Cooking While Taking a GLP-1 Isn’t Always Easy — These 24 Products Helped Us Eat Better

Adding electrolytes to your water with Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier can help your body rehydrate and replace lost nutrients like sodium (around 500 milligrams [mg] per serving depending on flavor), potassium (around 380 mg per serving), vitamin C, and B vitamins. These come in easy, portable pouches, and we think you’ll find that the variety of delicious flavors, like Lemon-Lime, White Peach, and Raspberry Lemonade, will encourage you to drink more too. However, these packets are fairly high in sodium, so if you have high blood pressure, heart disease, or kidney disease, it’s worth checking with your healthcare provider before making them part of your daily routine.

Can’t even think of stomaching a meal? On a GLP-1, it can happen. Drinking your dinner (or lunch, breakfast, or a snack) can sometimes help. We recommend stocking up on bone broth, like the Brodo Starter Box. This is a 24-pack of some of the brand’s most popular flavors, from your typical Chicken Bone Broth to Spicy Nonna (a chicken bone broth with roasted garlic and chili), Hearth Bone Broth (chicken, beef, and turkey bone broth), and Tom Yumm (which mixes chicken bone broth with curry, coconut, and lime).

Just because you’re eating healthy doesn’t mean you can’t have pasta. I know I already mentioned pasta in this article, but I really do love it. Pasta is a food that, even if you’re not feeling your best, is generally easy to eat and gentle on the stomach (as long as you don’t overdo it). For me, it’s easier to stick to a smaller portion of high-protein pasta, like Banza. Because it’s made from chickpeas, it’s gluten-free, and it’s filling even in small amounts, delivering 11 g of protein per serving. It also offers 11 g of fiber per serving, an important part of the diet for everyone, especially those on a GLP-1.

I like this kind of pasta with tomato sauce or pesto, but you can also cook it with vegetables for even more fiber and nutrients. It can be a bit difficult to find the right cooking time (too little and the pasta can be dense; too long and it quickly gets mushy), so it may take a bit of experimentation.

“I’m not an olive oil connoisseur, by any means, but this does have a different taste than your run-of-the-mill olive oil,” says editorial director Simone Scully. “It has a rich flavor and would likely go very well in a vinaigrette or as part of a dipping sauce for bread or as part of a tapenade.”

Got a bit of a sweet tooth? Looking to add a bit of depth to some of your meals? The Bushwick Kitchen Bees Knees Honey Gift Set offers three different flavored honeys: Spicy (recommended for pizza, margaritas, and cheese plates), Meyer Lemon (recommended for scones, hot toddies, and fried chicken), and Salted (recommended for biscuits, avocado toast, and yogurt). These could also go great in a honey barbecue sauce. This is a great way to liven up healthy meals and drinks.

“I like the variety,” says Scully. “I’m a big fan of spicy honey on pizza (and I recently got a pizza oven), so it’s fun to have some in my kitchen for cooking. It also came with some lemon honey, which I wasn’t totally sure what to do with until I saw it was recommended for lemonade, tea, and waffles or pancakes — so I tried all three, and boy is it good. The final honey was salted honey, which was surprisingly good with goat cheese and on toast, which I honestly hadn’t expected.”

Most experts agree that it’s important to get enough protein when using a GLP-1. “When people lose weight by any means, whether diet, medication, or surgery, they don’t just lose fat, they can also lose muscle,” says Dr. Mullally. “Protein helps preserve muscle mass, which is important for metabolism, strength, and long-term weight maintenance. Without enough protein (and ideally resistance training), some of the weight lost can be muscle.”

If you want an easy way to be sure you’ve got enough protein in the house, ButcherBox is a great way to do so. You get to choose what size box you’d like: medium, which includes six protein types up to 21 pounds, large, which has nine protein types up to 31 pounds, or extra-large, with 12 proteins up to 42 pounds. You’ll also choose the frequency of your delivery — every two, four, six, or eight weeks. Then, it’s time to choose your cuts. Some examples include boneless, skinless chicken breasts, wild-caught sockeye salmon, bacon, 100 percent grass-fed burgers, rib eyes, filet mignon, and more.

