Prescribing GLP-1s Is the Easy Part

GLP-1 medications have changed obesity care. For many practices, prescribing is now routine—supported by guidelines, protocols, and payer pathways. But while initiation has scaled quickly, sustained adherence has not.

‍

Providers are seeing a familiar pattern: strong early results followed by stalled progress, missed refills, side effects, disengagement, or full drop-off by month three or four.

‍

The medication works.
The system around it does not.

‍

Why GLP-1 Outcomes Decline After the First Few Months

GLP-1s suppress appetite and improve metabolic signaling—but they do not teach patients how to eat, plan meals, or sustain nutrition under physiological changes.

‍

As appetite drops, patients face:

• Inadequate protein intake
  
  
• Irregular meal timing
  
  
• GI side effects that discourage eating
  
  
• Loss of routine and structure
  ‍

Without nutrition support, patients compensate poorly. That leads to fatigue, muscle loss, frustration, and eventual non-adherence.

‍

This is not a motivation problem.
It is a care delivery gap.

‍

The System Failure: Nutrition Is Prescribed, Not Operationalized

Most obesity and GLP-1 programs acknowledge nutrition as essential. But acknowledgment is not infrastructure.

Common realities inside otherwise mature practices:

• Nutrition guidance lives in PDFs or verbal counseling
  
  
• Dietitians are stretched thin or external
  
  
• Follow-up depends on patient initiative
  
  
• Food access is entirely disconnected from care plans
  

The result: nutrition becomes optional in practice, even when it’s clinically central.

‍
Medication adherence fails when nutrition support is abstract.

‍

What High-Performing GLP-1 Programs Do Differently

Programs with sustained GLP-1 outcomes treat nutrition as part of the care pathway—not an adjunct.

They:

• Embed nutrition into program workflows
  
  
• Reduce decision fatigue for patients
  
  
• Align food access with clinical guidance
  
  
• Track adherence beyond prescriptions
  

Most importantly, they do not ask clinicians to sell food or manage logistics.

‍
They separate clinical decision-making from operational execution.

‍

Where Most Practices Get Stuck

Even teams that understand the problem face constraints:

• No infrastructure to support food access
  
  
• Compliance and reimbursement complexity
  
  
• Limited admin bandwidth
  
  
• Fear of compromising clinical independence
  

As a result, nutrition support remains fragmented—despite strong belief in its importance.

‍

Prado’s Role: Infrastructure, Not Intervention

Prado is not a clinical program and does not replace provider judgment.

‍

Prado provides the administrative and operational layer that allows provider-led nutrition care to function at scale.

Through Prado, practices can:

• Support nutrition programs without building logistics in-house
  
  
• Care team–led nutrition support
  
  
• Preserve full clinical independence
  
  
• Reduce friction for patients trying to adhere
  

Providers are compensated for care programs, not food sales.

‍

Why This Matters for GLP-1 Adherence

When nutrition support becomes operational—not theoretical—patients are more likely to:

• Eat consistently during appetite suppression
  
  
• Maintain adequate protein and nutrient intake
  
  
• Reduce side-effect-driven drop-off
  
  
• Stay engaged beyond the initial weight-loss phase

Medication adherence improves when nutrition is supported structurally.

‍

Scaling Obesity Care Requires More Than Prescriptions

GLP-1s are a powerful tool—but tools require systems.

‍
For practices serious about obesity and cardiometabolic care, the next phase is not prescribing more efficiently. It’s supporting patients more completely.

‍
Adherence is not a patient failure.
It is a system design problem.