For adults who are overweight or obese, a prescription for Wegovy (semaglutide) can be a game-changer. Wegovy is an injectable prescription medication that's been FDA-approved for chronic weight management. It helps obese adults and children (over 12 years old) lose weight by reducing appetite, increasing fullness, and improving blood sugar. The medication mimics a natural hormone in your body that’s responsible for regulating your appetite and food intake. Wegovy is a semaglutide, which acts as a GLP-1 receptor agonist-meaning it activates the GLP-1 receptor. You can find this receptor in areas of the brain that regulate appetite. GLP-1 itself regulates appetite and food intake by binding with this receptor.
While Wegovy can help you lose up to 15% of your body weight, that doesn’t mean you can eat whatever you want. Although Wegovy may be effective on its own, it was designed to be used with a healthy diet and exercise. This is important for maximizing the efficacy of the medication and reducing side effects. Combining Wegovy with a healthy, balanced diet and increased physical activity can help you manage your weight and improve your health.
To get the most out of the drug, you should do your best to make diet and lifestyle changes, such as avoiding fatty and processed foods while eating more lean proteins and whole grains. Wegovy is a weight-loss medication meant to be used alongside increased physical activity and a reduced-calorie diet. These lifestyle changes can maximize the medication’s effects and help keep weight off if you discontinue it. Additionally, the gastrointestinal side effects of Wegovy may make mealtime more challenging as your body adjusts, and choosing the right foods can help minimize side effects. Eating a well-balanced, healthy diet to support your weight-loss goals by eating a diet that helps reduce common side effects such as lack of appetite, nausea, and diarrhea.
To maximize your weight loss with Wegovy, you should eat plenty of lean protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats. You’ll also want to avoid foods that are high in sugar, loaded with artificial sweeteners, fried/fatty, and highly processed. This guide covers what a healthy Wegovy diet plan looks like, including the best foods to eat and which to avoid.
Understanding Wegovy and Its Role in Weight Management
Wegovy is commonly used as part of a comprehensive approach to weight management. Let’s explore how. Wegovy or Semaglutide is an injectable medication for chronic weight management in adults who struggle with obesity, are overweight, or who have at least one weight-related condition, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or elevated cholesterol.
Read also: Sustainable weight loss using Wegovy
Wegovy mimics the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) to target areas of the brain that regulate hunger and appetite. Wegovy suppresses hunger and appetite to facilitate weight loss. Ozempic and Wegovy are the same medication, but Wegovy is approved for weight loss, whereas Ozempic treats type 2 diabetes.
Wegovy's Impact on Appetite and Calorie Intake
Wegovy helps to reduce appetite and calorie intake. Decreased hunger and increased fullness help to reduce overall calorie intake. And if you’re not taking in as many calories as usual, then you’re likely going to be losing weight.
Does Wegovy make you not want to eat? Yes, basically, Wegovy makes you not want to eat. You feel full faster and longer. Plus, cravings decrease when hunger decreases, so it’s a heck of a lot easier to say no to those breakroom donuts in the office.
Additional Benefits of Semaglutide
In addition to stimulating weight loss through these mechanisms, drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may also improve obesity-related issues. In fact, Ozempic was originally approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes and has been shown to lower hemoglobin A1C levels. Other possible benefits of GLP-1 receptor agonists include reduced blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar. Additionally, Wegovy works to lower blood sugar by improving the body’s ability to secrete insulin and reducing the liver’s production of glucose (sugar). This improvement in blood sugar balance also helps with weight loss.
The Importance of Diet While Taking Wegovy
While Wegovy helps control your appetite, what you eat still matters. Wegovy reduces how much food you consume. Therefore, monitoring the quality of foods you eat is crucial. Prioritize nutrient-dense foods to minimize the chance of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Focusing on foods that benefit cardiometabolic health, like fruits, vegetables, and fiber, encourages a balanced diet and helps to establish sustainable eating habits. A calorie deficit while on Wegovy may further support weight loss.
Read also: Weekly Wegovy Progress
Addressing Gastrointestinal Side Effects
Due to the way semaglutide works, the medication may lead to gastrointestinal (GI)-related side effects. Semaglutide helps slow down digestion, which means overeating or eating foods that take a long time to digest could result in nausea, stomach pain, gas, bloating, constipation, or diarrhea. Eating a balanced diet that provides enough calories and features nutritious foods that don’t exacerbate GI symptoms is helpful in preventing and managing side effects of semaglutide. As a result, people may be more likely to stick with the medication and experience successful weight loss.
