Users of weight-loss medications known as GLP-1s are spending differently. What’s changing? And are the shifts likely to be temporary or lasting?
For answers to these and other questions, BCG’s Center for Customer Insight asked more than 1,500 GLP-1 users in nine markets about their behavior, motivations, and purchasing plans. Among our many interesting findings is that GLP-1s could shift spending across and within a wide range of consumer product categories. People taking GLP-1s plan to change not only what they eat, but also what they wear, indulge in, and do to keep themselves fit. In short, for many people, GLP-1s will stimulate what amounts to a lifestyle reset.
Even more surprising, some of these changes in consumer behavior are likely to persist even after users stop taking GLP-1s. And shifting consumption patterns extend beyond individual users to entire households. That means the addressable GLP-1-driven market is larger than most consumer companies realize.
Not all of our research findings are noticeable on retail shelves yet. While GLP-1 users are cutting total calorie consumption, they are not cutting overall food spending, for example. Instead, grocers report that so far GLP-1 users are primarily switching to more health-conscious or premium alternatives. But with GLP-1 usage projected to surge, the findings suggest future intent and changes are possible, with potentially profound implications for companies across a range of consumer segments.
To serve this shifting market successfully, consumer companies must not only tailor their approaches to the needs of specific segments within the GLP-1 user base. They should also continue to target those who stopped taking the medications or are planning to restart.
A Market Driven by Momentum, Not Just Growth
GLP-1 users are already an important and fast-growing market. The active user base in the US has roughly tripled since 2022, reaching approximately 16 million today. With continued coverage expansion—including Medicare coverage for obesity treatments beginning in 2026 and as more employer plans opt in—the base is projected to reach 30 million to 35 million by 2030.
What makes this market unusual is its dynamism. At any given moment, roughly one-third of ever-users are lapsed—meaning they have stopped their medication. But this exit is not permanent: approximately 60% of lapsed users plan to restart, and more than 10% of active users already cycle on and off intentionally. Reaching their goal weight or problems paying for the medication are the primary reasons that users stop. This creates a recurring pool of re-entry, instead of a one-time adoption curve.
This pattern has direct implications for how consumer companies should think about the market. Most brands optimize for current active users. It’s more helpful to understand spending and behavior across the full arc of use: when consumers start taking GLP-1s, while they’re being treated, and after they stop. What happens after a usage lapse is especially important. Food cravings and old habits tend to return within one to three months. But some behaviors—particularly relating to supplements, fitness, and personal care—prove more
durable. Brands positioned at those inflection points capture demand that outlasts any individual prescription.
How GLP-1s Are Reshaping Diets, Spending, and Identity
Because their eating habits change, many GLP-1 users say they expect to shift how they spend on food, both at and away from home. Our research found that users expect roughly one-third of money freed up to go toward savings and one-third to cover GLP-1 co-pays. The other third will be redirected elsewhere—primarily to supplements, beauty and personal care, apparel, fitness, and aesthetics. In other words, the demand will be reallocated, not destroyed.
The shifts in food spending could be significant. Respondents reported they will be twice as likely to choose functional products, such as those emphasizing health benefits, rather than premium options. Active users report they plan to spend 15% more each month on average on fruits and vegetables and 11% more on high-protein foods. They also anticipate spending substantially more on high-fiber and whole-grain products. The flip side is equally pronounced: users say they plan to spend 14% less on candy and 12% less on prepared frozen sides. Spending on salty snacks, alcohol, soft drinks, and chocolate is expected to fall by roughly 10%. Users say they will eat such products less often and in smaller portions.
GLP-1 users also plan to change their spending on food away from home across all formats—cafes, fine dining, casual dining, and fast casual alike. When they do go out, users plan to order smaller portions, choose lighter options, and drink less alcohol. When users lapse, outside dining picks back up, but not as frequently as before. The fastest recovery is expected to be at fast casual and quick service restaurants.
The supplement aisle is poised to be one of the clearest winners. Active users say they will spend around 20% more on protein and fiber supplements and collagen, for example. Multivitamins, hydration products, and hair and skin supplements will be among the other big gainers. This pattern reflects both genuine need—GLP-1s suppress appetite, prompting users to be more intentional about nutrition—and a broader shift toward health tracking and optimization that the medications appear to catalyze.
The changes extend well beyond food. Active users expect to spend an average of 19% more on casual clothing, 15% more on footwear, and 10% more on active and leisurewear. As their bodies change, so will the contents of their closets.
Four Archetypes of GLP-1 Consumers
Not all GLP-1 users intend to shift their spending the same way. Understanding who is spending and where matters as much as knowing the aggregate numbers. We identified four distinct purchase archetypes, each with its own spending pattern and go-to-market logic:
- Lifestyle optimizers, who represent 41% of those surveyed, use GLP-1s as a platform for broader self-improvement, driving the strongest spending increases in fitness memberships, wearables, and apparel.