“I love the variety ... you get a large variety of all the kinds of meat options available through this company,” says writer Raki Swanson. “The taste of the meat is also impeccable. It is delicious.” The company doesn’t add antibiotics or hormones to its meat, which may be a huge selling point for some.

We’ve been talking about the importance of protein, but don’t sleep on your vegetables. Gardencup can make it easy to get those greens into your diet by making sure you’ve always got a salad on hand. It’s a great option for a quick grab-and-go lunch. You’ll choose between a six- or nine-salad pack, then choose your salads from options like Southwest Fajita With Chicken, Chicken Bacon Cobb, Steakhouse Wedge, Mediterranean Salad, and so much more.

“During the week, I can get really lazy about making myself lunch,” says Scully. “I always buy myself the fixings to make a salad, but then lunch rolls around and I just don't make myself something. By sending you six or nine salads a box (which can be weekly or biweekly), I could essentially have an on-the-go salad ready for me, so I actually ate a real lunch. And I think the Strawberry Spinach Salad is incredible. Truly so good. The Caprese is awesome too.”

If fish is more your thing, there’s a box for that. Wild Alaskan sends their boxes once a month, and you can choose from the Wild Salmon Box, the Wild White Fish Box, or the Wild Combo Box (our favorite). Varieties of fish include coho and sockeye salmon, Pacific halibut, Pacific cod, wild Alaska pollock, and other wild-caught fish. You’ll choose between a 12-ounce box and a 24-ounce box, which each include individual 5- to 7-ounce portions of fish.

“The coho salmon fillets were particularly lovely; I cooked them with a teriyaki glaze, and the fillets were fresh and firm, with no fishy smell,” says writer and editor Katie Tuttle. “Even my husband, who is not a big fish eater, enjoyed these.”

Following a specific diet? Green Chef has lots of options for however you’re eating these days, whether you’re following the Mediterranean diet, a plant-based diet, gluten-free, keto, high-protein, and more. You’ll check off these meal-type preferences (you can check as many as you like), as well as the size box you’ll need, based on the number of people in your family and the number of weekly meals you’d like to purchase (two to eight). You’ll get to choose from 80 meal options every week, from a wide variety of options for the whole family.

We included Green Chef as our favorite for high-protein meals in our Best Meal Delivery Services to Meet Your Health Goals article. “The biggest advantage of this service is in the time saved, the lack of food waste, and the reduction in decision fatigue that comes from deciding what’s for dinner,” says writer Tori Martinet, RD. “I liked the menu I had to choose from and how easy things were to prepare when dinnertime came around.”

Smoothies can be a huge help when sitting down to eat a meal just feels impossible. Daily Harvest brings organic, dairy-free, and gluten-free smoothie ingredients to your door, frozen and ready for your freezer or your blender. You’ll just blend one up when you’re ready. You can also purchase high-protein oat bowls, made with real fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, which can be enjoyed warmed in the microwave or cold as overnight oats.

“The plant-based options have a nice variety of flavors and options to choose from,” says writer Caitlin Beale, RD. “I'm impressed with Daily Harvest’s depth of high-quality ingredients and variety of fruits and vegetables, which ultimately promotes eating more plant protein and high-fiber meals.” The brand also highlights higher-protein, fiber-rich options that may be especially helpful for people taking GLP-1 medications.

While premade protein drinks are great for on-the-go, you may prefer a protein powder, which can be added to smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, and more (though it’s most commonly mixed with water or milk). We listed Thorne Whey Protein Powder Isolate as our favorite whey protein powder in our Best Protein Powders of 2026 article. Beale compares the chocolate flavor to a milkshake, calling it “creamy, sweet but not overpowering, and not at all chalky.” The brand also offers this product in vanilla, which Beale says mixes well into fruit smoothies.

