The Best Diet on Wegovy: What to Eat (and What to Avoid)

While there’s no official recommended Wegovy diet, research shows developing healthy eating habits is key to seeing long-term results. But that doesn’t have to mean living off salads and rice cakes.

Here, we’ll walk you through how eating healthily can help reduce side effects, and which foods to choose, limit, or steer clear of. We’ve also included a full 7-day Wegovy meal plan to help you get started. And we’ll run through some FAQs, to help you reach your weight loss goals safely and effectively, while keeping you energised and still looking forward to lunchtime.

Three key takeaways

Wegovy works best as part of a healthy lifestyle combined with a balanced, nutrient-rich diet.
High-protein foods, fibre, and staying hydrated support weight loss, keep your energy levels stable, and help reduce side effects like headaches, fatigue, nausea, and constipation.
Avoid fatty, spicy, greasy, or overly sugary foods. These can slow your progress and trigger or worsen side effects.

Do you need to diet on Wegovy?

You need a controlled diet on Wegovy to get the best results from your treatment. While it’s been designed to help with appetite control, it won’t work as well if you continue eating high-calorie low-nutrient foods.

If you do, you’re likely to lose a lot less weight, or not lose weight at all. You’re also more likely to experience side effects while taking it.

Is there an official Wegovy diet plan?

No, there’s no official Wegovy diet or meal plan.

However, recent research on ‘what to eat on Wegovy’ shows a healthy diet focusing on quality proteins, fibre, and healthy fats, while staying well-hydrated is key to effective weight loss.

While there are no ‘official’ diet plans, there are plenty of unofficial resources to help, including our guide here. If you’re ever worried about your diet, or need help putting together a plan, the NHS and Diabetes UK offer meal plans.

The best foods to eat on Wegovy

The best foods to eat on Wegovy include:

Protein

lean cuts of meat, like turkey, chicken, and beef
fish like cod, haddock, tuna, and pollock
pulses and legumes like peas, beans, chickpeas, and lentils
soy products like tofu and tempeh

Studies show that increasing your protein intake can help support weight loss. This is because protein helps you to feel fuller for longer and aids in building and maintaining muscle, which helps you burn more calories both when active and at rest.

Experts recommend anyone taking Wegovy (semaglutide) or other weight loss medications aim for a daily protein intake of at least 0.8 grams (g) of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. So, if you weigh 100kg, you should aim to eat at least 80g of protein a day. If you have a BMI over 40, you may need more than this, so talk to your doctor.

Fibre

To make sure you’re getting enough fibre, go for foods like:

dark leafy greens like kale, chard, or spinach
potatoes
carrots
broccoli
beetroot
cauliflower
artichokes
brussels sprouts
aubergine
whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, wholegrain bread and pasta, oats, and pearl barley

Fibre helps to fill you up, stabilises blood sugar, supports healthy digestion, and reduces side effects like constipation.

If you’re having diarrhoea as a side effect of Wegovy, you can temporarily reduce your fibre intake while your body adjusts to the medication and reintroduce it gradually as your symptoms reduce.

Adults should aim for 30g of fibre a day, but build up to this amount gradually, so your digestive system has time to adjust.

Healthy fats

Good sources of healthy fats include:

avocados
nuts like almonds, cashews, walnuts, Brazil nuts, peanuts, and macadamias
seeds like flax, chia, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds
olive oil
oily fish like salmon, trout, and mackerel

Healthy fats support heart health and can also promote joint health and reduce inflammation, which can help you to stay physically active.

You can also try taking a supplement like cod liver oil, krill oil, or flaxseed oil to increase your intake of heart-healthy fats.

Fluids

To avoid drinking extra calories or sugars, and acidic drinks that can worsen digestive symptoms like stomach ache and heartburn, we recommend you stick to:

water
herbal teas
soups

It’s important to stay hydrated while taking Wegovy to reduce side effects like constipation and headaches, and to replenish fluids if you have side effects like vomiting or diarrhoea, which lead to dehydration. So aim for at least 8 glasses of water a day.

