From Ozempic to Protein: Meet the New Body Economy

5 minute read | Written for FMCG CEO

How we think about our bodies is changing. Not a new diet trend or shift in fitness fashion, but a change in how we view our bodies altogether.

The rise of GLP-1 drugs has created a new conversation around weight control and what it means to be healthy. For years, body transformation was built on discipline: working out, clean diets, self-control. Now, for many people, transformation is medical – something you access, not something you earn.

For those who’ve struggled with weight most of their lives, this is revolutionary. There’s relief in finally having a tool that works. But it quietly reshapes how we value bodies. The cultural story linking healthy weight to willpower starts to fall apart. When that story fades, something else has to replace it.

With that change comes a new hierarchy. People who can afford these drugs reshape themselves quickly and quietly, while body positivity becomes a consolation prize for those who can’t. The old inequalities remain, just dressed in new wellness language, already reflected in fashion and social trends: skinny silhouettes are back, with ‘Indie Sleaze’ and ‘skinnytok’ trending online.

When brands smell a moment

Brands haven’t missed this moment. Following Ozempic’s partnership with Serena Williams, others reference the drugs in marketing. Grüns’ vitamin gummies, for example, call themselves “Ozempic’s New Bestie,” signalling alignment with the GLP-1 trend.

It’s clever, but uncomfortable. Beneath the humour is a truth: brands are always ready to sell the next step in self-improvement, helping you “get ahead” in the new body economy.

For FMCG brands, the opportunity goes beyond diet culture’s old playbook. With GLP-1 users losing fat and lean muscle, demand is shifting toward protein that’s less about size and more about substance, quality, and credibility.

That instinct to commercialise what’s culturally hot has always existed, but this time it spreads faster through wellness categories. The message is no longer “work harder”; it’s “support your new normal.” For some, that feels empowering – for others, opportunistic, and a reminder that effort is being devalued.

The new cool: strong, not skinny

Still, there’s something more interesting brewing. If thinness becomes easy, what does culture look for next? We’ve spent the last decade trying to move away from perfection, only to watch it return in a new form. Right now, that counter looks like strength. Not the always heavy-lifting and macro-counting, but a softer, more functional idea of power - being capable, stable, grounded, but with discipline.

This shift has particularly affected the protein sector. The category used to live in the gym: oversized tubs, metallic packaging, words like “bulk” and “burn.” As protein demand grows, it is now printed on most ‘health’ products, and has its own supermarket bay, with over 60% of consumers citing that they’ve increased intake.

The protein category is evolving alongside GLP-1, as users of the drug may be winning on calorie reduction, yet clinical data shows they can lose lean muscle mass alongside fat. By helping users to maintain strength and vitality while benefiting from appetite suppression, mainstream brands are leaning into the democratisation of health.

For example Oikos are launching protein shakes targeted at GLP-1 users, and F45 now offer specific sessions for the same thing. However, at the front of the market, premium brands like David are reinventing what protein looks and feels like all together: minimal design, a curated tone, something that could sit next to your skincare. We are seeing the idea of strength become the cultural cue; when anyone can be skinny, it’s cool to be strong. David is just one brand that has leveraged a way of saying “I take care of myself” rather than “I’m chasing results.”

Wellness for everyone (at last)

Alongside the rise of strength as the new aspirational ideal, increased access to GLP-1 and broader health options is driving a wider shift in wellness – one that feels more democratic. Health used to live in performance spaces: gyms, studios, marathons, morning routines. Now it lives on the kitchen counter, the office desk, the bedside table.

Brands like Humantra and Sult have built their identity on this idea. They’re not selling hydration to athletes; they’re selling it to everyone. Their world is hangovers, commutes, and bad sleep: everyday living. The shift against the idea that wellness belongs only to the disciplined or fit is affecting more than just the weight-loss category. GLP-1s have acted as an accelerant, collapsing the boundary between “wellness people” and everyone else.

But that accessibility brings risk. When everything becomes wellness, wellness starts to lose meaning. If every product promises balance, energy, recovery, or confidence, those words stop holding emotional weight. If your product isn’t part of a holistic approach, will your users see a benefit? The challenge for brands is to educate and find depth – to build relationships that aren’t just about maintenance but about meaning. Building brand worlds is about finding more roles for your brand in users’ lives, but also elevating users’ lives without the brand. How can you educate them on positive habits? What other brands can you partner with? What version of healthy do you promote?

What happens next?

GLP-1s have made health look efficient. They’ve introduced a normal where change can happen quickly, quietly, and clinically. But efficiency isn’t always what people want from their bodies. What we often crave is connection; to food, movement, and each other. As the pharmaceutical age of wellness expands, that’s the space FMCG brands can reclaim. Not to moralise or resist progress, but to re-anchor health in something human, the feeling of being healthy, not the route to get there.

For the next wave of wellness storytelling, can brands move past the language of optimisation and find language that feels alive? Can they talk about care without control, strength without superiority, improvement without shame? The ones that can will lead a more intelligent era of health culture – one that feels emotionally modern, not just technologically advanced. These are behaviours and insights we are constantly tracking for brands.

For FMCG brands in the GLP-1 era, the opportunity is clear: reframe protein around vitality, resilience, and performance in everyday life rather than calories or size. Because if everyone can change their body, then the body itself stops being the story. What matters next is how we live inside it.

If your brand is rethinking how to show up in this new body economy, where health, identity and culture keep rewriting the rules - we’d love to help you find your place in it.

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