189. No Appetite on a GLP-1? What to Eat When Nothing Sounds Good

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What do you do when your GLP-1 turns your appetite way down and even your favorite foods get a big “meh”?

A podcast listener recently wrote in recently after increasing her Zepbound dose and finding that her appetite had almost disappeared. She wasn’t worried. In fact, after a lifetime of ravenous hunger, it felt like freedom. 

But with only a handful of foods still sounding good, she had a practical question: 

How do you make sure you’re eating enough when hunger isn’t reminding you to eat?

It’s a great question, and a common challenge when appetite gets very quiet.

Here’s how to make eating easier when you’re not hungry, from simple go-to foods and flexible meal timing to cutting decision fatigue and getting curious about what actually sounds good right now.

Appetite Is a Symptom, Not the Goal

When you’ve spent years feeling constantly hungry or thinking about food, having that noise suddenly quiet down can feel incredible.

And that’s okay.

The goal isn’t necessarily to “get your appetite back.” The goal is to keep nourishing your body even during seasons when your appetite is quieter.

Think of it like brushing your teeth. You don’t wait until you have a cavity to start brushing. 

Sometimes taking care of your body is proactive rather than reactive. And eating can work the same way.

When hunger cues are loud and reliable, they can help guide you. But when they’re suddenly whispering, or completely silent, you may need to look for other clues.

If hunger isn’t giving you much information, zoom out and pay attention to how your body is functioning.

Ask yourself:

• Is my energy staying fairly stable?
• Am I getting enough protein and fiber?
• Am I suddenly weaker during workouts?
• Is constipation getting worse?
• Am I losing weight faster than expected?
• Has my mood changed?
• Am I having trouble concentrating?
• Am I noticing more hair shedding?

For example, if you normally make it through a 30-minute workout and suddenly feel wiped out after 15 minutes, that may be a clue that you’re not fueling yourself well enough.

You don't need to obsess over every signal. Just stop treating hunger as the only one that matters.

Building a “Low-Appetite” Menu

When nothing sounds particularly appealing, deciding what to eat can become exhausting.

So make the decision easier.

Instead of opening the fridge three times hoping inspiration magically strikes, create a short list of foods that usually feel doable when your appetite is low.

Some options might include:

• Greek yogurt with fruit
• Cottage cheese
• Protein cereal
• Eggs
• Rotisserie chicken with a dip or sauce
• Fruit
• Cheese sticks
• Simple soups
• Smoothies (when getting enough food in otherwise feels difficult)

Greek yogurt and cottage cheese are especially flexible because you can take them in completely different directions depending on what sounds good. Greek yogurt might be sweet with berries one day and savory with seasoning and vegetables the next. Cottage cheese can stay simple or become something more substantial, like a quick pizza-inspired bowl with tomato sauce and cheese.

And remember: if your appetite is extremely low, the priority may simply be finding realistic ways to get protein, fiber, and a variety of foods into your day.

Make Food More Appealing, Not More Complicated

Low appetite doesn’t always mean nothing sounds good. Sometimes your preferences have just changed.

You may suddenly want colder foods, crunchy foods, salty foods, or foods with more tang or spice. Instead of fighting those changes, get curious about them.

Ask:

• What textures sound good right now?

Maybe a hot meal feels like too much, but cold Greek yogurt works. Or soft food is unappealing, but a crunchy apple sounds great.

• What flavors sound good?

Could a little lemon, spice, seasoning, or sauce make a basic food more interesting?

• Are there foods you want to revisit?

A protein you never used to like may suddenly sound appealing or a familiar food may work better prepared in a different way.

Why Variety Still Matters

It can be tempting to lean on just one or two "safe" foods. But your body needs protein, fats, fiber, minerals, and antioxidants, and no single food (however beloved), can consistently provide all of that. Variety supports your gut microbiome, mood, and blood sugar stability, even in small quantities.

Scheduled Eating: Taking the Guesswork Out

If hunger isn't cueing you anymore, structure can. Try deciding in advance: eat every two to three hours, or set specific times for meals. Some reminders on your phone can help take the decision-making out of it entirely.

A short window of low appetite is usually just the medication reaching peak effect. But if week after week nothing is working, that's worth flagging with your provider as it may be a sign the dose needs adjusting.

Freedom from constant hunger doesn't mean freedom from nourishing yourself. 