Foods to avoid on Wegovy

Wegovy’s active ingredient, semaglutide, does not interact with any foods. But experts recommend that anyone taking it avoid the following:

High-fat, greasy foods: These tend to be high in calories and can trigger or worsen side effects like nausea, diarrhoea and heartburn.
Spicy foods: Spicy food can trigger or worsen indigestion, nausea, and diarrhoea.
High-sugar foods and drinks: Sugary foods and drinks can cause blood sugar spikes which can affect your energy levels, cause cravings, and add empty calories.
Processed foods and takeaways: These tend to be calorie-dense and low in essential nutrients.
Excess alcohol: Alcohol can lower blood sugar, which can lead to hypoglycaemia, and may worsen nausea, heartburn, and other side effects, so enjoy it in moderation.

How many calories should I eat on Wegovy?

There’s no one-size-fits-all calorie recommendation when it comes to Wegovy nutrition. How many calories you need depends on your current weight, goal weight, and other factors, like any other health conditions you may have. A good rule of thumb is to stick to trying to eat at a ‘calorie deficit’, meaning you burn more calories than you eat.

What is a calorie deficit?

A calorie deficit is when you eat fewer calories than your body uses in a day. Experts recommend a calorie deficit of 500–750 calories per day, depending on your current weight, BMI, and other health factors.

Research suggests most people with a weight below roughly 115 kilograms (kg) can achieve this calorie deficit by consuming around 1200–1499 calories a day, depending on your activity level and profession. If you have a physically active job, you may need a higher calorie intake.

The recommendation for people with a weight above roughly 115kg is 1500–1800 calories per day.

Risks of restricting calories too much

It’s important not to restrict your calories too much.

Research shows combining healthy habits with a high-protein, very-low-calorie diet involving a calorie deficit of 800 calories a day or more can increase weight loss to 12-20%.

However, the researchers also found that while this extreme calorie restriction led to increased weight loss, it made study participants more likely to regain the weight they’d lost than a less calorie-restricted diet. It also increases the risk of side effects like:

nutrient deficiencies
headache
fatigue
nausea

It’s crucial to speak with a clinician about the right calorie deficit for you to make sure you don’t experience increased side effects and slow the progress you’re making.

“It’s tempting to want to lose weight faster, especially once you’ve already seen progress and you’re feeling really motivated. But I always advise patients to resist the temptation to cut their calories too much too soon.

This can potentially lead to a bunch of issues like headaches, fatigue, and nutrient deficiencies. It can also make you more likely to regain the weight you’ve lost once you try to return to normal eating. I suggest to my patients to think of their weight loss journey on Wegovy more like a marathon than a hundred-metre dash. It’s about getting where you want to go at the right pace!”

Jason Murphy, Head of Pharmacy

Popular diets and Wegovy: what works best?

Of all the well-known, popular diets, none claim to work ‘best with Wegovy’. What’s more important is finding a diet that works best for you, and helps you maintain your weight loss while still feeling energised and healthy.

The Mediterranean diet

The Mediterranean diet limits or avoids red or processed meat, high-fat dairy, simple refined carbs, and added sugars.

Instead, it favours unprocessed whole foods, focusing on:

lots of vegetables
fruits
complex carbs like brown rice and wholemeal bread and pasta
lean proteins
healthy unsaturated fats from oily fish, nuts, seeds, and olive oil

Research shows the Mediterranean diet is effective in treating obesity, making it a good choice if you’re taking Wegovy.

But if you’re not used to eating high amounts of fibre and healthy fats, or if you’re experiencing side effects like diarrhoea or nausea, you might want to wait until symptoms reduce, before gradually adding these into your diet.

The keto diet

The keto diet involves eating a lot less carbs and reducing your intake to between 20-50g a day. It focuses on getting most daily calories from fats, with moderate protein. The idea is to change your metabolism to a fat-burning engine so your burn more bodyfat throughout the day, instead of carbs.

While it can be effective for weight loss, the keto diet can trigger or worsen side effects like nausea, indigestion, constipation, and diarrhoea, as well as raising LDL cholesterol levels, so many experts don’t recommend it.

Plant-based diet

A plant-based diet can work for weight loss if you’re taking Wegovy, but it can be more difficult to get enough protein.

To make sure you’re hitting your protein targets while staying plant-based, choose high-protein grains like quinoa or millet, nuts, seeds, soy products like tofu and tempeh, low-sugar meat substitutes, and vegan-friendly protein powders.

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting means eating all your calories within a time-restricted window, typically 6-10 hours. A lot of people who practice intermittent fasting simply skip breakfast and stop eating after a certain time in the evening.