Protein shakes can help to up your protein intake when you’re not able to do so through meals alone. Koia Elite Plant-Based Protein Shakes offer 32 grams of protein per bottle, with only 4 grams of sugar, in vanilla and chocolate flavors.

While some protein shakes can be a bit thick and chalky, our tester found this one enjoyable, and she liked the flavors as well. “Of all the protein drinks I tried, this one is my favorite,” says Beale. “I liked the texture; it was sweet but not overly so, and very creamy.” She adds that the drink kept her satisfied after a workout and between meals, and she liked that it included avocado oil for healthy fat.

This is the perfect yogurt drink to bring to the office for an afternoon snack or as a complement to your lunch. With 30 grams of protein and zero added sugar, you’ll feel confident about this healthy choice. It also makes a great add-on to your breakfast.

“I tried this both as a snack and part of my breakfast, but I like this enough that I’ve started adding it to my breakfast every morning now,” says Scully. She adds that it was filling for her in the morning, keeping her from snacking until lunch.

I find it best to pack a protein snack wherever I go when taking a GLP-1. That way, if I haven’t been able to eat a complete meal, I always have something to tide me over if I start to feel low on energy. These protein bars from Wild Fox are the perfect packable snack. They have 15 grams of protein and 10 or 11 grams of fiber, with only 3 grams of sugar. The variety pack includes flavors such as Caramel Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt, and Cinnamon Churro.

“These protein bars feel more like eating a Rice Krispies Treat,” says writer and editor Olivia Campbell. “They are very tasty, much more like a treat than most protein bars I’ve tried. They are gluten-free and keto-certified. I love that they have fiber and not just protein.”

An edamame snack you can take anywhere? Count me in. These crunchy, keto-friendly, gluten-free beans come in a portable, resealable bag that’s easy to take on a hike, in the car, or to the gym. They come in flavors like Sea Salt, Buffalo, and Sriracha. Snack on them right out of the bag or add them on top of your salad. “I like the crunch,” says writer Mary Sauer. “I’m always looking for healthy options that feel a little like junk food, and this one fits that bill.” You’ll love that they have between 13 and 14 grams of protein, 5 grams of fiber, and between 2 and 3 grams of net carbs, depending on the flavor you choose.

A blender isn’t the type of appliance you should skimp on. If you’re an avid smoothie drinker, you want it to really chop and purée veggies, fruits, ice, and more. We like the Vitamix Ascent X2 because it has all the bells and whistles: three blending functions, a manual speed control, a pulse option, a digital timer, a self-clean option, a tamp (which is easily stored on its own holder on the device), and a digital recipe book.

“The X2 whipped through pretty much anything I threw at it,” says Tuttle. “I love that for, say, a coconut red curry squash soup, you don’t have to peel the squash or ginger, and despite using dried lemongrass, everything blended up silky smooth. Smoothies? This blender scoffs at frozen fruit. Ice? No problem.” She also mentioned that it’s not as loud as other models, which is a big plus.

Just because you’re working toward weight loss doesn’t mean you can’t find new ways to have some of your old favorites. With an air fryer, you can get the familiar crunch of a fried dish without all the grease. I’ve used an air fryer for everything from fries to chicken wings, and I’m always impressed at how things come out and how little I miss traditional fried foods when this option is available.

The Our Place Wonder Oven has a 30-liter capacity and a PFAS-free interior, so you’ll be able to cook healthy meals for the whole family without a worry. “This operates like an air fryer toaster oven, so it justifies the amount of space it takes up on my countertop,” says Tuttle, adding that she enjoys the “aesthetic, the amount of different settings, and how evenly it cooks.” Though it is quite large, we think the color options, various uses, and how cute it looks make up for that.