Calorie Needs and Macronutrient Balance
There aren’t fixed guidelines on how many calories to consume when taking this medication. It will vary depending on your health history, sex, size, and weight-loss goals. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, most adults should eat between 1,600 and 2,400 calories daily. For weight loss, you should typically aim to cut approximately 250-500 calories each day from your total calorie maintenance.
The best number of calories per day will be different for each person, depending on needs, size, and activity level. Some people may benefit from eating 1200 calories per day while others need closer to 2000 calories per day. However, what you eat to make up your daily calories is likely more important than hitting an exact number.
The recommended diet for patients on semaglutide is similar to the suggestions for a healthy diet in general: lots of non-starchy vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fat sources. It includes helpful information on how to incorporate a healthy balance of food groups for optimal health. MyPlate isn’t a specific diet plan, it’s more of a general healthy eating resource.
Foods to Focus on for a Balanced Wegovy Diet
Working certain foods into your diet can make Wegovy more effective. The best foods to eat while taking Wegovy include nutritious whole foods. You want to choose foods that will maximize the weight loss effect of Wegovy while limiting the digestive side effects. Aim to include the following foods often:
Read also: Duration of Wegovy Treatment
Lean Protein: Essential for Satiety and Muscle Preservation
Eating lean proteins like chicken, turkey, and fish is an important part of losing weight. Diets high in protein can help with weight loss efforts by helping you feel more satiated. Adequate protein is essential for anyone losing a lot of weight. It can help prevent muscle loss and increase fat loss when dieting while keeping your metabolism high. “Most people lose one-third muscle and two-thirds fat tissue when they lose weight,” Dr. Poston says.
Aim for at least 60 grams of protein daily while on Wegovy. Some recommendations encourage a higher protein intake of 1.0 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. Prioritize lean proteins like chicken, fish, seafood, eggs and plant-based options like tofu and tempeh.
These foods contain high amounts of protein while remaining fairly low-calorie to help meet daily protein needs.
Fruits and Vegetables: Nutrient Powerhouses for Overall Well-being
Foods like kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, and collard greens are dietary powerhouses. Fruits and vegetables are low in calories but high in fiber, which helps you feel full longer, curbing hunger and reducing overeating. These are key factors in weight loss. Fruits and vegetables also provide essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support energy, immunity, and overall well-being, helping to counteract any nutrient gaps that arise with a reduced calorie intake. Additionally, fruits and vegetables have a high water content, helping you meet hydration needs.
These are great sources of fiber to help digestion, natural sources of fluids to avoid dehydration, and they contain tons of antioxidants and phytochemicals to optimize health. These low-calorie foods are great sources of vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.
Aim for half of your plate to be non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, carrots, cucumbers, zucchini, asparagus, and artichoke hearts.
Whole Grains: Sustained Energy and Fiber
Substituting your favorite refined carbohydrates with whole-grain varieties means you can still enjoy the foods you love in moderation. Because whole grains have more fiber, your body digests them more slowly, so you’ll feel full longer. Eating more whole grains is also associated with reducing body weight and BMI over time.
Whole grains are essential to a balanced diet, providing sustained energy and supporting weight loss goals. Whole grains include brown rice, whole wheat bread, pasta, farro, bulgar, barley, quinoa, and amaranth. Whole grains are complex carbohydrates, meaning they contain fiber and are digested and absorbed more slowly than their refined counterparts. Whole grains release energy slowly, preventing blood sugar spikes and keeping you fuller for longer. Replacing refined grains with whole grains helps maintain steady energy levels throughout the day to reduce cravings and overeating.
These foods are great sources of B vitamins, fiber, and other nutrients. Plus, they can be a little easier to tolerate if you’re having digestive issues.
Healthy Fats: Supporting Heart Health and Satiety
Prioritize unsaturated, healthy fats found in nuts, avocados, seeds, and vegetable oils. Unsaturated fats provide benefits for your heart health. Healthy fats offer beneficial nutrients necessary for vitamin D and hormone production. They also contribute to satiety.
Fats are necessary for the absorption of certain vitamins. These healthy unsaturated fats help to absorb certain vitamins and stabilize energy throughout the day.