So if you ate your first meal of the day at noon and stopped eating by 8pm, you’d be intermittently fasting for 16 hours.

Research has shown intermittent fasting to be a promising treatment for obesity, but it may trigger side effects like nausea or low blood sugar, so check with your doctor before trying it for yourself.

Macros on Wegovy

If you’re taking Wegovy, making sure you hit the right balance of macronutrients is an important part of eating for weight loss.

Macronutrients, or ‘macros’ for short, is the term health professionals use for the main types of nutrients your body needs in large amounts; proteins, carbohydrates (‘carbs’ for short), and fats. Experts recommend people taking Wegovy aim to hit these macro ratios in their diet:

10-35% protein
45-65% carbs
20-35% fats

Tracking calories

If maths isn’t your strong suit, we’ve got you covered. You can use a calorie tracker app that automatically calculates your macro ratios for you, like Nutracheck or MyFitnessPal.

There are even some designed specifically for people taking GLP-1 medications, like SlimShot, Shotsy, and Semaglutide app for GLP-1. Some semaglutide-specific apps also help you track side effects and injection schedules, making them a great choice for anyone on Wegovy.

But before you hit ‘download’, talk to your doctor about the best macro ratio for your individual health needs and weight loss goals.

Sample 7-day Wegovy meal plan

This meal plan has complex carbs, unsaturated fats, and high protein in suitable macro ratios for people taking Wegovy. Tailor portion sizes as you need to meet your individual calorie requirements while staying in a calorie deficit.

Portion guidance

Keeping a close eye on portion sizes is very important when you’re trying to lose weight.

Even healthy foods like avocado, nuts, olive oil, and coconut can all be surprisingly high-calorie. That’s why it’s important to control portion size and try these tips to reduce overeating:

Prepare your meals ahead of time and measure your portions: This makes it easier to get the nutrition you need on-the-go and reduces temptation to reach for the sugary treats when hunger strikes.
Eat slowly, without distractions: Turn off the TV and put down the phone. This will help you to concentrate on your food and allow your brain to focus on receiving satiety cues (signals that you’re full) from your stomach.
Chew your food well: Digestion begins in the mouth, as enzymes in your saliva break down your food, so do your stomach a favour and do not overwhelm it by eating too much too fast.
Eat fibre first: Fibre is the most filling macronutrient, so it’s best to eat it first before moving onto proteins and fats, this also reduces blood sugar spikes, so you have energy to stay active.
Drink water before a meal: This helps keep you feeling full and helps reduce side effects like constipation, indigestion, and heartburn.
Use an app: To track your calories and macros so you know you’re in a deficit.

“It’s important to remember that when you start on Wegovy, you’re not taking a miracle drug, you’re getting a helping hand changing your eating habits to newer, healthier ones, and that takes a bit of getting used to.

If you’re used to eating certain portion sizes, it’s natural to feel inclined to stick to what you know. So when you first start taking Wegovy, you’ll need to pick up new habits like tracking your calories and macros. It’s all part of the process and, after a while, this becomes your new habit and you’ll barely even notice you’re doing it”

Jason Murphy, Head of Pharmacy

Manage Wegovy side effects with your diet

Depending on your side effects, you may be able to prevent or reduce them with your food choices. Try these useful tips:

Nausea and vomiting

eat bland foods like plain toast, porridge, apple sauce, or pureed vegetables
drink lots of fluids
sip ginger or peppermint tea
eat small, regular meals
avoid spicy, fatty, or friend foods

Constipation

drink loads of fluid to soften your stool and make it easier to pass
try sipping a mild laxative herbal tea like fennel
eat high-fibre foods like chia seeds, prunes, or wheat bran
get regular exercise like walks, cycling, or yoga

Heartburn (acid reflux)

avoid highly salty, spicy, fatty, and fried foods, which can trigger reflux
drink water with meals to dilute stomach acids
avoid eating 3-4 hours before bedtime
do not lie down straight after eating as this can cause acid to travel up from the stomach

Diarrhoea

be sure to drink lots of water to replace fluids lost through loose stool
temporarily reduce the fibre in your diet until symptoms improve
switch to white bread and white rice until this side effect improves
try foods containing probiotics like yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, or kimchi, to rebalance the healthy bacteria in your gut that diarrhoea can reduce

“There’s truth to the old saying that ‘food is medicine’. If you’re having side effects, a change in eating habits while you adjust to the medication can sometimes be an effective home remedy. Things like peppermint or ginger herbal teas can also be great to settle an upset stomach or get things moving in the gut.