When your appetite goes quiet, you get to be intentional instead of reactive by choosing to care for your body even on the days it isn't asking loudly for food.

Want the full breakdown? Catch the full episode for more low-appetite menu ideas, tips on staying curious with food, and a simple approach to scheduled eating.

TRANSCRIPT:

Disclaimer: The transcript below is provided for your convenience and may contain typos, errors, or grammatical inconsistencies, as it has not been professionally edited or proofread. Please enjoy it as-is and read at your own discretion.

Please note: The content shared in this podcast and blog post is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider for personalized medical guidance.    

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I got a really good question that somebody wrote in about low appetite and some questions surrounding that. I wanna go ahead and read this, and I realized I actually have a lot of thoughts about this area. So hopefully you're having a good start to fall here. This is one of those times of year when I find I get the most done. I usually end up always making a health leap this time of year. I'm willing to try new things. I'm willing to do new things. I don't know what it is. I've realized basically September is like my New Year's. Somehow January is not like, "Yeah, let's kick all the things off." There's something about September for me that just really works. So I hope that you're getting some of that energy as well. All right. So let's dig into this. This person went up on their Zepbound dose slightly, and they really now have no interest in food this week., This person's saying they're, they're not worried about this, but they're wondering if I could talk about how to organize scheduled eating. They're still interested in breakfast. They like cereal or Greek yogurt with berries and bananas, and they still like watermelon and feta cheese or cottage cheese and applesauce, but that's about it. And they said that, "I know my enjoyment of food will come back, but I have no physical hunger at all now. Zip, zero. I actually feel like freedom given my long t- r- given my lifelong ravenous hunger, "but I have heard you say a lot of times that we have to eat." They're mentioning this story that they heard about two elderly gentlemen who basically joked that, well, we really just need ice cream three times a day. That was their theory, that, it has protein, so it's fine. And by the time her friend had come to visit them, they were unhealthy and not doing well. So they're kinda asking my thoughts here. All right. This is awesome. Let's dig into this. The first thing that I wanna stress here is appetite, it's a symptom. It's not really a goal, okay? So when you say, it actually feels like freedom, let's use that observation for a second. Many people, they've spent decades chasing relief from this relentless hunger. I get it. It's not only a physical hunger, but also, an emotional, like needing more, more, more, so when the food noise is finally quieting down, it really feels miraculous. And I don't wanna pathologize that experience. The goal isn't to get your appetite back. This is the biggest point you're gonna get out of today. The goal is to nourish your body, even during seasons when your appetite is quieter. The thing that I just thought of when I was thinking through this is, okay, if hunger isn't the only clue that matters, what else could we rely on, so appetite's not up, hunger's not up. What are we gonna do? There are seasons where we eat because we're hungry, and then there are seasons where we eat because we're caring for our future self. I want you to think about you brush your teeth every day. You don't actively have a cavity at the moment, but you do it because you know, if you're like me, you hate if the dentist needs to inject a numbing medicine, drill at the tooth, like, you don't wanna have to go through any of that. You brush your teeth. You maybe take blood pressure medications 'cause you know, hey, I wanna stay healthy. You drink water before you're severely dehydrated. We're not all waiting until we're passing out to have water, unless you're on the show alone, which I've been talking a lot about. Sometimes these healthy behaviors, they're more proactive than reactive. And I think frankly, reading this email, you have great insight into this. You know this. You're even asking for tips, I always say let's drop into being a scientist, let's just encourage ourselves to look at the data. Here are some questions. Instead of asking, "Am I hungry?" Or, "Where's my appetite at?" Or getting frustrated with that, I want you to more think about, how is my body functioning? Is my energy stable? Am I getting enough protein? Am I getting enough fiber? Am I feeling weaker in the gym? This is a massive one. If you normally could do 30 minutes and now 15 minutes in you're conking out, usually it's a nutrition problem. Is constipation worse for you? Am I losing weight faster than would be recommended? So for example, if it's more than 1% per week, or if your skeletal, the rate of your skeletal muscle loss is over 10%, to you that's a red flag. Is my mood changing? Am I able to concentrate? That's a big one too. Is my hair shedding increasing? So really looking at... This is a good list here, I think. Just asking yourself, not just focusing on hunger driving the show, but on how your body's functioning. Now, let's say that you didn't have a metabolic health problem. It would be amazing if hunger could run the show. When I think about the members of my family that, on the other side that I married into, that have no challenge, that's how they're run. They get hungry, they eat. They stop in the middle of things. I know this is like a radical concept to those of us that have struggled. They literally are just like, "I'm done. I'm good." They cover it up. They put it away. It doesn't matter how yummy it is. