How much protein do you need on a GLP-1?
Appetite drops sharply on these medications, and protein is usually the first thing to go. It is also the
one thing that most reliably protects muscle while you lose weight. Two questions is all this needs.
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Your daily protein target will appear here.
Two numbers in, one range out. The same range the muscle check uses — this page just shows it on its
own, with the food that gets you there.
Your daily target
— a day
Anywhere in — protects lean mass during weight loss. The single number
above is the middle of that range, which is where we would aim.
That is — of your body weight
Why yours is higher
From age 60 the clinical guidelines step the target up from 1.4 to 1.5 g per kg. Older muscle responds
less to the same amount of protein, so it takes a little more to hold on to it — this matters more,
not less, while you are losing weight.
Across a day
About — at each of four eating occasions. Spreading it out works
better than one large evening meal, and on these medications the evening is when appetite is usually
lowest — so front-load it.
Protein is the lever, not the timing. If four does not fit your day, three larger ones are fine.
What that looks like in food
One way to get there. Ordinary supermarket portions, label figures rounded to whole grams.
— from the list above. Food is not exact and neither is this — being
near the range every day beats hitting a number once.
Next
Protein is one of three levers. The
muscle check uses this same target alongside your rate of loss and your
training, and tells you which of the three to fix first.
Where this number comes from
The healthy-adult recommendation of 0.8 g per kg is a floor for people who are not losing weight. In a
calorie deficit the body breaks down more protein, so the requirement goes up — and every clinical
nutrition guideline that addresses weight loss lands in roughly the same place.
The sources are listed in full on How we work, and this page uses exactly the
same code as the muscle check — a test in the build fails if the two ever print different numbers for the
same person.
Why we do not ask about your training
Most protein calculators multiply your target by how much you exercise. We do not, for one reason: the
evidence for a higher target during weight loss is about protecting muscle in a deficit, and it does not
cleanly separate by training volume in the range most people are in. Adding a multiplier would make the
number look more personal without making it more correct.
Training still matters enormously — it is simply a separate lever, not a reason to eat more protein. The
muscle check treats it that way, and so does the tracker.
Before you use this
If you have kidney disease and a clinician has given you a protein target, theirs governs.
Not this page. Higher protein is not appropriate for everyone, and we cannot see your bloods.
This is an estimate for adults losing weight, not medical advice, and not a substitute for a dietitian.
If you are struggling to eat at all — not just eating less — that is worth raising with whoever
prescribed your medication rather than solving with a calculator.