New Strategies for Weight Health and Body Composition

GLP-1 medications have fundamentally recalibrated consumer expectations around weight loss. For nutrition and dietary supplement brands, opportunities now extend beyond traditional weight-management strategies to include muscle preservation, gut health, nutrient adequacy, and long-term
metabolic health.

Rather than compete directly with prescription drugs, many supplement companies have targeted adjacent concerns, including protein intake, digestive comfort, and nutritional gaps. These needs can extend to consumers interested in body composition and healthy aging, whether or not they use GLP-1 medications.

“The industry moved fast, mostly because they realized that the supplement weight management category, as it was, could not compete,” said Susan Hewlings, PhD, RD, senior vice president of scientific affairs at Radicle Science and co-founder of Substantiation Sciences.

Targeting GLP-1 users also made sense because people eating 20% to 40% less food may struggle to get enough protein, fiber, micronutrients, and fluids. Some also lose meaningful amounts of lean mass during weight loss, Hewlings said.

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Weight Loss to Weight Health

GLP-1 medications have changed the consumer conversation around appetite and metabolism, bringing greater attention to the physiological processes that influence weight regulation.

“One of the most interesting things is that GLP-1 agonist medications have exploded, and they’re doing something we haven’t given them enough credit for — they’re quickly teaching people how the body actually works,” said Ashley Koff, RD, an expert in personalized nutrition and integrative health, founder of the Better Nutrition Program, and author of Your Best Shot: The Personalized System for Optimal Weight Health—GLP-1 Shot Or Not.

The body produces several hormones involved in appetite, digestion, and metabolic regulation, including GLP-1, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), peptide YY (PYY), and cholecystokinin (CCK). Together, these signals influence processes such as insulin secretion and satiety.

Koff said the industry can do more to explain these relationships and distinguish naturally produced hormones from the effects of pharmaceutical agonists.

“I actually try to shift the language from ‘weight loss’ to ‘weight health,’ focusing on body composition rather than just weight,” she said. “Belly fat, bone loss, and other markers are like check-engine lights.”

That perspective opens new directions for product development. Consumers may share a weight-related goal but have different needs depending on their health status, nutritional intake, treatment history, and individual circumstances.

Someone experiencing appetite suppression and nausea while adjusting to a medication may need different support from someone on a stable dose or someone who has discontinued treatment. Consumers who have never taken a GLP-1 may also be looking for products to support satiety, muscle health, or metabolic function.

For Koff, nutrition, digestion, sleep, stress, and recovery all belong in the conversation. The challenge is translating that complexity into practical recommendations without suggesting supplements can reproduce the effects of prescription medications.

Nutrient Gaps

SPINS’ 2026 Trend Predictions report highlighted GLP-1 support alongside broader interest in nutrient density, protein, and fiber. These themes offer opportunities for products that address nutritional needs associated with reduced food intake, as well as consumer interest in metabolic and digestive health.

Protein supplements remain an established category. The U.S. protein supplements market alone is valued at about $10 billion, while the protein-fortified food and beverage market is worth tens of billions of dollars globally.

SPINS also noted growth in several fiber types used in food and beverage products, including fructooligosaccharides (FOS), tapioca soluble fiber, acacia, inulin, and psyllium.

For supplement brands, the opportunity is to help consumers meet protein requirements when appetite is reduced, increase fiber intake, or fill identified nutrient gaps.

Formulation and format also matter, Koff said. Companies should consider how reduced intake and changes in digestion may affect nutrient needs, and whether liquids, powders, or other delivery formats are best suited for the target consumer.

Individual needs should guide those decisions. A product designed for someone struggling to eat enough during treatment may not be the right solution for someone focused on long-term weight maintenance.

Muscle Preservation

Muscle health needs to be central to weight-management discussions. Losing weight and improving body composition are not the same; the goal is to reduce excess fat while preserving lean tissue and physical function.

Despite representing just 4.5% of households in one retail analysis, GLP-1 users accounted for 43% of sales growth for products with muscle health claims, according to NIQ data.

Koff cautioned against attributing muscle loss solely to GLP-1 medications.

“I’m glad muscle is getting attention, but blaming the medication is overly simplistic,” she said. “Many people weren’t building muscle effectively before starting GLP-1 therapy.”

Maintaining muscle involves more than increasing protein intake. Adequate nutrition, digestion, protein absorption, resistance exercise, sleep, and recovery all contribute.

“Simply telling people to ‘eat more protein and strength train’ isn’t enough,” Koff said. “Personalization is key.”

