How Restaurants Can Win in the Age of GLP-1s

The number of GLP-1 users in the U.K. is now predicted to more than double, from three million to seven million by 2027. That’s not a trend. That’s a structural shift in how people eat.

It means restaurants, especially quick service, have some serious food for thought. When people eat less, they choose more carefully.

The real story isn’t that people are eating less. It’s that they’re far more intentional about what they eat. Food is ritualistic. People buy shared experiences as much as they buy meals, and that won’t change, GLP-1 or not.

Changing consumer habits

What is changing is the decision. Taste is still the big decision-maker, but it’s a condition, not a differentiator. Beyond taste, other factors decide. And new ones have entered the field: health—think the protein boom and the glaring fiber deficit in Western European diets—and now a body chemistry altered by GLP-1s to simply want less.

QSR has always equated value with volume. Funny, because for a category named after quick service, you’d think speed was the main offering. In reality, the promise is craveable food at a low cost and in big volumes.

Bigger burgers, larger fries, meal deals piled high. GLP-1s break that equation. A consumer with a smaller appetite doesn’t want more food.

They want the right food in the right amount. If you don’t like McDonald’s, there’s clearly something wrong with you. And that’s not just my opinion; the stuff is engineered for maximum likability and deliciousness.

But not liking a Super-Sized menu is a whole different thing.

Brands are moving. Nestlé will tweak recipes to appeal to palates dulled by the injections. When I was at McDonald’s in France recently, I could order a small wrap alongside the standard range. Besides the fact that it was very cute, it was clearly designed for a slightly different occasion, not as a compromise. Smaller portions aren’t “less value.” They’re a better fit for how more people want to eat.

Brands adapting to glp-1s

Chipotle is leading the charge, and it starts with an unfair advantage: Healthy and fresh has been in its DNA from day one. Wholesome, farm-like food by design, but make it Mexican. That’s the whole proposition. Add the modularity of the offering, where every bowl is built to order, and you get a brand practically designed for the behavioral change that medication is accelerating. It simply fits the current times a bit better than classic QSR.

Its new High Protein Menu features GLP-1-friendly options that prioritize protein, fiber, and fresh ingredients over excess. Chipotle isn’t marketing to people on medication; it’s responding to that change. The winning brands will be the ones quietly redesigning their menus, portions, and marketing around how people now want to eat.

Chipotle, like most restaurants, doesn’t have a culinary identity. And it’s important: What you stand for has everything to do with how you show your food. The big blind spot in food marketing is what the food actually looks like.

Most brands brief their agencies on “deliciousness.” Trust me, I’ve seen every form of it. But it’s what all your competitors leverage too. And even that sometimes suffers. On Chipotle’s website, the protein choices look like pellets of animal feed, the giant pan of guac signals mass production, and the Honey Chicken styling is bland and lacks character.

It can be done differently. Instead of a heap of ground beef shot from a distance, show two or three cubes on a fork, beautifully lit. Suddenly, the image says tasteful, not massive. Dial up delicate, intentional, portionable, and handmade, and your food images speak a whole new set of brand values. That is what we call a Culinary Identity: a set of rules for how your food should look so the way it looks means something. You need one as much as a visual or sonic identity because, in the wake of GLP-1, it becomes ever more important to speak the right language to new and changed users.

Rethinking portioning and marketing

Look outside restaurants and the logic holds. Diageo is doubling down on smaller bottles, packs that signal immediate consumption and lower commitment. “I’ll just give it a try.” A product subconsciously fitting a diet of modesty. Clever.

Restaurants should treat portioning the same way. Offer more sizes without plunging people into the abyss of choice stress. Limited but clear options do not mean hundreds of options—hello, Amazon. And name them so everyone understands: How do words and visuals communicate what a portion, and a proposition, really is?

None of this kills the QSR business. It repurposes it for a changing world. Consumers on GLP-1s have made a clear choice: They’re improving their health. That puts them in a very different state than the one QSR assumes its customers are in, which is allowing yourself a treat. Because a treat means something else entirely when your body chemistry has changed. It’s no longer about giving in. It’s about choosing well.

The way your food appears and the way you speak, behave, and act toward these consumers, as well as your menu strategy, should give recognition to that movement. Do that, and you give people a reason to come back that goes beyond habit.