How much protein on a GLP-1?

More than you're probably getting, and more than feels possible on the bad days. A range, from your weight, and what it means per meal.

Where the numbers come from

For people losing weight who want to keep their muscle, the range that keeps turning up in the research is roughly 1.2–1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight per day. Add resistance training and the useful range moves up, to somewhere around 1.6–2.0 g/kg. Above that the returns flatten out for most people.

The catch at higher body weights: per-kg targets overshoot. 1.6 g × 140 kg is 224 g a day, which nobody on a GLP-1 is going to eat, and which a body that's going to weigh 90 kg doesn't need. The usual fix is to base the target on your goal weight, or on an adjusted weight partway between — which is what the calculator does the moment you put a goal weight in.

Your prescriber or a dietitian sets the real number. Kidney disease in particular changes the answer, and it's a conversation to have before pushing protein up.

Why it matters more here than on an ordinary diet

Fast weight loss takes lean tissue with it. Somewhere between a fifth and a third of what comes off on these drugs is muscle rather than fat, and that share gets worse when protein is short. Muscle isn't a cosmetic question: it's most of what sets your resting metabolic rate, it's what keeps you functional at seventy, and it's the thing that decides whether the weight stays off when you stop. Two things reduce the loss — enough protein, and lifting something heavy a couple of times a week — and neither is optional in the way it might be on a slower diet.

Per meal, because volume is the limit

On a GLP-1 you can't fix a low day by eating a big dinner; there isn't room. So the daily number has to be spread across whatever meals you can manage — three or four — and each one has to carry its share. 25–40 g per sitting is the working range. Protein first on the plate, because the plate often doesn't get finished.

What 30 g looks like

The full list, ranked by how much room each takes, is on what to eat.

When you can't hit it

Protein powder is fine. It's not cheating and it's not inferior; it's protein without the volume, which is exactly the constraint you're under. A plain whey or plant isolate does the job. Nothing labelled "GLP-1 protein" is different from the generic tub next to it except the price.