- Aesthetic transformers (19%) concentrate their incremental spending on medical aesthetics and beauty goods and services, such as skin-tightening, body contouring, hair care, and fragrances.
- Disease managers (27%) focus on the practical realities of GLP use, focusing on supplements, anti-nausea products, and gut health products.
- “All-in” consumers (13%), though a small cohort, are rebuilding their entire health and wellness lives around GLPs and spending in virtually every non-food category.
Winning in this space means targeting distinct segments and their unique needs explicitly rather than treating GLP-1 users as a single homogeneous consumer.
Opportunities Beyond Active Users
The 16 million active GLP-1 users in the US are only part of the story. Consider the household effect: When it comes to food and fitness routines, 70% of GLP-1 users we surveyed reported changes in behavior among people they live with. Non-users living with a GLP-1 user tend to eat fewer processed foods, more fruits and vegetables, and less fast food—adopting 30% to 50% of the user’s behavioral changes. When households are factored in, the addressable market for GLP-1-influenced consumer demand is roughly 50% larger than for active users alone.
What’s more, the demand is dynamic. Some spending and consumption behaviors will persist and continue to evolve even after users stop treatment. Our research identified specific patterns across product categories that can help predict how consumption shifts before, during, and after using GLP-1s.
- Rebound. Products in this group often are consumed at their previous levels by former GLP-1 users who return to many of their old eating habits when they stop taking the medication. They include salty snacks, frozen meals, and candy.
- Sustained growth. These are products users tend to continue purchasing after they stop taking GLP-1s, such as meat, fruits, vegetables, and high-protein foods like yogurt.
- Temporary growth. Users typically return to their old consumption levels for these categories after they had purchased more health and wellness-related foods and beverages while taking the medications.
- Sustained decline. Users tend to consume fewer of these products during and after taking GLP-1s. They include sports drinks and dairy products.
The GLP-1 Consumer Market Is Set to Greatly Expand
The growth opportunities extend beyond the US, the current leader in GLP-1 penetration and awareness. Europe and Asia-Pacific markets are projected to outpace US patient growth over the next five years as coverage expands and lower-cost formats arrive. Roughly one-quarter to one-third of non-users in China and India who are aware of GLP-1s express interest in trying them—more than double the 14% rate in the US. The primary barriers are cost and safety concerns. For consumer companies with global portfolios, the behavioral shifts now occurring in the US are an early signal of what is coming around the world.
Another reason growth in GLP-1 consumption is structural, rather than cyclical, can be found in the investment pipeline of pharmaceutical companies. Manufacturers are in the market now with oral formats, which consumers want for convenience and which also create new price tiers. Monthly dosing formulations in development could meaningfully improve adherence. At the same time, medication prices are already declining sharply—even before patents expire—an unusual dynamic given there are only two major manufacturers. Prices are expected to drop further when generics enter the market and as distribution channels shift.
Furthermore, regulators could considerably expand the population that is medically eligible for GLP-1s. Approvals have either already been granted or are in late-stage review to treat conditions such cardiovascular risk, sleep apnea, and metabolic liver disease. In short, the future of GLP-1s appears clear: more patients, at lower cost, through more formats.
Four Moves Consumer Companies Should Make Now
To fully capture the opportunities created by growing GLP-1 usage, consumer companies should build strategies around the more expansive estimate of an addressable market of 30 million to 35 million US users by 2030. Companies must identify emerging pockets of demand and plan how to win market share in different segments. For example, they should consider the influence pathways and touchpoints that effectively reach and convert different consumers at specific stages in their adoption journey. Here are four moves to make now.
- Reframe the portfolio around function, such as by accelerating the introduction of protein- and fiber-rich products. Selectively invest in premium offerings and adjust exposure in rebounding categories such as salty snacks and soft drinks. Consider offering smaller pack sizes in premium and indulgent categories for users that plan to upgrade while staying within their current budgets.
- Plan for the household, not only active GLP-1 users, by introducing family or shareable package sizes and through targeted marketing strategies.
- Build lapsed users—many of whom will continue purchasing more supplements, apparel, and services associated with health and wellness—into your strategy.
- Pressure-test scenarios for 2030—by which time the GLP-1 consumer market is projected to double—through pricing strategies, innovation, and planning of production capacity.
GLP-1s started as diabetes drugs. They then became a weight-loss phenomenon. They are now reshaping how tens of millions of people eat, shop, exercise, and take care of themselves. And that influence keeps spreading through households, lapsed users, and markets. Competitive advantage will belong to companies who understand this is not just a trend to monitor. It is a major structural shift in consumer markets.
The authors wish to thank Joe Malgesini and Christian Leavitt for their contributions to this research.
