China Weight Management Online: Four Moves for Brands

Large brands selling weight-management products online in China should sell protein as everyday nutrition, move their ranges away from the slimming ingredients that are losing sales, take phased-out claims off their packs before the deadlines, and read the conversation about the GLP-1 drugs without making any medical claim, according to Moojing Market Intelligence's analysis of online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces.

This article covers the fifth chapter of the full report, China Weight Management Industry Report 2023–2026, which turns the findings on categories, ingredients, claims and the online conversation into four recommendations for food, dairy, nutrition, health-food and cross-border supplement brands.

Key figures

• +27%: like-for-like growth in online protein powder sales, year to August 2026
• −22%: like-for-like change in sales of health foods naming white kidney bean
• CN¥ 1.1 billion: online sales of health foods still titled "weight loss", a claim registered products must drop by 2028
• CN¥ 1.2 billion: food listings titled "zero added", wording a labelling standard bars from March 2027

Method and scope: observed online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, September 2023 to August 2026, and social listening on three social platforms, from Moojing Market Intelligence; not the total market. Growth rates are like for like.

Sell protein as everyday nutrition, by grams per serving#

Protein powder grew and protein bars shrank on all three marketplaces in the year to August 2026, so brands should sell protein as part of the daily diet and describe it by grams per serving, not by any effect on weight. They should focus new products on powders and test drinks and meals, watching protein's like-for-like growth by format.

Exhibit 2. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, like-for-like growth compounded over the two years to August 2026; social listening on three social platforms, posts a month in the year to August 2026 against January to May 2024. A light bar marks a product whose sales moved in different directions on different marketplaces. The weight-management shelf's change is between −4% and −19%. The bar for weight-loss injections is cut off at the edge of the chart; its base before the campaign is about 900 posts a month. Posts about weight-loss injections and about "weight management" fell on one of the three platforms. Not the total market.

Online protein powder sales were about CN¥ 7.7 billion in the latest year and rose 27% like for like, almost all of it from volume, since units rose 26% while the average price per unit showed no clear trend. Over two years protein powder grew by about a third. Our data measure protein powder and bars, not newer formats such as protein water, which two leading dairy groups launched in May 2026. The detail is in China online protein powder sales.

Reformulate towards nutrients shoppers can check on the label#

Health foods naming white kidney bean, garcinia and apple cider vinegar are losing sales on all three marketplaces while whey grows, and whey sells on a nutrient buyers can check on the label, which matters more as the rules restrict health claims. Brands should move their ranges towards such ingredients and watch which ones the best-selling weight-management listings name, year on year.

Exhibit 6. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three online marketplaces, up to 300 best-selling listings by units in each marketplace's weight-management categories, year to August 2025 and the latest year (to May 2026 on one marketplace), 1,148 and 1,200 listings, equally weighted, coded by the ingredients their titles name. A title naming two ingredients counts under both. Ingredients named in fewer than 3% of titles in both years are not shown. Meal replacement's fall comes almost entirely from one marketplace. Not the total market.

The best-sellers have barely changed what they name. Of the 1,200 best-selling listings on the weight-management shelf in the latest year, 19% name dietary fibre, 11% enzymes and 10% L-carnitine, the most of the ingredients we coded, and no ingredient's share moved by more than a few percentage points in a year. Whey sells mostly in the same listings as protein powder, so its 20% rise largely restates protein powder's. The ingredient series are in our article on the "weight loss" claim.

Take "weight loss" and "zero added" off titles and packs before the deadlines#

In the year to August 2026, health foods titled "weight loss" sold about CN¥ 1.1 billion online and food listings carrying "zero added" wording about CN¥ 1.2 billion, mostly on two marketplaces, while the rules on both claims have strengthened. Brands should take these claims off titles and packs now and use the time to build the nutrient claims that will replace them, even if it costs some reach in the short term.

Registered (blue-hat) health foods have until 2028 to replace "weight loss" with "helps control body fat", and the revised labelling standard bars "zero added" wording from 16 March 2027. In January 2026 China Daily reported that Beijing's market regulator had fined a company CN¥ 100,000 for false advertising, for selling a jelly, legally an ordinary food, as a weight-loss product on livestreams. Brands should watch the share of listings that still use "weight loss" and "zero added" wording.

Follow the questions in the drug conversation, and make no medical claim#

Posts about weight-loss injections multiplied from a small base, and they often mention weight, side effects, clinics and diet. Brands should read that conversation for the needs it reveals and keep the drugs out of their own marketing, since food may make no medical claim under China's rules for online food sales.

Posts about the injections 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. Brand, social and product teams should watch the negative share of posts about the injections and the keywords that pair weight loss with a concern, such as weight regain or a plateau. What those posts say is in weight-loss injection posts, and the campaign and the drug approvals in China's Weight Management Year.

We will next watch whether protein keeps growing as the drugs get cheaper, and whether "zero added" listings fall before the March 2027 deadline. Every exhibit, the significance tests and the method are in the full report, and our China healthy snacks and functional edibles report covers the neighbouring snack shelf.