Before the medication, I could put away a proper dinner and still find room for dessert. Now a few bites of chicken and half a sweet potato and I am done — truly done, the kind of full that will not be argued with. Which raises a real problem: how do you get enough protein into a body that has stopped asking for food?
It matters more than I realized. When you lose weight quickly without enough protein, a worrying share of what you lose is muscle — and at 69, muscle is not something I can afford to donate. Protein is also what kept my hair shedding from getting worse and what keeps me from feeling wrung out by mid-afternoon.
Protein first, always first
The single most useful habit I built: eat the protein on the plate before anything else. When your appetite runs out three bites early, you want those bites to have been the ones that count. The rice can lose. The eggs cannot.
The swaps that fit a shrunken appetite
I stopped trying to eat bigger and started eating denser. Greek yogurt instead of regular — twice the protein in the same small bowl. Cottage cheese, which I had not bought since the eighties, is quietly a powerhouse. An egg added to soup. Canned salmon mashed with a little mayonnaise on two crackers. A quarter-cup of shelled edamame while the kettle boils. None of these is a meal to look at, and each one is ten to fifteen grams I would not otherwise have gotten.
Cheese sticks, roasted chickpeas, and peanut butter on an apple slice round out my snack rotation. I keep them at eye level in the refrigerator, because at this appetite, whatever I see first is usually the only thing I eat.
What a day actually looks like for me
Breakfast is Greek yogurt with a spoonful of ground flax and some berries — about 18 grams before nine o'clock. Lunch is most often two scrambled eggs with cheese, or the salmon crackers. There is usually a small protein snack mid-afternoon. Dinner is three or four ounces of whatever meat or fish I have made, eaten first, plus vegetables as appetite allows. Most days that lands me between 80 and 95 grams without a single heroic portion.
About protein shakes
I resisted these for months — they felt like giving up on real food. I have made my peace with them as a backup, not a foundation. On days when even small meals are not happening, a premade shake fills the gap. I look for ones with at least 20 grams of protein and not much sugar, and I sip slowly; drinking one fast on a GLP-1 stomach was a mistake I only made once.
The number to aim for is yours, not mine
You will read many different targets — a common one for older adults losing weight is one to one and a half grams per kilogram of body weight, which for me works out to that 80-to-95 range. But your kidneys, your medications, and your history belong in that math, and that is a conversation for your doctor or a registered dietitian. Mine adjusted my target once she saw my blood work, and I am glad I asked.
The appetite may not come back the way it was — mine has not, and honestly, that is part of why the medication works. But small and dense beats big and hopeful. Put the protein first, keep it in plain sight, and let the shakes catch you when the day gets away from you.
This is my personal experience, shared in the hope it helps you feel less alone in yours. It is not medical advice. GLP-1 medications affect everyone differently, so please talk with a doctor you trust about what's right for you.