If you’re eating less, it makes sense that you might not want to be packing your food in a large storage container. You’ll be able to pack snacks (think hummus and veggies, fruit, pretzels) as well as small meal portions into these mini containers, so they’re perfect for the GLP-1 user whose appetite is not what it used to be. We love that they’re nontoxic (they made it onto our best nonplastic food storage list), oven-safe, and come with storage, so they’re organized when not in use.

“I’ve used them for leftover burrito bowls and to tote around servings of grapes and trail mix,” says Tuttle. “I love how sturdy these feel — they have a real weight to them that makes them feel expensive.”

Though cast-iron skillets can be expensive, they’re built to last. “It will last a lifetime, or two lifetimes, it seems, and it’s useful and sturdy,” says writer Amy Sowder van Erk. “I like how it has a bigger surface area for cooking ... I like that it cooks food evenly ... and will get better over time.” This pre-seasoned skillet has an 11 ⅝-inch diameter and a 2 ⅛-inch wall height, so it’s big enough to cook for the whole family.

Some diets suggest that you weigh your food or your meal ingredients. This could help you be sure you know exactly what you’re ingesting. The KitchenAid Digital Glass Top Kitchen Scale weighs dry ingredients up to 11 pounds. The dial makes it easy to choose between different units of measurement, while the screen clearly displays the reading.

“I like that it’s very compact,” said Beale. “I also like the knob, versus buttons. Very easy to use. It also automatically turns off after a while, which is nice, so it doesn’t waste batteries.” She added that the scale appears sturdier and higher-quality than its price suggests.

I’ll admit, I was a bit worried, when I opened this gift from my mother, about how large this thing is. But this can do everything: fast pressure cooking, slow cooking, sautéing, act as a rice cooker, steam foods, and more. It can fit a whole chicken. So it’s become my new favorite for one-pot meals.

It claims to cook up to 70 percent faster than most slow cookers, and I’ll vouch that — this thing pretty much cooks as fast or as slow as you want. I was a bit nervous about using the pressure-cooking feature at first, but it was easy and fast. I’d recommend this to those with families or anyone who likes quick options for meats and makes soups, chili, and other slow-cooker meals.

This cookbook can help you get more fiber into your diet — and make that endeavor delicious. The plant-based recipes include savory specialties like lemon lentil salad and cheesy broccoli potato soup, and treats for a sweet tooth like maple peanut granola and chocolate cookie milk. “I think the premise of the book — eating more fiber — is a good one, and the recipes look great and there are quite a lot of them,” says Martinet. It’s a great asset to have when you’re running out of ideas for how to work more fruits and veggies into your diet.

Getting tired of the classic ways of hitting your protein goals, like chicken breasts and protein bars? This cookbook offers 125 high-protein recipes that are low-carb as well. You’ll be cooking up breakfasts to keep you full each morning, unique and satisfying dinners, tasty desserts, drinks, and snacks for in between. This keto-friendly book helps you keep things low-carb while also making sure you’re not lacking in the protein department.

“The variety of recipes is pretty good and there are sub-recipes as well for items she recommends making as basics,” says Martinet. “I also like that she gives information on how long things can be stored (which tracks with food safety guidelines).”

If you’re a vegetarian or follow a plant-focused diet, you’ll appreciate this cookbook, designed for a busy lifestyle. The book covers everything from veggie burgers to pasta sauces to plant-based desserts.

“It’s not always easy to get a vegetarian cookbook that doesn’t feel ... overwhelming?” says Scully. “When I first decided to give up meat, I remember looking at all the vegetarian and vegan cookbooks and feeling like everything just felt ... dull. This isn’t the case with this cookbook. The recipes use whole-food ingredients, and the images are beautiful and appetizing, inspiring you to actually want to cook and try something new.” She adds that the instructions are easy to follow, with familiar ingredients that won’t have you scratching your head. “She also shares the nutritional info for her recipes on her website and clearly notes what you can make ahead and freeze — which I appreciate as a mom who rarely has the energy to cook during the work week,” Scully notes.