China Weight Management Industry Report 2023–2026
Overview
Online protein, diet and health-food sales and posts in China before and after the 2024 Weight Management Year, across three of China's largest marketplaces.
All reports follow our editorial standards and research methodology .
Key Findings
- Two years into China's weight-management campaign, people use its term more online, while sales have changed gradually. Posts using the campaign's term, "weight management" (体重管理), ran about a quarter above their level in the five months before the June 2024 launch, though fewer on one platform, and 29% below the year before, when they peaked during the March 2025 parliamentary sessions. The marketplaces' own weight-management categories sold about CN¥ 3.3 billion online in the year to August 2026. Like for like, their sales were 4% to 19% lower than two years earlier, depending on how one marketplace's category change is handled, and moved in different directions on different marketplaces. Neither their sales nor protein powder's break at June 2024.
- Of the fourteen categories we measured, protein powder is the only one that grew on all three marketplaces. Online protein powder sales were about CN¥ 7.7 billion in the year to August 2026, and they rose 27% like for like because more units sold, with units up 26% while the average price per unit showed no clear trend. Protein bars fell 42% on all three marketplaces.
- In health foods, three ingredients sold for slimming lost sales while whey grew. Health foods naming white kidney bean fell 22%, garcinia 71% and apple cider vinegar 42% like for like, each on all three marketplaces, while whey, which sells mostly in the same listings as protein powder, rose 20%. Health foods still titled "weight loss" sold about CN¥ 1.1 billion, against about CN¥ 20 million for "helps control body fat", the claim that registered (blue-hat) health foods must adopt in its place by 2028.
- Posts about weight-loss injections multiplied from a small base, while posts about diet recipes and fasting fell. Posts about the injections (减肥针, the everyday name for the injectable GLP-1 drugs) rose from about 900 a month before the campaign to about 7,000 a month in the year to August 2026, though they fell on one platform, and posts about diet recipes and intermittent fasting roughly halved in the latest year. These are counts of posts, not of anyone using the drugs, and our data cannot show that the drugs or the campaign caused any change in sales.
- What we recommend. Large brands should sell protein as everyday nutrition, described by grams per serving, and move their ranges away from the slimming ingredients that are losing sales. They should take the "weight loss" and "zero added" claims off titles and packs before the deadlines, and read the conversation about the drugs for the questions it raises, without making any medical claim of their own.
Read the chapters
| Region |
China
|
|---|---|
| Industry |
Health & Wellness
Food & Beverage
|
| Report Type | Market Analysis |
| Pages | 28 |
| Language | en |
| Author | Moojing Market Research Team |
Frequently Asked Questions
It compares online sales and social-media posts in China from before and after Weight Management Year, the national campaign launched in June 2024, to show what people now buy and say about losing weight. Its five chapters cover the policy and the GLP-1 drugs, fourteen product categories linked to weight management, the ingredients and health claims in health foods, the conversation online, and four recommendations for large brands. It measures posts about the drugs, not the drugs themselves.
It is a three-year campaign launched in June 2024 by sixteen government departments and organisations, including the National Health Commission, to promote weight management. It calls for less oil, salt and sugar in processed food and for healthier canteens and restaurants, and health authorities asked qualified hospitals to open weight clinics. By early 2026 more than 5,500 medical institutions had one, according to the National Health Commission.
Yes. Online protein powder sales across three of China's largest marketplaces were about CN¥ 7.7 billion in the year to August 2026 and rose 27% like for like, the only one of the fourteen categories we measured to grow on all three marketplaces. Almost all of the growth came from volume: units rose 26%, while the average price per unit showed no clear trend. Our data cannot show why protein grew.
The 2023 revision of China's list of permitted health-food claims replaced "weight loss" (减肥) with "helps control body fat" (有助于控制体内脂肪), and products already registered have five years to conform. In the year to August 2026, health-food listings titled "weight loss" sold about CN¥ 1.1 billion online and those using the new claim about CN¥ 20 million, up from about CN¥ 12 million the year before. A revised labelling standard also bars "zero added" wording from food labels from 16 March 2027.
From Moojing Market Intelligence: observed online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces from September 2023 to August 2026, which are not the size of any Chinese market, because physical stores, pharmacies, hospitals and several other marketplaces are left out; and social listening on Weibo, RED and Douyin from January or September 2024, depending on the keyword, to August 2026, which counts posts, not purchases. Figures from outside sources, such as the National Health Commission, Xinhua, China Daily and Reuters, are attributed in the report.
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