Meal replacements reminiscent of shakes and diet bars have lengthy been a preferred DIY choice for American dieters. Retail non-prescription urge for food suppressants reminiscent of fats burners and different fat burners have additionally been standard. Each merchandise are simple to acquire, cheap, and carry no important unwanted side effects.
Corporations promoting meal replacements misplaced $1.5 billion in gross sales to the GLP-1 medicine growth in 2023-2024 — with most of that loss associated to Medifast. In response, some meal substitute opponents have added the GLP-1 medicine to their applications to place themselves for a brand new future. Excessive-protein meal replacements have been positioned as an adjunct to the burden loss medicine.
This market has held up pretty nicely, and remains to be rising.
What to Know Concerning the U.S. Meal Replacements Market
- Market measurement and development: The U.S. meal replacements market was estimated to be value $5.1 billion in 2024, rising to $5.29 billion this 12 months.
- Key segments: Meal replacements gross sales had been $3.0 billion and retail urge for food suppressants gross sales totaled $2.08 billion in 2024.
- Declining gross sales: A lot of the $1.55 billion in gross sales misplaced throughout 2023-2024 was attributed to Medifast’s decrease revenues.
- Shopper utilization: Meal replacements are nonetheless a preferred weight reduction DIY choice, as they’re simply obtained, haven’t any unwanted side effects, and are comparatively cheap.
- Positioning pivot: Meal replacements are being positioned as an adjunct to GLP-1 medicine, to retain muscle, as a result of their excessive protein content material.
- MLM channels: Multi-level advertising and marketing corporations are very lively on this market. Medifast had 2024 gross sales of $602 million and Herbalife posted $567 million. The Atkins line, by Merely Good Meals, generated $492 million. MLM channels account for 32% of all meal replacements gross sales.
The place to Be taught Extra
For extra info, you should definitely learn Marketdata LLC’s new report The U.S. Meal Replacements Market: Retail & Multi-Stage Channels. This up to date evaluation is essentially the most complete investigation of the U.S. meal replacements market printed by anybody worldwide.
Concerning the Writer: John LaRosa is the President of Marketdata LLC and is the creator of 100+ business and market research. His analysis seems in high media shops together with ABC, CNN, Fox, Forbes, USA Right now, The Wall Road Journal, The New York Instances, and a wide range of commerce journals.
