Semaglutide Dosing Chart: The Full Weekly Schedule

For weight management, semaglutide begins at 0.25 mg once weekly for four weeks, then increases through 0.5 mg, 1 mg, and 1.7 mg at four-week intervals, reaching a 2.4 mg maintenance dose at around week 17. For type 2 diabetes, the schedule starts the same way but tops out at 2 mg, with 0.5 mg and 1 mg both serving as maintenance doses.

The 0.25 mg starting dose is not a treatment dose. Gastrointestinal side effects are strongly related to how quickly the dose rises, so the schedule builds tolerance gradually. Starting higher or escalating faster increases the likelihood of nausea, vomiting, and dehydration without improving the eventual result.

At least four weeks. The approved schedule allows an increase only after four weeks at the current dose. Staying longer at a step is common and clinically reasonable — a clinician may extend a step if side effects are still settling or if the current dose is producing an adequate response.

If the next scheduled dose is more than two days away, take the missed dose as soon as you remember. If it is less than two days away, skip the missed dose and resume your normal schedule. If you miss doses for more than two consecutive weeks, contact your clinician — you may need to restart titration rather than resume at your previous dose.

No. The maintenance dose is a ceiling, not a target. If a lower dose produces an adequate response and is well tolerated, many clinicians hold a patient there. Dose escalation is guided by response and tolerability, not by a schedule that has to be completed.

Compounded semaglutide is not FDA-approved and has no approved labeling, so there is no official dosing chart for it. Clinicians prescribing a compounded preparation generally reference the approved schedule, but the specific plan is set for the individual patient. Compounded preparations are not reviewed by the FDA for safety, effectiveness, or quality before marketing.

Both schedules use semaglutide and both begin at 0.25 mg weekly. The weight-management schedule escalates to a 2.4 mg maintenance dose through an additional 1.7 mg step. The type 2 diabetes schedule has a 2 mg maximum, with 0.5 mg and 1 mg commonly used as maintenance doses.

Individual results vary. In STEP-1, the pivotal 68-week trial, adults taking 2.4 mg semaglutide alongside lifestyle intervention had a mean body-weight reduction of about 14.9 percent, compared with about 2.4 percent on placebo. Those figures come from the FDA-approved semaglutide 2.4 mg injection — compounded preparations were not studied — and are averages, not a promise of individual outcome.