Editorial standards

How we research

LeanFed is published by Hilly Shore Labs— a small, research-driven team writing for readers in the US and Canada. We help people eat well on a GLP-1 medication and recommend only what we can defend with published data. Here's exactly how we work, including the parts that are limits rather than strengths.

We research, deeply — from real data

Every pick is resolved from a live retailer listing — real product identifier, current price, real product photo, real rating — and cross-checked against aggregated owner reviews at scale. Nutrition figures come from the published label; specifications from manufacturer data. Nothing is typed in from memory, and an unknown value stays blank.

The LeanScore is transparent

Our 0–100 score is 72% owner satisfaction (real rating plus review sentiment) and 28% in-category value. The full formula is public on the methodology page. Products are ranked by that score, and any deliberate override carries a written note.

We don't claim hands-on lab testing

There is no LeanFed lab, test kitchen or taste panel. We compare labels, specifications and owner reviews, and we say 'researched' and 'compared' — never 'we tested' or 'hands-on'. Work is published under the brand name, LeanFed Editors; we never invent a reviewer, a dietitian or a clinician endorsement.

We cite primary sources, and we open every one

Health and medication facts link to primary sources: FDA labels via DailyMed, NIH, NIDDK, the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, CDC, USDA FoodData Central and peer-reviewed research. Every URL we cite is opened and read before it ships — a link that loads is not the same as a link that supports the sentence. We never repeat a precise-sounding statistic from another blog; this subject area is full of numbers with no source behind them.

We stay on our side of the line

LeanFed carries no medical advice and no dosing guidance of any kind — no dose calculators, no titration schedules, no needle sizing, no compounded-drug conversions, no tapering. Products may help with convenience, comfort, intake or tracking; nothing here treats, prevents or cures a side effect. On any page that mentions a symptom, the reasons to call a clinician sit above the products.

We keep it current

Prices and ratings are refreshed on a recurring cycle (last checked Aug 22, 2026) and shown with a "price checked" date. Guides carry a visible update date, changed only on a real content edit — not on a routine data refresh.

The words we use, in plain English

Some of these are medical and some of them we made up. Either way, a word you have to guess at is a word we got wrong — so here they all are, in the same wording that appears when you tap one inside an article.

GLP-1: Glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone your gut releases after eating that signals fullness; GLP-1 medications are made to act like it.
the Path: The free five-stage guide that runs down the middle of this site — Considering, Starting, Adjusting, Building, Keeping. It is a map of what usually comes next, not a schedule you are behind on.
stage: One of the five parts of the Path. Stages describe where you are right now, and they move in both directions — a dose change can put you back in an earlier one, and that is normal.
LeanScore: LeanFed's own 0 to 100 score for a product, worked out from what owners rate it and what it costs for what you get — never from a hands-on test, because we do not test products. The full formula is published on our methodology page.
comfortable volume: How much you can actually finish in one sitting without feeling awful — the amount, not the food. When appetite drops, this is the number that decides whether a meal or a drink works for you.
protein per fluid ounce: How much protein you get in each ounce of liquid once a shake is mixed. It matters when your comfortable volume is small: two drinks can hold the same protein while one asks you to swallow twice as much.
cost per 20 g: What twenty grams of protein costs you out of a particular container — the honest way to compare a cheap tub against an expensive one, instead of comparing sticker prices.
red flag: A symptom that outranks everything else on the page: it means contact a clinician rather than reach for a product. On this site red flags are always printed above anything you could buy.
prescriber: Whoever prescribes and manages your medication — a doctor, a nurse practitioner or a physician associate. Every dose, timing and whether-to-continue question on this site routes to them.
researched, not tested: Our position on every product: we compare labels, specifications and owner reviews at scale, and we never claim to have used the thing ourselves. Where a manufacturer has not stated something, we say so rather than filling the gap.

Affiliate disclosure & corrections

As an Amazon Associate, LeanFed earns from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra and never changes what we recommend or how we score. Spotted an error, a stale price, or a claim we should not have made? Tell us at hello@leanfed.com and we'll fix it. See also our scoring methodology and full affiliate disclosure.