Daily protein intake is crucial to keep muscles when you are on a GLP-1 enhanced weight loss diet. Both my “weight loss advisor” (who my Insurance makes me talk to to get Zepbound prescribed) and my fitness coach tell me the most important Macronutrient is Protein. Supposedly it helps with avoiding muscle loss when losing weight on GLP-1 agonists.
It seems among scientists and gym bros there is also active debates just how much protein you need per day. There are scientific studies on how much or how little protein you need per day. There are even some folks looking into (making claims, anyway) how much protein humans can absorb in a single meal.
I went with the rough 1g per pound of your target weight. This seems reasonable to keep muscles while on a GLP-1 diet. For me this means 200g/day (I am 6’4″). Everyone seems to say you should try to get it all from “whole foods” — which I guess means mostly meat, fish, tofu or legumes.
Realistically my favorite sources are:
- Filet Mignon steak. This is very tasty and quick to make. Gives me 31g of protein for 180 calories.
- Chicken breast: this is the classic body builder food (with rice and broccoli) but I just can’t get into it even though it has a fabulous 25g/130 cal.
- Ground meat. I have tried beef but prefer turkey. it’s delicious and pairs with many veggies and carbs. 93% lean has 21g/170 cal
- Frozen meals. When I began counting calories for weight loss I came across the Healthy Choice Cafe Streamer” meals. They are delicious and super convenient. I eat them both at home and in the office. This Mexican-Stlye Street Corn one has 18g/240 calories and costs only 3 bucks.
- Fairlife protein shakes. These are made from real milk (“ultra-filtered” whatever that means) and is super tasty. My favorite is the strawberry flavor. It comes in two “strengths”: 26g/170 cal and 42g/230 cal
- Protein bars: I tried a lot of bars. I hate most because of the chewy glop consistency (e.g. the Costco ones). I was excited about the influencer-hyped David bars but they gave me terrible constipation and sulfur burps.. My favorite are the Think! White chocolate bars. 20g/230 cal
- Protein chips. I used to *love* potato chips but stopped them when I admitted to myself that they made me obese and gave me hypertension. These Pure Protein Popped Crisps, Hickory Barbecue are actually delicious and get me 12g/150 cal with only 330mg of Sodium.
- Fruit smoothies. Through experimentation I ended up with this recipe: one scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream Whey Protein, a cup of Oikos Triple Zero greek yogurt, 1 scoop of fancy cocoa powder and two cups of frozen triple berry mix. I throw it in a nutribulett and it’s ready in a minute. It’s a delicious way to get 42g/385 cal including 14g of fibre. Perfect after a workout!
Recently many food manufacturers started heavily promoting the high protein level in their offerings. Healthy Choice even started buying a “ON TRACK — GLP-1 Friendly” seal on them. Slightly ridiculous but not wrong.
I track my calories with the Macrofactor app every day and it seems I get reasonably close to my target of 180g but have some work to do.
Maybe there is some truth to the time-tested chicken with rice and broccoli diet 🙁
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