Legumes: Plant-Based Protein and Fiber
This food group includes lentils, beans, and chickpeas and is a wonderful addition to your Wegovy diet plan. They’re inexpensive, full of meat-free protein, and high in fiber. Legumes are a great way to meet your protein needs especially if you’re vegetarian or vegan. They’re also high in fiber to feed the good bacteria in the gut improving digestion and absorption.
Dairy and Fermented Foods: Calcium, Probiotics, and Gut Health
Dairy is an excellent source of calcium, and low-fat dairy provides the benefits with fewer calories. These are the best ways to get sufficient calcium for bone health. Some have the added benefit that they contain various strains of probiotics.
These contain beneficial bacteria or microbes that live in the gut. They help enhance the immune system and improve digestion alongside many other health benefits.
Foods to Limit or Avoid on Wegovy
Although no foods are strictly off-limits with Wegovy, some foods are best avoided or greatly reduced to improve weight loss and reduce common digestive complaints. This list includes which foods to limit and how they may negatively impact your health.
High-Sugar Foods and Beverages
These types of foods are low in nutritional value, high in calories, and they counteract Wegovy’s ability to lower blood sugar for weight loss. These simple carbs, which include white bread and pasta, are often much higher in sugar than their whole-grain counterparts, lower in fiber, and can be heavily processed. Because they’re quickly digested and processed by the body, they can spike blood sugar levels. Over time, consistently high blood sugar can lead to heart disease. Diets heavy in refined carbs have also been associated with a higher risk of stroke, major cardiovascular events, and death.
Artificial Sweeteners and Sugar Alcohols
These types of sweeteners may negatively alter the balance of bacteria in the gut, which can cause issues with digestion, absorption, and weight.
Processed Foods
These typically contain a lot of added sodium, which can cause swelling, bloating, and raise blood pressure over time.
Fatty Foods
The saturated fats in these foods can raise LDL cholesterol, negatively impacting heart health. Plus, their high fat content can cause discomfort when sitting in the stomach longer. Foods high in saturated fats include animal products (such as sausage, bacon, salami, pork, and beef), coconut and palm oils, full-fat dairy (such as ice cream, cheese, butter, and lard), and some fried foods. The American Heart Association recommends that only about 5% of your calories come from these foods. That’s because saturated fats are known to raise your “bad” cholesterol levels, which can increase your risk of heart disease.
Fast food, potato chips, French fries, ice cream, packaged snacks and cookies, and pastries all fall under this category. Making these foods a regular part of your diet can have serious health repercussions. One meta-analysis that included more than 334,000 participants found that eating ultra-processed foods was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, coronary heart diseases, and obesity.
Foods High in Sodium
High sodium intake can lead to high blood pressure and other health concerns as well as cause gas, bloating, and weight gain.
Alcohol
All alcohol contains sugar and lots of calories with no nutritional value, though some types have more than others. Beverages with high alcohol content can also slow down stomach emptying, which can worsen symptoms while on Wegovy. Alcohol lowers blood sugar, so when used with Wegovy (which also lowers blood sugar) this could lead to hypoglycemia. Alcohol also increases the risk of pancreatitis, which is already a potential side effect of Wegovy.
Sample Wegovy Diet Plan
Below you can see a sample 1,600-calorie meal plan that is healthy for someone taking Wegovy. Note that your ideal meal plan while taking Wegovy will vary based on health conditions, weight, preferences, and more.
Breakfast (About 400 Calories)
- Oatmeal with Fruits and Nuts
- ½ cup rolled oats (cooked in water)
- 1 medium banana, sliced
- A sprinkle of almonds or walnuts
- A dash of cinnamon for flavor
- Green Tea or Black Coffee (Unsweetened)
- Oatmeal with Fruits and Nuts
Mid-Morning Snack (About 150 Calories)
- Greek Yogurt and Berries
- ¾ cup non-fat Greek yogurt
- ½ cup mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, etc.)
- Greek Yogurt and Berries
Lunch (About 400 Calories)
- Grilled Chicken Salad
- 2 cups mixed greens (spinach, arugula, etc.)
