What to eat on a GLP-1: a practical, Filipino-food-forward guide

Most nutrition advice written for GLP-1 patients assumes an American kitchen and a Western plate. That is not much use if dinner is rice and ulam. Here is the same physiology, applied to food you actually eat.

The problem is not portion control any more

This is the shift that surprises people. Before treatment, the challenge is usually eating less. On a GLP-1, appetite drops on its own — and the new risk is the opposite one: eating too little of what matters.

With a smaller appetite, every meal has to work harder. Which means the question changes from "how do I eat less" to "given that I will eat less, what should be in it".

Three things to prioritise: enough protein, enough fibre, enough fluid.

Protein first, at every meal

Protein is the macro people under-eat most on a reduced appetite, and the one that matters most for keeping muscle while losing fat. We go into why in protecting muscle and how to hit a target in hitting your protein target.

Practically, in a Filipino context:

• **Fish is your easiest win.** Bangus, tilapia, galunggong, tuna — inexpensive, widely available, and light enough to manage when nausea is around.
• **Eggs.** Cheap, fast, and easy to add to almost anything.
• **Chicken and lean pork**, grilled or in a broth-based dish rather than deep-fried, which sits heavily on slowed digestion.
• **Tokwa and monggo** for plant-based protein — monggo in particular gives you protein and fibre in the same bowl.
• **Eat the protein portion of your plate first.** Genuinely effective advice: if you fill up halfway through, you want the ulam eaten and the rice partly left, not the reverse.

Rethinking rice, without banishing it

Nobody needs to hear "give up rice", and we are not going to say it. But if you are going to feel full after a smaller volume of food, rice is the part of the plate with the most room to shrink.

A practical version: reduce the rice portion rather than eliminating it, and let the ulam and vegetables take the space. Brown rice adds fibre if you like it; if you do not, do not force it — a slightly smaller portion of the rice you actually enjoy beats a larger portion of the rice you resent.

Vegetables and fibre

Constipation is one of the most common complaints on this medication, and fibre is the first lever. Fortunately this is well covered by Filipino cooking:

• Kangkong, malunggay, saluyot, pechay.
• Pinakbet, laing, ginisang munggo.
• Sinigang and tinola, which get vegetables and fluid in at once — genuinely well suited to a low appetite.

More on this in hydration and fibre.

Eating when nausea is around

During the first weeks and after each dose step-up, you may not want to eat at all. What tends to help:

• Smaller meals, more often, instead of three large ones.
• Lower-fat and less fried — deep-fried food is the most common trigger people report, and it sits especially heavily on slowed gastric emptying.
• Broth-based dishes over rich or oily ones.
• Eating slowly, and stopping when full rather than when the plate is empty.
• Plain, bland options — lugaw, arroz caldo, pandesal — on genuinely bad days.

What to be careful about

Two things to watch:

• **Very sweet drinks and desserts.** Not a moral failing, but on a limited appetite they crowd out food that is doing more for you. Halo-halo occasionally is fine; it should not be replacing a meal.
• **Alcohol.** Slowed digestion changes how it affects you — see alcohol and GLP-1 medication.

The honest summary

There is no Vive diet. The medicine regulates appetite; nutrition determines what that smaller appetite is spent on. Protein first, vegetables generously, rice slightly smaller, water throughout.

None of this replaces individual advice, and the macro and protein calculators are starting points rather than prescriptions. If you are struggling to eat enough, tell your care team.