Nutrition guide
Dietary Guidelines 2025–2030,
read on a GLP-1.
The US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services publish the Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years. The 10th edition, for 2025–2030, came out in January 2026. It is ten pages long, and it never mentions GLP-1 medicines.
That matters if you take one. Most of the new advice is written for people who eat a typical amount and want to eat better. On a GLP-1 you may be eating much less than before, so some of the numbers need careful reading.
This page sets out what the guidelines say, in their own words, and where other expert reviews disagree. It is not personal advice: your clinician or dietitian can tell you what fits you.
What the guidelines say
| Topic | What the 2025–2030 guidelines say |
|---|---|
| Protein | “1.2–1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, adjusting as needed based on your individual caloric requirements.” Protein foods “at every meal”, from animal and plant sources. |
| Dairy | “3 servings per day as part of a 2,000-calorie dietary pattern.” “When consuming dairy, include full-fat dairy with no added sugars.” |
| Saturated fat | “Should not exceed 10% of total daily calories.” |
| Vegetables and fruit | 3 servings of vegetables and 2 of fruit a day, on a 2,000-calorie pattern. |
| Whole grains | 2–4 servings a day; “significantly reduce” refined carbohydrates. |
| Processed food and sugar | “Avoid highly processed” packaged foods. “One meal should contain no more than 10 grams of added sugars.” |
Several of these are set for a 2,000-calorie day. If your appetite is lower, your servings will be too, and the guidelines say to adjust “based on your individual caloric requirements”.
Protein: what the number means
The guidelines give protein per kilogram of body weight. The long-standing Recommended Dietary Allowance is 0.8 g per kilogram for adults (Institute of Medicine, 2005), so the new range is higher.
There is a catch in “per kilogram of body weight”. Your body uses protein mainly to build and repair lean tissue, such as muscle and organs, not body fat. A 2025 review of protein needs in obesity puts it plainly: “Protein requirements are mainly determined by fat free mass” (Weijs, 2025). So two people who weigh the same can need different amounts, depending on how much of that weight is muscle. For someone carrying more fat than muscle, a number based on total weight can overstate what they need. Clinical nutrition often uses an adjusted body weight for this reason.
When you eat protein, the nitrogen it contains is turned into urea by the liver and cleared by the kidneys in urine (Barmore et al., StatPearls). The more protein you eat beyond what your body uses, the more of that work your kidneys do.
On a GLP-1, the practical point is about meals. The guidelines ask for protein foods at every meal. When meals get smaller, the protein in each one is worth recording, so you can see how it adds up over a day.
Saturated fat: 10% is a ceiling, not a target
The guidelines say saturated fat “should not exceed 10% of total daily calories”. That is the most you should have, not an amount to aim for. Less is better.
The same document lists “butter or beef tallow” among cooking fats, after olive oil. That listing doesn’t make them healthy. The evidence review behind these guidelines describes a healthy pattern “lower in red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, refined grains, and saturated fat”, with “vegetable oils higher in unsaturated fat” (2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee). The American Heart Association’s 2026 statement lists “choosing sources of unsaturated fats in place of sources of saturated fat” as a feature of a heart-healthy diet (Lichtenstein et al., 2026). Its 2017 advisory concluded that replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat lowers LDL cholesterol, a cause of artery disease (Sacks et al., 2017).
Treat butter, tallow and lard as a small allowance inside that ceiling, not as a choice to make.
Where expert bodies differ
The guidelines are written by the two departments, informed by an independent advisory committee. In 2026 the two did not fully agree.
- The advisory committee’s report (December 2024) favoured beans, peas and lentils, less red and processed meat, and patterns that sometimes include fat-free or low-fat dairy.
- The final guidelines (January 2026) lead with protein, full-fat dairy and “healthy fats”, while keeping the 10% saturated-fat limit.
- The American Heart Association (2026) recommends shifting protein toward legumes and nuts, and unsaturated fats in place of saturated ones.
All three agree on more vegetables, fruit and whole grains, and less added sugar, highly processed food and alcohol.
What to record
None of this needs a calculator to be useful. Recording what you actually eat shows you the pattern behind the numbers: how much protein each meal carries, how often meals are skipped, and how that lines up with your doses and appetite.
In GLP Mirror, meals and protein go in Track → Nutrition, next to your shots and check-ins. It records; it doesn’t set targets. Bring the record to your clinician or dietitian.
How food logging works What else to track on a GLP-1 Take the free Macros courseQuestions
What is the new protein recommendation?
1.2–1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, adjusted for your calorie needs. Because protein need follows lean mass more than total weight, ask your clinician what fits you.
Do the guidelines mention GLP-1 medicines?
No. The 2025–2030 document does not mention GLP-1 or other weight-loss medicines.
Is 10% saturated fat a target?
No. It is the most the guidelines allow. Less is better.
Is full-fat dairy recommended now?
