The drug has shrunk the plate for you. What it has not done is decide what goes on it — and that decision is what separates losing fat and keeping muscle from losing both and feeling dreadful about it.
Protein first, every meal
This is the one rule that outranks the others. Enough protein is the signal that tells a body in a deficit to spend fat rather than muscle; too little and it spends whichever is nearer.
With a small appetite this has to be deliberate rather than incidental. Lead with the protein on the plate and eat it first, before you run out of room — because you will run out of room, and earlier than you expect. The calculator sets your number.
Fiber and fluids
Constipation is among the most common complaints on these drugs and it is, unglamorously, mostly a fiber-and-water problem. Vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains.
Drink more water than feels necessary. Eating less means drinking less without noticing, and the fluid you used to get from food is simply no longer arriving.
What to go easy on
- High-fat and greasy food — the heaviest load on already-slowed digestion, and the most reliable nausea trigger there is.
- Carbonation and large portions — both routes to a bloating you did not need.
- Alcohol — it hits harder now, and the calories are dense and empty against a deficit that should be coming off as fat.
None of these is a ban. They are the usual suspects when a day goes badly, which is a more useful thing than a rule.
Your map is personal
Which foods your stomach still accepts varies enormously between people, and it changes again every time you titrate. Somebody else's list is somebody else's list.
Lean Protocol builds yours from your own logs — tag what you ate before it went wrong and the map assembles itself — and keeps the protein target beside it. Educational, not medical or dietary advice.