Eating on GLP-1 treatment: portions, protein and foods your stomach handles well

Your new appetite #

Most people notice three shifts within the first weeks. Fullness arrives earlier, interest in snacking fades, and rich or greasy food becomes less appealing. These shifts show the medicine working, but they create a new risk. You may eat too little, or too narrow a range of foods, to get enough protein, fibre and micronutrients.

The plate to copy #

Shrink the plate, not the nutrition:

• Half the plate: vegetables or salad, fibre keeps digestion moving on a slower gut.
• A quarter: protein, eggs, fish, chicken, tofu, Greek yoghurt, lentils. Non-negotiable at every meal.
• A quarter: slow carbohydrates, oats, brown rice, potatoes with skin, wholegrain bread.

Protein first is the single most useful rule: eat the protein portion before the rest, so if fullness cuts the meal short, the important part is already in.

Foods which sit well (and foods which do not) #

Usually comfortable

• Soups, stews, porridge, yoghurt, scrambled eggs, fish, rice, bananas, toast
• Cold or room-temperature food on nauseous days, hot smells amplify nausea

Common triggers

• Fried and fatty food, sits for hours on a slowed stomach
• Fizzy drinks and large gulps of anything
• Large amounts of sugary food
• Large late-evening meals, reflux follows lying down

A simple daily structure #

Three small meals beat one large one. Many people do well on a light breakfast, a solid lunch as the main meal, and an early, modest dinner. Graze if you must, but graze on protein and fruit rather than crisps, quantity is no longer the issue, quality is.

The undereating trap #

If you regularly finish days under about 1,200 kcal, or you feel faint, cold or obsessive about food, you have cut too far. Message the clinical team. Sometimes the dose needs to come down, not the food. Treatment should make smaller meals feel easy. Treatment should never make eating feel impossible.