For formulators, protein powders, ready-to-drink products, meal replacements, and other nutrient-dense formats are potential options. Creatine and amino acids may also warrant consideration for specific applications. However, evidence supporting an ingredient for one outcome should not automatically be extended to claims about preventing medication-associated muscle loss or improving body composition.

Hewlings noted a major gap in research on finished products and the populations they are intended to serve.

“The biggest missed opportunity is outcome data from finished product research in the population being targeted,” she said. “Many ‘GLP-1 companion’ products have never been tested in people taking a GLP-1.”

Studies measuring meaningful outcomes in actual users would help companies determine whether their formulations deliver benefits beyond those suggested by ingredient-level research.

Gut Health and Satiety

The relationship between the gut and metabolic health is another area of interest, particularly as companies explore prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics.

“From a mechanistic perspective, gut microbes ferment fiber into short-chain fatty acids, and those signal the intestinal cells that release GLP-1 and PYY,” Hewlings said. “In that sense, the gut is the body’s own GLP-1 factory.”

But understanding of mechanism does not establish clinical efficacy.

“The interventional evidence in humans is limited and very strain- and dose-specific,” she said.

Hewlings pointed to viscous fibers such as psyllium and glucomannan as ingredients with evidence for satiety and modest weight effects. Pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila has promising early human data involving metabolic markers, while some Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus strains have demonstrated small effects in certain trials.

Berberine also has metabolic research behind it, although Hewlings said its benefits are often overstated.

The takeaway for brands is to substantiate specific claims with appropriate evidence rather than extrapolate from an ingredient or biological mechanism to broad weight-loss benefits.

“The main point is that any supplement is supportive and may have some small benefits but should not be presented as a drug alternative,” Hewlings said.

She called for larger, diverse randomized controlled trials to help determine which interventions benefit specific populations.

Long-Term Support

One of the biggest gaps in the market is support for people who discontinue GLP-1 medications and want to maintain their progress.

“Weight maintenance has always been a huge underserved and understudied population in my opinion,” Hewlings said.

Maintaining weight loss has long been challenging, and outcomes vary by individual and circumstance. The question for supplement companies is whether products can offer meaningful support without overstating their role.

Koff emphasized that naturally produced hormones and pharmaceutical effects are not interchangeable. Naturally produced GLP-1 remains active for a short time, whereas medications can last much longer.

“So while we can optimize lifestyle and nutrition, it won’t replicate medication effects,” she said. “These drugs should be viewed as tools, not permanent solutions.”

Hewlings noted potential for products that support muscle preservation, nutritional adequacy, digestive comfort, and long-term maintenance. But those products need to be tested against clearly defined outcomes over an appropriate period. A formulation that improves nutrient intake, for example, should not automatically be marketed as a solution for maintaining weight loss unless that outcome has been demonstrated.

Evidence-Based Personalization

As the market evolves, personalization needs to be grounded in meaningful data, Hewlings said. Responses to nutritional interventions vary, and the differences can be especially apparent among people using GLP-1 medications.

“Someone in the titration phase who is struggling with nausea has different needs from someone on a stable maintenance dose,” she said. “Both differ from someone tapering off, and from someone who never took the drug.”

Larger, diverse studies can help researchers identify responder profiles and determine which populations are most likely to benefit from an intervention, Hewlings said. Small trials generally cannot establish those differences with confidence.

Supplement companies should define an intended population and desired outcome before selecting ingredients and making claims. Personalization should reflect meaningful differences in nutritional needs, not simply serve as a marketing label.

Koff also cautioned against treating all GLP-1 users as one group. People may use these medications for different reasons, including weight management and blood sugar control, and their nutritional needs can vary accordingly.

What Comes Next?

Over the next 5 years, Hewlings said the weight-management supplement category will focus increasingly on body composition, metabolic health, and healthy aging.

“As GLP-1s become cheaper, available in oral forms, and more widely accessible, consumers will rely on medication even for small weight loss goals,” she said. “Supplements will compete on preserving muscle, filling nutrient gaps, GI comfort, and long-term maintenance.”

She also expects greater scrutiny of the evidence behind finished products.

“The brands that stand out will be able to show that their product does what the label says through data obtained from a human RCT on the finished product in populations that the product is targeted to,” Hewlings said.

The long-term opportunity for supplement brands in the GLP-1 era is to address specific nutritional and health needs with well-formulated products, credible evidence, and realistic expectations. Muscle preservation, nutrient adequacy, digestive health, and long-term maintenance offer a more durable foundation for innovation than weight-loss promises alone.