--- title: 'How much protein should you eat on a GLP-1?' description: 'The 2025 joint advisory treats 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of fat-free mass a day as the more accurate target, and offers 80 to 120 grams a day when you have no scan. What that is in grams, and where people fall short.' canonical: https://proforta.com/learn/how-much-protein-on-a-glp1/ generated: 2026-10-08 --- How much protein should you eat on a GLP-1? Guide · the number # How much protein should you eat on a GLP-1? Protein is half the answer; ProForta helps you maintain muscle while you lose the weight, measured over twelve weeks, and the [60-second self-check](https://proforta.com/check?utm_source=proforta&utm_campaign=learn-how-much-protein-on-a-glp1) shows the advisory's daily protein target in grams. About three minutes to read The 2025 joint advisory from four medical societies treats 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of fat-free mass a day as the more accurate target, which needs body-composition data to work out. With 50 kilograms of fat-free mass, that is 75 grams a day. Without a scan, it offers a simple absolute target of 80 to 120 grams a day. People search for this under semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound). The body-composition answer below is the same whichever one you are on, and it is the same again if you are losing weight without any of them. ## Where the number comes from The ordinary recommended allowance for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight a day, set for the general adult population. The advisory notes that higher targets have been proposed for two situations: 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight during active weight loss, and 1.2 to 1.7 during strength training. It also sets guard rails on both sides: intake should not fall below 0.4 to 0.5 grams per kilogram a day, and prolonged intake above 2 grams per kilogram a day should be avoided. The catch is the denominator. For people with obesity, the advisory says it is unclear whether those targets should rest on actual body weight, an adjusted or ideal weight, or fat-free mass, and that using actual weight “can significantly overestimate protein requirements.” It goes on to say fat-free mass may be the best base, though there is no consensus yet, which is where the 1.5 grams per kilogram comes from. And it offers a version that is easier to live with: an absolute target of 80 to 120 grams a day, with no arithmetic and no scan. The advisory says setting it “may enhance adherence while ensuring adequate intake.” ## The gap almost nobody is told about A 2025 cross-sectional study of 69 GLP-1 users, built on three-day food records, found protein intake averaging about 77 grams a day, just under the low end of the advisory's 80 to 120 gram target. Measured against adjusted body weight, only 43 percent reached 1.2 grams per kilogram, and 10 percent reached 1.6. The mechanism is not mysterious. The medicine works by making you eat less. Muscle is protected by eating enough of one specific thing. Those two facts collide, and in the study data, protein is what lost. Which means the useful question is not what your target is. It is what the distance between your target and your ordinary Tuesday actually looks like, in grams. ## What you can check this week - **Work out your own number.** If a body-composition scan has given you your fat-free mass in kilograms, multiply it by 1.5. If not, use the advisory's 80 to 120 grams a day. Write it down. The [60-second self-check](https://proforta.com/check?utm_source=proforta&utm_campaign=learn-how-much-protein-on-a-glp1) lays out both, in your browser, without sending anything anywhere. - **Count one ordinary day honestly.** Not your best day. Add up the grams in what you actually ate, including the days when dinner was half a bowl of soup. - **Find the size of the gap.** Subtract. If the answer is 40 grams, that is roughly one and a half whey servings at 25 to 30 grams each, which is a smaller problem than it felt like before you had the number. - **Check the shape of your day, not just the total.** Muscle responds better to a moderate amount of protein at several meals than to one large serving at night. If most of your protein arrives after seven in the evening, that is worth moving before it is worth increasing. ## If eating that much feels impossible That is the normal experience on these medicines, not a failure of willpower, and it has its own answer. The [delivery problem has its own page](https://proforta.com/learn/protein-when-you-have-no-appetite): protein first, spread rather than stacked, and some of it liquid. ## Where ProForta comes in ProForta knows your target, sees what you log against it, and tells you the one adjustment that matters this week rather than a generic reminder to eat more protein. It runs on a private node that belongs to you, reads your data there, and shows you interpreted results only. Identity and consent run through LifeCare.ID®, revocable in one tap. ProForta is a wellness tool, not medical advice. Nothing here speaks to your medicine or your care. Your prescriber stays the decision-maker on both. ## Watch it instead of guessing The ProForta Challenge is twelve weeks with your muscle actually watched while you work on the weight, however you are going about it. It is free, it is a small beta on one private node, and the only person you are ever compared with is you at the start of it. [Join the ProForta Challenge](https://app.proforta.com/join?utm_source=proforta&utm_campaign=learn-how-much-protein-on-a-glp1) [Take the 60-second self-check](https://proforta.com/check?utm_source=proforta&utm_campaign=learn-how-much-protein-on-a-glp1) The self-check runs entirely in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. If you would rather look around first, [open the demo](https://proforta.com/demo), nothing to install and no account to create. ## Related questions - [How do you get enough protein when you have no appetite?](https://proforta.com/learn/protein-when-you-have-no-appetite) - [How much strength training do you need on a GLP-1?](https://proforta.com/learn/strength-training-on-a-glp1) - [How much of GLP-1 weight loss is muscle?](https://proforta.com/learn/how-much-glp1-weight-loss-is-muscle) - [Losing weight after fifty: how much muscle is at stake?](https://proforta.com/learn/keeping-muscle-after-fifty) - [Getting a DEXA scan, a United States guide](https://proforta.com/dexa) [All ten questions](https://proforta.com/learn) ## Sources - 2025 joint advisory on nutritional priorities to support GLP-1 therapy, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, American Society for Nutrition, Obesity Medicine Association and The Obesity Society. Obesity Pillars 2025;15:100181. [PMC12264624](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12264624/) - Cross-sectional study of nutrient intake among 69 GLP-1 users (protein averaged about 77 grams a day; measured against adjusted body weight, 43 percent reached 1.2 grams per kilogram and 10 percent reached 1.6). Johnson et al., Frontiers in Nutrition 2025, doi:10.3389/fnut.2025.1566498. [frontiersin.org](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1566498/full) Corrected 8 October 2026: an earlier version of this page attributed a minimum of 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight and a range of 1.6 to 2.2 to the 2025 joint advisory, and gave the 2025 study's average intake as about 54 grams a day. The advisory gives neither figure, and the study reports about 77 grams. The figures above are the sources' own. [ProFortaPowered by LifeCare.ID®](https://proforta.com/) © 2026 Enbarca Inc., doing business as HCVC.net. All rights reserved.