis instantly by means of biopsies. Collagen didn’t enhance it3. I inform you this as a result of I might slightly you perceive what you’re taking than be stunned later.
The place collagen has a extra related proof base is pores and skin. A meta-analysis of 26 randomized trials with greater than 1,700 members discovered enhancements in pores and skin hydration and elasticity5, and a 2025 systematic overview reached broadly comparable conclusions6. The analysis continues to be creating and findings will not be uniform, so I might name it promising slightly than settled. The sensible rule is straightforward: use collagen peptides for pores and skin and connective tissue, and rely on full protein for muscle. They don’t seem to be interchangeable, and you should utilize each.
Hit Your Goal on a Small Urge for food
Entrance-Load the Morning
Urge for food is normally least suppressed early within the day, and it usually falls additional after an injection. Getting 30 to 40 grams in at breakfast means you aren’t making an attempt to make up an inconceivable deficit at dinner when nothing sounds good.
Sip As a substitute of Chew
That is the only most helpful adjustment I like to recommend. Liquid protein doesn’t carry the identical fullness burden as a plate of meals, and heat liquids go down extra simply on onerous days. A mug of bone broth protein powder mid-afternoon provides grams with out asking your urge for food for something it can’t give. Many purchasers report that is what makes the day by day quantity achievable slightly than aspirational.
Anchor Protein to Each Consuming Event
Quite than counting meals, rely alternatives. If one thing goes in your mouth, protein must be a part of it. Small quantities throughout the day add up extra reliably than two giant efforts.
What Else Deserves Your Consideration
Protein is the headline however not the entire story. Decreased consumption means diminished consumption of all the things, and the weight problems medication literature has flagged shortfalls in vitamin D, B12, iron, and calcium as an actual concern on this inhabitants4. Hydration and electrolytes matter too, notably throughout dose will increase. And resistance coaching two to 3 occasions per week does extra for lean mass than any complement will. For extra on how protein wants shift with age, see protein’s function in weight reduction and ageing.
Discuss along with your prescribing doctor concerning the protein goal that matches your well being historical past, notably in case you have kidney considerations. What I would like for you is to come back out the opposite aspect having misplaced the burden and saved the energy, the hair, and the pores and skin you walked in with. Outcomes might range from individual to individual.
Ceaselessly Requested Questions
How a lot protein must you eat on a GLP-1 treatment?
Present medical steering suggests not less than 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of physique weight per day, with as much as 1.6 grams per kilogram applicable for a lot of adults with out continual kidney illness. For a 165-pound grownup that’s roughly 90 to 120 grams day by day. Discuss along with your prescribing doctor about the fitting goal to your well being historical past.
What’s the greatest protein for GLP-1 customers?
For muscle upkeep, full protein sources that offer all 9 important amino acids and satisfactory leucine are the precedence. For tolerability on low-appetite days, liquid and heat codecs are sometimes simpler than stable meals. Many individuals use a mix, selecting based mostly on what they will realistically devour that day.
Does collagen rely towards your day by day protein goal?
Collagen contributes protein and energy, however it’s low in leucine and incorporates no tryptophan, so it doesn’t do the identical job as an entire protein for muscle. Analysis suggests collagen might assist pores and skin hydration and elasticity, which is a distinct and worthwhile purpose. Use it alongside full protein slightly than rather than it.
Can Bone Broth Protein aid you meet protein targets on a GLP-1?
Bone Broth Protein is a technique so as to add protein grams in a liquid, heat format that many individuals discover simpler to tolerate when urge for food is suppressed. Many purchasers report that sipping protein is extra achievable than consuming an equal quantity of stable meals. It really works greatest as a part of a day by day complete that additionally contains full protein sources.
Why is protein tougher to eat on a GLP-1?
These medicines cut back urge for food and gradual gastric emptying, so individuals really feel full sooner and keep full longer. Protein-rich meals are typically dense and filling, which makes them among the many tougher issues to complete. In the meantime the day by day requirement rises throughout weight reduction, which widens the hole.
Does protein forestall muscle loss on GLP-1 medicines?
Some lean tissue loss accompanies any vital weight reduction. Sufficient protein mixed with common resistance coaching is the strategy most persistently related to higher lean mass retention in revealed analysis. A case sequence of sufferers who prioritized each reported substantial fats loss with lean comfortable tissue maintained or elevated. Particular person outcomes might range.
How does protein consumption have an effect on pores and skin throughout fast weight reduction?
Pores and skin, hair, and nails are constructed from protein and sit decrease on the physique’s precedence record than organs and muscle. When protein is restricted throughout a calorie deficit, these tissues are sometimes the place the shortfall exhibits first. Assembly a day by day protein goal helps the physique’s capability to keep up them whereas weight is coming off.
Must you take Collagen Peptides and an entire protein collectively?
Sure, and so they serve totally different functions. Full protein provides the important amino acids and leucine that muscle upkeep is dependent upon, whereas Collagen Peptides provide glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, which analysis suggests might assist pores and skin and connective tissue. Utilizing each covers targets that neither addresses alone.
