The usual dose steps
Weeks 1 to 4 use 0.25 mg once weekly. Weeks 5 to 8 use 0.5 mg. Weeks 9 to 12 use 1 mg. Weeks 13 to 16 use 1.7 mg. The standard maintenance dose after that is 2.4 mg once weekly. Each figure is the amount in one weekly injection. The pen holds more in total.
A four-dose pen usually lasts four weeks, which is 28 days. A calendar month is longer. Mark your fourth injection and reorder in good time for assessment and delivery. If you treat every month as four weeks, you will run short over a long course.
When a dose rise needs review
Significant nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or poor eating may lead your prescriber to delay a rise or drop you back to the previous dose. The decision should follow your symptoms and health. A bigger dose is not always better. Do not step up because a new box has arrived.
Keep a dose diary. Record the amount, the date, side effects, worries about fluids and any missed injections. Your clinician learns far more from this than from hearing a dose felt strong or weak. Read your weight over weeks. Day-to-day readings mislead.
Where the 7.2 mg dose fits
In the UK, 7.2 mg is an extra maintenance option for adult weight management in obesity, where needed, after at least four weeks on 2.4 mg. It is not authorised as the routine next step for everyone, for adolescents or for the cardiovascular-risk indication.
Your prescription may use the single-dose 7.2 mg device or a clearly prescribed regimen of three 2.4 mg injections. The total weekly dose must be clear. Never add a 7.2 mg pen on top of your previous weekly dose because both supplies are in the house.
Timing and injection day
You can inject at any time of day, with or without food, on your scheduled day. The injection goes under the skin at an approved site. To move your weekly day, follow the spacing rule in the leaflet: leave more than 72 hours between doses. Missed doses have separate instructions.
Do not convert injection doses into tablet doses. Oral semaglutide is absorbed differently and taken daily. No simple milligram conversion exists from tirzepatide to semaglutide either. Any switch needs a new clinical plan.
Speed through the doses is not the goal
The early doses mainly help your body adjust. Some people notice appetite changes quickly. Others need longer. An early response is no reason to skip the rest of the assessment process. Aim for treatment you can tolerate and which supports your health. Climbing through the strengths fast brings no reward.
Before each increase, check the label, how many doses you have and the plan for the following four weeks. If the pen differs from what you expected, ask the pharmacy before you inject. A dose question is far easier to fix before the medicine goes in.
Sources
Your own medicine leaflet and prescriber come first. A source from another country does not mean the same rule applies in the UK.
- Wegovy FlexTouch UK prescribing information medicines.org.uk
- Wegovy FlexTouch patient leaflet medicines.org.uk
- MHRA: authorisation of the 7.2 mg Wegovy dose gov.uk
- MHRA: single-dose 7.2 mg Wegovy pen approval gov.uk
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