Do you take Wegovy once a week? How the weekly schedule actually works

Step 1: why once a week, and what happens if the timing slips

Semaglutide has a half-life of roughly one week in the body, which is precisely why the once-weekly injection works. A dose administered every seven days keeps levels in your bloodstream stable enough to maintain appetite suppression without the peaks and troughs you'd see with a daily medicine. That pharmacological design is the reason the weekly schedule is non-negotiable rather than a convenience.

If you lose track of the day, there is some flexibility, the Patient Information Leaflet allows you to take a missed dose up to five days late. If more than five days have passed, skip it and resume on the next scheduled day. Never inject two doses close together to compensate. The NHS semaglutide medicines page has clear missed-dose guidance, and your prescriber or the leaflet inside your pen box should always be your first reference for anything timing-related.

One thing our prescribers hear most weeks: patients asking whether they can shift their injection day to fit around holidays or plans. The short answer is yes, carefully, you can move it forward or back by a day or two provided you stay at least three days away from your previous injection. For larger shifts, check with your prescriber first.

Step 2: the titration journey from 0.25 mg to your maintenance dose

The starting dose of 0.25 mg is not a therapeutic dose in the sense of driving meaningful weight loss straight away. Its job is to settle your digestive system before the dose climbs. Gastrointestinal side effects (nausea, loose stools, that heavy, full feeling) are most common in the early weeks and most pronounced when the dose increases. The slow titration ladder exists specifically to reduce that burden.

The standard pathway runs: 0.25 mg for four weeks, then 0.5 mg, then 1.0 mg, then 1.7 mg, then 2.4 mg as the standard maintenance dose. Each step is held for roughly four weeks before the next. The MHRA-approved 7.2 mg dose extends that ladder further for those who tolerate and benefit from a higher maintenance level. Explore the full Wegovy treatment guide for more on how the dose pathway is structured and what the evidence shows at each level.

The titration is managed by your prescriber, not self-directed. Requests to jump a step or hold a dose longer are clinical decisions, and a legitimate online pharmacy will review your current position before dispatching each repeat. That clinical re-review protects you, it is not bureaucracy for its own sake.

Step 3: keeping the weekly rhythm once you reach maintenance

Once you are at your maintenance dose, the weekly injection continues for as long as treatment remains appropriate. The NICE appraisal of semaglutide for weight management (TA875) notes that the medicine should be reviewed if less than 5% weight loss has occurred after six months at the maintenance dose, a practical checkpoint built into responsible prescribing.

Some people ask whether they can take Wegovy less often once the weight is coming off, or whether a monthly injection might achieve the same result. The licensed schedule is weekly, and if you want a closer look at how that rhythm works in practice, our page on Wegovy once weekly covers what the evidence says about maintaining that consistent cadence. The same applies in reverse: more frequent dosing is not supported by the licence and is not safer.

Equally, questions about pausing treatment for surgery, illness or a planned break come up regularly. Clinical guidance exists for all of these scenarios; none of them are situations where self-managing without advice is recommended. If you are considering private treatment and want to understand what ongoing clinical support looks like, our free consultation is the place to start, a named prescriber reviews your case the same day, not a triage algorithm.