I also recommend my patients to keep a log of how certain foods affect their side effects so they can make choices that reduce these symptoms. You don’t need to spend hours hunched over a journal, you can just use the notes app your phone and pop a line or two in there as you go about your day”

Jason Murphy, Head of Pharmacy

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to avoid alcohol on Wegovy?

No, you do not need to avoid alcohol entirely if you’re taking Wegovy. But to stay in a calorie deficit and to minimise side effects like nausea and indigestion, we recommend drinking in moderation and choosing clear spirits and sugar free mixers.

Can I still eat carbs while taking Wegovy?

Yes, you can still eat carbs when taking Wegovy. It’s best to stick to low-GI complex carbs that won’t spike blood sugar, like wholemeal bread and pasta, and brown rice.

Should I cut out sugar completely?

No, sugar is not off the menu entirely. Just keep sugary sweets to the occasional treat, so you stay in a calorie deficit, and eat them last at mealtimes to reduce blood sugar spikes.

Can I eat out on Wegovy?

Yes, you can absolutely eat out on Wegovy. Look for dishes with high-protein lean meats and seafood and lots of vegetables like stir-fries and salads. Ask for sauces on the side to help with calorie control.

Is fasting safe on Wegovy?

Fasting is safe for some people on Wegovy, and can help you stay in a calorie deficit. But it may trigger or worsen side effects like nausea and low blood sugar, so talk to your doctor.

What happens if I eat too much?

If you eat too much while taking Wegovy, you may have side effects like nausea, indigestion, or heartburn, and you’re likely to fall out of your calorie deficit. To avoid this, eat small, regular meals and take your time so your body can register satiety cues.

What’s the best diet if I’m vegetarian/vegan on Wegovy?

The best diet on Wegovy if you’re plant-based is one that involves a high amount of plant-based proteins like tofu, tempeh, nuts, seeds, quinoa, and low-sugar plant-based meat substitutes and protein powders.

Can I take protein shakes on Wegovy?

Yes, protein shakes are a great way to increase your protein so you maintain muscle mass while losing weight. Choose for low-sugar or unflavoured options and mix them with your favourite fruits and yoghurt, kefir, skimmed, or plant milk.

Will Wegovy work without diet changes?

No, it’s unlikely Wegovy will work without diet changes. Some people may say see some moderate weight loss, but health professionals only recommend Wegovy as part of a healthy lifestyle involving a balanced diet and physical activity.

Is a Wegovy diet different to a Mounjaro diet?

No, there’s no official diet for either medication. Both will require you to eat a calorie-controlled, balanced diet based on unprocessed whole foods, low-sugar, high protein, and healthy fats.

Is a Wegovy diet different to a weight loss tablet diet?

Yes, for certain weight loss tablets. Some work by stopping your body absorbing fats, while Wegovy works by making you feel less hungry and fuller for longer. So anyone taking weight loss tablets may need to eat less healthy fats than those on Wegovy.

How many calories should I eat on Wegovy?

Research suggests people with a weight below roughly 115 kg should aim for 1,200–1,499 calories a day, while those above 115kg should have 1,500–1,800 calories daily. Talk to your doctor about the best calorie goals for you.

Do I need to be in a calorie deficit on Wegovy?

Yes, staying in a calorie deficit while on Wegovy is essential for weight loss. 500-700 calories less than your BMR is the recommendation, so it’s important to track the calories you eat to make sure you’re staying within this window.

Do I need to eat less if I’m exercising?

Yes, you still need to restrict your calories while on Wegovy, alongside exercising. Lots of people overestimate how many calories they burn through exercise, so it’s important to track your calories and stay in a calorie deficit.

Why am I still hungry on Wegovy?

It can take time for the hunger-reducing effects of Wegovy to start acting as you get used to the medication. If you’ve been taking Wegovy for a while and still feel hungry, you may need a higher dose.

Highly processed foods can also trigger hormone responses that can override Wegovy’s effects, so stick to unprocessed whole foods.

Do I need to change my diet if I plateau?

Yes, you might need to change your diet if you plateau. But talk to your doctor first.

Plateaus are a normal part of the weight loss journey. They don’t mean the medication isn’t working, so stay positive and seek advice from your prescriber.