How Much Protein Do You Need on Ozempic, Wegovy & Mounjaro?

Aim for 1.2–1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day while you are actively losing weight on a GLP-1 medication. For someone starting at 90kg, that is 108–144g a day. If per-kilogram maths feels abstract, use the simpler absolute target of 80–120g a day, which is easier to stick to.

This is general information, not medical advice. Your prescriber or a registered dietitian can set a target that's right for you, so confirm your number with them.

How much protein per day on Ozempic?

The working range is 1.2–1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day during active weight loss. That comes from a 2025 joint clinical advisory from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the American Society for Nutrition, the Obesity Medicine Association and The Obesity Society, published in Obesity in May 2025. The same advisory offers an absolute target of 80–120g a day for people who find a flat number easier to hit than a formula. For comparison, the baseline recommendation for adults who aren't losing weight is 0.8g/kg, so this is roughly one and a half to double normal.

The reason the target rises is muscle. In the DEXA body-composition substudy of the STEP 1 trial of semaglutide 2.4mg (published 2021), about 40% of the total weight participants lost over 68 weeks was lean mass, not fat. The 2025 advisory's own modelling puts typical muscle loss without structured strength training at 10–15% of total weight lost for women and 20–25% for men. Protein is how you defend that muscle, and the advisory is explicit that protein alone is unlikely to be enough without resistance training alongside it. Two or three short sessions a week, with bands, bodyweight or weights, do most of the work.

Two adjustments to the formula:

• If you carry a lot of excess weight, multiplying your full current weight by 1.6 can produce a number you'll never eat. Base the calculation on a goal weight or a healthy weight for your height instead, and treat the 80–120g absolute range as your sanity check.
• Spread it out. Around 25–30g of good-quality protein per meal captures most of the muscle-building response, so three or four protein-led eating occasions beat one enormous dinner. That shape of eating also happens to be the only shape a GLP-1 appetite tolerates.

Does it change on Mounjaro, Wegovy or Zepbound?

No. Wegovy is the same drug as Ozempic (semaglutide) at weight-loss doses, and Mounjaro and Zepbound are both tirzepatide. The protein target is set by the speed of your weight loss, not by which molecule causes it, so 1.2–1.6g/kg applies to all four.

What does differ is how hard your appetite is suppressed. Tirzepatide tends to produce faster loss and, for many people, a smaller appetite window, which makes the target harder to reach and the protein-dense choices below more important. The number stays the same; the difficulty changes. If you want the fuller comparison, see how Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound differ for food.

What if I can only eat small portions?

This is where most people on Mounjaro come unstuck, because almost all diet advice assumes calories are the scarce resource and volume is free. On a GLP-1 that logic runs backwards. Calories aren't what stop you. Space is. You have a small, slow stomach and a hard ceiling on how much fits in it, so the question for every food is not calories per gram but protein per gram.

Compare two ways to eat 30g of protein: 100g of cooked chicken breast (a palm-sized piece, 31g protein) or 300g of Greek yoghurt (a very large tub, 30g protein). Identical protein, triple the volume. On a normal appetite either works. In the week after a dose increase, only one of them is achievable. "Just eat more yoghurt" and "have a big salad with chickpeas" are advice written for a stomach you no longer have.

Here is what realistic small servings actually deliver, using products you can pick up in any UK supermarket. Read the label on the exact item you buy, since numbers vary by brand and flavour.

Small serving	Portion	Protein	Kcal
Cooked chicken breast	100g	31g	165
Tuna in spring water, drained	1 small tin (102g)	25g	105
Whey protein, shaken with water	1 scoop (30g)	23g	115
Ufit protein shake	310ml bottle	22g	137
Fage Total 0% Greek yoghurt	170g pot	18g	97
Lindahls Kvarg	150g pot	17g	86
Arla Skyr, natural	150g pot	16g	98
Low-fat cottage cheese	½ a 300g tub	15g	118
Eggs, boiled or scrambled	2 medium	13g	130

Notice the split. Meat, fish and whey deliver 25g+ in portions that fit a suppressed appetite; the excellent dairy options (skyr, kvarg, Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese) land 15–18g per pot and need pairing or topping up to make a full meal. Beans, lentils and milk are good food and poor primary protein here: you would need 330g of cooked lentils to match one chicken breast, and you will not eat 330g of lentils on your injection day. Treat pulses as your fibre, not your protein.

