Why Supplements Are Essential While Taking GLP-1 Weight Loss Medication
Table of Contents
- Why Do You Need Nutrition Support with GLP-1?
- What Vitamins and Minerals Do You Need When on GLP-1 Medication?
- The Takeaway
Are you taking GLP-1 medication as a part of your type 2 diabetes therapy? Then, you may likely suffer from its side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. Many of these are caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies resulting from taking GLP-1 medication. This is why it may often be essential to provide additional supplementation. Do you want to learn more? Then keep reading!
Why Do You Need Nutrition Support with GLP-1?
Losing weight or battling obesity with GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, Wgovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, might be tempting. However, they also have some significant side effects that may cause you to need additional supplementation.
GLP-1 drugs mainly fulfill one function—they reduce your appetite. However, as such, they cause a major problem since they may cause severe nutrient deficiencies. Why is it so?
Most people do not consume nutrient-dense diets. Even if you eat healthy, do you think about the essential micro and macro compounds in each meal? Probably not. So, even if your regular diet would cover your nutrient demand when the appetite-surpassing effect comes into play, you start to struggle.
As you eat less, you consume fewer nutrients from foods. Diarrhea and vomiting may also cause you to remove a major chunk of these nutrients from your body before they are absorbed. In consequence, after a longer period of GLP-1 use, your body will start to feel a lack of vitamins and minerals, which may lead to more side effects and your health deteriorating.
What Vitamins and Minerals Do You Need When on GLP-1 Medication?
Although there is still insufficient data to determine the exact types and amounts of vitamins and minerals that your body needs to resupply on GLP-1 medication, experts do claim that you are more prone to some nutrient deficiencies. What are they? Take a look below.
Protein
While you might lose weight on GLP-1 medication, you don’t want to lose lean body mass, as it will weaken your body. Unfortunately, this is what happens when you suffer from protein deficiency. Moreover, according to Almandoz et al., physicians often prescribe higher protein intake than regular for those attempting to lose weight—it falls between 60 and 75 g/day.
With reduced appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea, it becomes difficult to provide such amounts to your body—even without these, this could be hard without focusing on protein-rich foods in your diet. Hence, you should consider supplementing with protein products while on GLP-1.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is yet another nutrient crucial for your body’s strength, as it builds your bones. At the same time, we do not consume much of it—mostly, we acquire it through exposure to the sun. Therefore, you become highly susceptible to its deficiency when taking weight loss medication, especially in the less sunny seasons.
As a result, our supplement recommendations for GLP-1 users must contain multi-vitamin products containing this particular nutrient.
Calcium
Calcium is the third nutrient your body might struggle to provide when on GLP-1 drugs. To counter this, it is best to consume calcium products such as milk, yogurt, and cheese.
Vitamin B12
Experts agree that vitamin B12 is the fourth of the vitamins and minerals that you may lack while on GLP-1 medication. This may lead to symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, or even yellowish skin. Thus, it is good to supplement it with multi-vitamins—preferably products that also contain vitamin D, to kill two birds with one stone.
Iron
Finally, there is iron. Here, the case is much more difficult for women under the age of 51 who need 18 g of this mineral daily, while men and older women need only 8 g of it, though iron deficiency might also be observed among male and older female patients.
The Takeaway
We’ve provided you with our supplement recommendations for those on GLP-1 drugs. Remember that although these are the most common deficiencies, you might not experience them or suffer from the lack of a different nutrient. Thus, work closely with your healthcare practitioner to ensure that you use the right supplementation.
You might also read: Preventing Bone Loss on GLP-1 Medications: Key Supplements to Consider
References:
- Almandoz, J. P., Wadden, T. A., Tewksbury, C., Apovian, C. M., Fitch, A., Ard, J. D., Li, Z., Richards, J., Butsch, W. S., Jouravskaya, I., Vanderman, K. S., & Neff, L. M. (2024). Nutritional considerations with antiobesity medications. Obesity, 32(7). https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.24067
- Office of Dietary Supplements. (n.d.). Iron: Fact sheet for health professionals. National Institutes of Health.