- 3 oz grilled chicken breast, sliced
- Cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and red onion
- 1 tbsp olive oil and vinegar as dressing
- Grilled Chicken Salad
Afternoon Snack (About 150 Calories)
- Veggies and Hummus
- 1 cup sliced carrots and bell peppers
- 2 tbsp hummus
- Veggies and Hummus
Dinner (About 400 Calories)
- Baked Salmon with Veggies
- 4 oz baked salmon
- ½ cup steamed broccoli
- ½ cup quinoa or brown rice
- Lemon wedge for flavor
- Baked Salmon with Veggies
Evening Snack (About 100 Calories)
- Apple with Almond Butter
- 1 small apple, sliced
- 1 tsp almond butter
- Apple with Almond Butter
Additional Tips for a Healthy Lifestyle on Wegovy
When it comes to long-term weight management, taking medication isn’t going to be enough. Wegovy will definitely help curb hunger and cravings so you can eat less and make healthier food choices, but to make these changes last, you’ll need to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
This goes beyond food and exercise. This means you will need to start living your life in an intentional way. A way that prioritizes you and your health. It also requires a shift in mindset. A temporary diet will never do the trick. You will never be “done” managing your weight, much as diabetics are not done managing their blood sugar.
- Stay Consistent: Making a lot of big changes to your eating habits all at once can be difficult to maintain. “Evaluate your current diet and make small changes so you can continue lifelong,” Dr. Poston says. “Gradually add more dietary changes and physical activity throughout your day.
- Eat mindfully. Notice when you’re hungry and plan for a meal or snack. Also, notice when you’re full and stop eating, even if it means you’re leaving food on the plate.
- Stay hydrated. Make water your main beverage and aim for 64 ounces daily. This can help you stay hydrated and avoid constipation and kidney issues.
- Prioritize protein. Include protein with every meal and most snacks to meet your daily needs, which will help sustain muscle mass and keep blood sugar balanced.
- Learn to read the nutrition facts label. This interactive tool is a great way to learn more about the nutrition facts label to help you find the healthiest choices at the grocery store. The more you learn about nutrition, the easier it’ll be to eat healthy.
- Avoid starvation diets. Overly restrictive eating patterns can slow your metabolism setting you up for rapid weight regain. Plus, too little food can lead to nutrient deficiencies.
- Don’t skip meals. Include three meals and at least one snack daily. Eating every three to four hours will help you avoid getting overly hungry making it easier to choose healthy foods and not overeat. Initially, you may need to set an alarm to establish a routine.
- Find an exercise you enjoy. Increasing physical activity while on Wegovy is important-but you don’t have to do what everyone else does. Instead, look for activities that you enjoy so that you’re more likely to stick with them. Adding physical activity to your daily routine, can maximize the benefits of Wegovy.
- Get enough sleep. Sleep isn’t often mentioned when talking about weight loss, but it’s extremely important. A lack of quality sleep is linked to a negative impact on weight loss and appetite control. Aim for at least seven to eight hours each night. Not getting enough sleep often leads to overeating as it reduces hormones in the body that help you feel full and increases the hormones that make you feel hungry.
- Find ways to reduce stress. High stress can promote weight gain in a number of ways. Take time for activities that help you relax.
- Get support when needed. Losing large amounts of weight can be emotionally taxing, and the weight loss journey can be long. It can be helpful to connect with others who are in a similar situation and understand the ups and downs through support groups, suggests Dr.
The Role of a Dietitian in Your Wegovy Journey
For any type of medical or health concern, it’s best to consult with an expert in that field. Dietitians are the experts when it comes to food and nutrition. To maximize your success while taking Wegovy, I highly suggest enlisting the help of a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RD or RDN).
Taking a weight loss medication on its own isn’t likely to teach you much about food or lead to lasting lifestyle changes. Pairing a weight loss medication with the expert advice of a Registered Dietitian is how you’ll get the most effective results. They are trained to work with you starting from where you’re at, educating and guiding you to a healthier way of eating for optimal health and weight management.
Taking a semaglutide like Wegovy slows digestion, which can make you feel full, bloated, not hungry, and possibly nauseous. An RD can help you adjust your eating habits to account for any digestive complaints or other side effects that Wegovy might cause. If the slowed digestion makes it hard to eat and drink enough throughout the day, then dehydration, nutritional imbalances, and deficiencies can happen. An RD can help you find a balance that works for you.
While not all dietitians make specific meal plans for patients, they will help you feel your best while taking the medication, minimize digestive issues, and ensure you’re getting sufficient nutrition. They can also help if you’re not losing the expected amount of weight on Wegovy.
Wegovy's Interactions with Other Medications and Supplements
Wegovy’s main mechanism of action is to slow digestion or delay gastric emptying. Although Wegovy is an injectable medication, there is still the possibility that it could interfere with other medications including oral medications.