One trap: cheese looks protein-dense on paper, but most hard cheese carries a lot of fat alongside it, and fat slows an already-slow stomach. You want protein-dense and lean.

If you don't eat meat or fish, the constraint bites harder. Lean on tofu, tempeh, seitan, edamame and a pea-and-rice protein powder, expect to land nearer 80–90g than 120g, and treat that as a reasonable outcome rather than a shortfall.

Protein during dose-escalation weeks

Dose-increase weeks are when nausea peaks and appetite bottoms out, and they are the weeks that decide whether you keep muscle over the course of a year. The aim shifts from hitting your target to defending a floor: some protein at every eating occasion, every day, even if the daily total drops.

What works when nothing appeals:

• Eat protein first, early. Appetite is usually best in the morning of a rough week. Eggs or skyr at breakfast bank 15–28g before the day deteriorates.
• Go cold and low-smell. Cooking smells are a common trigger. Cold chicken, tuna straight from the tin, a yoghurt pot and a cold shake all deliver protein without a hot kitchen.
• Drink some of your target. A shake made from plain whey, water and ice is the most reliable 23g of a bad week. Skip the thick, sweet ready-made "mass" shakes and check the label for protein per 100g; a decent whey is 75–80g per 100g, and anything far below that is filler.
• Keep portions insultingly small. Half a serving eaten is better than a full serving abandoned. See foods that help with GLP-1 nausea for the full playbook on bad weeks.
• Don't drink water with meals. A large glass takes the space the protein needed. Sip between meals instead.

A low week is not a failure. Consistency over a month matters far more than any single day's total, so aim to return to the full target as the dose settles.

A worked example: a 120g day in four small plates

Numbers on a page are one thing; a day you can picture is another. Each of these is a real recipe on this site with the protein worked out, and none of them is a large plate of food.

Meal	Recipe	Protein	Kcal
Breakfast	Gentle cottage cheese scrambled eggs	28g	290
Lunch	Tuna & white bean protein salad	32g	330
Snack	Protein berry smoothie	25g	300
Dinner	Lemon herb salmon traybake	35g	380

That is 120g of protein in about 1,300 kcal, with no single meal doing all the lifting and nothing that would frighten a small appetite. Swap the smoothie for overnight oats (24g) or the traybake for turkey meatballs with courgette (38g) and the day still lands inside the target range.

How to tell if it's working

The bathroom scale can't show you muscle, so watch these instead: everyday strength (stairs, shopping, getting off the floor), how clothes fit relative to what the scale says, energy through the afternoon, and hair and nails over months. If strength is falling as the weight falls, that is the signal to eat more protein and lift something, and to raise it with your prescriber or a dietitian.

How Basilino helps you hit it

Every Basilino recipe shows protein per serving, and the app tracks your daily protein against a goal tuned to a smaller appetite — so building a 100g day stops being mental arithmetic. Clip any recipe from the web and the protein is worked out for you. Start free: create an account, no card needed.

For the full picture on eating well on medication, read our GLP-1 diet and nutrition guide or the 7-day GLP-1 meal plan.

Sources: Mozaffarian D, et al. "Nutritional priorities to support GLP-1 therapy for obesity." Obesity, May 2025 — joint advisory from ACLM, ASN, OMA & The Obesity Society · McCrimmon RJ, et al. "Impact of semaglutide on body composition in adults with overweight or obesity: exploratory analysis of the STEP 1 study." J Endocrine Society, 2021