The guidelines say to “include full-fat dairy with no added sugars”, within the same 10% saturated-fat limit. The advisory committee’s review described patterns with fat-free or low-fat dairy.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030. 10th edition, January 2026. https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf
- Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, Part A: Executive Summary. https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/2025-advisory-committee-report
- Weijs PJM. Protein requirement in obesity. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2025;28:27–32 (online November 2024). doi:10.1097/MCO.0000000000001087
- Lichtenstein AH et al. 2026 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation, published online 31 March 2026. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000001435
- Sacks FM et al. Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association. Circulation 2017;136:e1–e23. doi:10.1161/CIR.0000000000000510
- Uribarri J et al. Advanced glycation end products in foods and a practical guide to their reduction in the diet. J Am Diet Assoc 2010;110:911–916. doi:10.1016/j.jada.2010.03.018
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Final Determination Regarding Partially Hydrogenated Oils (Removing Trans Fat). https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/final-determination-regarding-partially-hydrogenated-oils-removing-trans-fat
- Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO). 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease. https://kdigo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/KDIGO-2024-CKD-Guideline.pdf (Recommendation 3.3.1.1 and Practice Point 3.3.1.1)
- Devries MC et al. Changes in kidney function do not differ between healthy adults consuming higher- compared with lower- or normal-protein diets: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Nutr 2018;148:1760–1775. doi:10.1093/jn/nxy197 (author disclosures in the paper’s notes)
- Knight EL et al. The impact of protein intake on renal function decline in women with normal renal function or mild renal insufficiency. Ann Intern Med 2003;138:460–467. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-138-6-200303180-00009
- Esmeijer K et al. Dietary protein intake and kidney function decline after myocardial infarction: the Alpha Omega Cohort. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2020;35:106–115. doi:10.1093/ndt/gfz015
- Jhee JH et al. High-protein diet with renal hyperfiltration is associated with rapid decline rate of renal function: a community-based prospective cohort study. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2020;35:98–106. doi:10.1093/ndt/gfz115
- Goldenberg JZ et al. Efficacy and safety of low and very low carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes remission. BMJ 2021;372:m4743. doi:10.1136/bmj.m4743
- USDA Agricultural Research Service. Historic collection at NAL gives insight into blueberry’s domestication. 2011. https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2011/historic-collection-at-nal-gives-insight-into-blueberrys-domestication/
- University of Oxford, Department of Biology. Plants 400: Fragaria species. https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants400/Profiles/EF/Fragaria
- Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. National Academies Press, 2005. doi:10.17226/10490
- Barmore W, Azad F, Stone WL. Physiology, Urea Cycle. StatPearls, 2023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513323/
Keep your progress together.
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Clinician’s commentary
By Alex Antoniou, MD, Board Certified in Lifestyle Medicine. My own view, alongside the guidelines above, not part of them.
The guidelines are a reasonable starting point, but I think they are flawed in places. Here is where I read them differently, and the evidence behind each point.
Protein follows muscle, not weight. Your body uses protein mainly to maintain lean tissue, so two people who weigh the same can need different amounts (Weijs, 2025). A range set per kilogram of total body weight can overstate what someone with less muscle needs.
Check your kidneys before eating more protein. Your kidneys clear the nitrogen from the protein you eat. In healthy adults, trials lasting from four days to two years haven’t shown harm to kidney function. The senior author of the main review of those trials disclosed research funding, travel support and speaking fees from the US National Dairy Council, Dairy Farmers of Canada and the US National Beef Cattlemen’s Association (Devries et al., 2018). The longer studies tell a different story for kidneys that are already under strain:
For adults with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease, kidney specialists suggest about 0.8 g per kilogram a day, and for anyone whose kidney disease may get worse, they advise avoiding more than 1.3 g (KDIGO, 2024). Kidney function also tends to fall with age. Many experts in older adults recommend more protein to protect muscle, and the guidelines say older adults need “equal or greater amounts” of protein. In my practice I don’t raise protein for older patients until I know how their kidneys are working, and I’d ask the same of your clinician.
Cheese counts toward the saturated-fat limit. Dairy is a good source of protein. Cheese is also high in saturated fat and salt, so it sits inside the 10% ceiling below, not beside it.
Choose unsaturated fats in their natural form. Saturated fat occurs naturally in meat, butter, cheese, coconut and palm oil. The factory-made problem fat was trans fat, from partly hydrogenated vegetable oils, which the FDA has since removed from the US food supply. My advice: nuts, seeds, olives, avocado and oily fish.
Cook gently. Frying, grilling and roasting form advanced glycation end products (AGEs), compounds that add to oxidative stress and inflammation, most of all in fatty, protein-rich animal foods. Steaming, poaching and stewing form far fewer (Uribarri et al., 2010). For people sensitive to foods such as red meat, I recommend cooking with little or no added fat. The guidelines themselves suggest oils such as olive oil, so this is my view, not theirs.
Count fruit in portions, not pieces. Fruit and vegetables carry nutrition your body needs. Much of today’s fruit has been bred bigger: the modern strawberry comes from an 18th-century cross in France between two wild American species, one of them known for its huge fruit (University of Oxford), and in 1908 a USDA botanist chose a wild blueberry bush “with berries of superior size” as a parent of today’s cultivated blueberries (USDA Agricultural Research Service). A bigger berry carries more sugar per piece.
Aim for zero added sugar. The guidelines agree: “no amount of added sugars or non-nutritive sweeteners is recommended or considered part of a healthy or nutritious diet.”
Treat grains as fuel for the day. Whole grains are good, cheap nutrition. They are still mostly carbohydrate, so match the amount to how active you are. The studies that favour whole grains mostly compare them with refined grains and processed food, not with eating fewer carbohydrates. In people with type 2 diabetes, lower-carbohydrate diets brought more people’s HbA1c below 6.5% at six months than comparison diets (57% against 31%). The difference was smaller and uncertain when people also had to be off diabetes medicines, and the evidence at a year is thin (Goldenberg et al., 2021).
This is general education, not personal advice. Your clinician or dietitian can tell you what fits you.