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. They're really in tune with that. All right, when we have insulin resistance and things like that going on, the hormones are not working properly anymore, so sometimes we need to be a little bit more clued into other things to help us out because the signaling's not as obvious. We don't have the red, yellow, green light. Us it's more subtle things in the wind that we need to harvest, okay? So I think that list of questions can be really helpful. I want you next to just focus on lowering the decision fatigue. So you're naturally gravitating toward foods that sound good to you. Amazing, great. Let's normalize that. Can we build for you a low appetite menu? So here are some examples that I came up with that I see work pretty well universally for people, but again, you don't need to do this list. A lot of the time, Greek yogurt is great 'cause you can do whatever fruit you like with it. It can be very neutral, or you could do Greek yogurt with like the Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning or whatever seasoning you like, and the veggies in there. It just has a tanginess to it that often that flavor profile, whether it be with the fruit, the berries, or the ranch type of thing, it works well. Cottage cheese is versatile too. Sometimes when we don't have a good appetite, if someone were to offer us pizza, we'd be like, "Yeah, give me some of that." What we can do with cottage cheese, you can put a little bit of red sauce in it, a little bit of different cheese, and it kind of becomes like a, a faux, a, a pizza bowl, right? I've seen some people do a few pieces of pepperoni in there and you can eat it like that or you could warm it up a little bit. It becomes even better. There's ways to take these foods that are actually very healthy for us and kinda just morph it a little bit. There are protein cereals. Again, am I the biggest fan of you long-term having all these things? No. But this might be a time when you get a box in the house and you experiment with, "What if I have a little bit on top of Greek yogurt? What if I have it just dry on its own as a snack?" Just experimenting with different ways. Eggs, you can make them in so many different ways. Rotisserie chicken, often if we get a nice little dip to put it with. I don't care so much about the calories sometimes so much as can we make sure to get that protein into you. A thing I'm gonna put on the list here, don't get too used to it, it's gonna be smoothies. So I'm normally not a fan because I find that we don't register it the same when we're having liquid calories like that. I just see this with my patients that struggle with insulin resistance, stuff like that. But If you're in a period where you're not getting the food in and you know this is not great, I'm massively under-fueling my body, smoothies can be a good chance to get some ground flax seed in there, some chia seed. You can have the berries blended up with the Greek yogurt. It's really endless what you can do. And again, it's are we at all getting in the direction that you wanna go? We could put fruit on this list. Soup is a really good one here that is so underestimated. I put cheese sticks on here and I have to laugh. I had a new patient here recently that thought it was an abomination that I suggested cheese sticks 'cause they thought they were incredibly unhealthy. Everyone gets to live how they wanna live, if you can make everything from scratch and everything can be farm-to-table, blessings to you. I'm so happy. But at the end of the day, I want you to get your fiber and protein, and it's gonna look different at different times. Let's get back to soup for a second. I'm a really big fan of just sometimes making a really simple soup. There can be bean-based ones. There can be where you throw a bunch of veggies in. You just do some water, a bouillon cube, a broth, and what I really like, my, secret ingredient, if you would, I do just a little bit of pickle juice in that, and that provides that tanginess to it where then I really like it. And I will actually put maybe half a cup of cottage cheese into that. In fact, I w- it's the middle of summer and I wanna go make it right now. Gosh, that sounds so good. I know that fall is around the corner when I'm like, "Veggie soup with a splash of pickle juice in it." But when you put the cottage cheese in there, it's a really nice Togetherness. I can't describe it any other way. We're not trying to become a gourmet chef here, but you could know if my appetite's down, these are things that work for me. And then I want you to lean into that food curiosity. I really heard it in there, the taste preferences, often they're changing on a GLP-1, but is there a protein you've never liked that sounds good now, and you do actually wanna try it? Do you like things that are colder? Does that feel better to you? Or crunchier foods, or salty, or sweet? Have you tried different spice preferences? I got into a thing a while back here where I tried pumpkin pie spice for the top. I tried nutmeg. I tried all these different things just to see was there something that I was missing out on, and friends, there is. There's a type of cinnamon, I don't even know, honestly, it's a random bottle. I can tell you how this happened. We were... I was at the retreat that I was hosting, and they had some cinnamons in the pantry there, and one of them I tried, and it is the best cinnamon I've had in my life. There actually are different versions of cinnamon. And so I realized, wow, I've been depriving myself. So for example, I have this dehydrator now, and I use a mandoline. I get really thin sliced apple slices, Honey Crisp apple. I do it real quick in a lemon juice. I just take one lemon, squeeze it into a bowl, kinda flip it both sides. Pretend like you're, like breading chicken, but it's gonna be your apple slice, both sides. And then I'll do a little bit of that cinnamon on it, and I stick it on the dehydrator. I kinda flip it throughout the day, and I'll have these nice apple chips at the end of it. The point is, bringing that lemon in to go on the apple, kinda new for me. I had done it before for things sometimes to not go brown, but I kinda forgot about it. All right, it's back, 'cause it creates that tanginess, the different cinnamon, richer flavor profile, right? I always forget it exists in the cabinet, but can we go ahead and bring that down? Rather than fighting this change in your appetite, can we just get a little bit more curious? And then let's get back to this ice cream story. I think this actually illustrates a broader point. I think our brain is incredibly good at convincing us that one or two foods are, quote unquote, "enough," because they're the only things that actually sound appealing. The discussion here, I think, it's not about villainizing ice cream. It's more about we need variety, not just because ice cream's bad, something like that, but it's because our body needs protein, fats, fiber, minerals, antioxidants, and one or two foods can't consistently provide all of those. So if you're in this phase of saying, "Two protein drinks a day and one small meal," listen, I don't care what's in that protein drink. I don't care how many things are popping into that ingredient list that's like a Frankenfood, a million things long. Fine here and there if you love it, but you're definitely not getting all the things you need if there's not some variety of fruits or veggies or the different beans, different things. We have to vary what we're eating. Our, our body craves it. Your gut microbiome's gonna do better. You're gonna feel better. Your mood's gonna be more stable, blood sugar more stable, you name it. Sometimes a week of almost complete loss of appetite, it's simply the medication reaching the peak effect, you mentioned the half-life. You're very aware of all of this. Other times it's a signal that maybe the dose is a little too high than what your body needs, but again, this is usually figured out through a few weeks. And you're aware when you wrote this question in how this is the first week. You were just asking about the appetite aspect. But just for other people, if you're noticing week after week after week you can't find foods that work, and you're trying to find these different lists, and you're trying to do these different things, and all these different tips, tricks, hacks, all of it's not working, okay, maybe the medication's too high. Just let that be an indication at some point. But we don't week one, we don't get to that conclusion, right? So one of the beautiful gifts of a GLP-1 medication is that it can give you that freedom from constant hunger, but that freedom from hunger doesn't mean freedom from nourishing yourself, okay? Instead of letting hunger dictate every decision, you have the opportunity to intentionally care for your body, Even on the days it isn't asking loudly for food. You know how I said take the decision fatigue out of it? You might decide, "I'm gonna go ahead and eat every two to three hours, I'm gonna eat something small." I actually like people, to be honest, to have more of this three meal a day approach. This constant snacking can be helpful for someone that has delayed stomach emptying because of, let's say, some really progressed diabetes. If you have gastroparesis, forget the medications for a second, if someone has gastroparesis, these smaller meals more often, it can help them to not feel nauseous all the time, but for the regular person, sometimes you lose track at that point of what you're eating, when you're eating it. You get into this, constant grazing zone. But when your appetite's really low, sometimes it's helpful because you don't want to keep eating when you're not hungry, breaking it up into these little eating opportunities can be easier. You might just decide, "All right, this is time-wise what my day looks like. Here are the times I'm gonna eat." Maybe you make some reminders, and you just decide, "I'm gonna try this for the week." All right, I hope today's episode was helpful for you. If you have been loving this podcast, please leave a review wherever you are listening, and share this with a friend or a family member, someone that maybe they need some of these tips and tricks or perspective. 99% of the things that I'm seeing, hearing, learning, it's because either friends, family are sending me stuff, you guys are sending me stuff. We only can see so many things per day, right? So share this episode, and I hope that you have an amazing rest of the week.