How much weight can you lose on 0.5mg Wegovy?

What the STEP 1 trial data can and can't tell you about 0.5mg

The landmark evidence for Wegovy comes from the STEP 1 trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which followed adults with obesity over 68 weeks. Participants taking semaglutide 2.4mg alongside lifestyle support lost an average of around 15% of their body weight. That figure is widely quoted — and it applies to the maintenance dose, not 0.5mg.

The 0.5mg dose is the second rung of the titration ladder. Treatment starts at 0.25mg for four weeks to let the body adjust, and if you want to understand how much weight you can lose on 0.25mg Wegovy, that starting phase is worth reading about before considering what comes next. Then it moves to 0.5mg for a further four weeks before the prescriber considers stepping up. Its job is to reduce early nausea and settle the gut, not to produce the weight loss that happens at 1.7mg or 2.4mg. Some people do notice their appetite shifting even at this stage (slower gastric emptying is already active) but the clinical trial was not designed to measure weight loss at sub-therapeutic doses in isolation.

For context on how results change as the dose increases, the 1mg dose page sets out what happens at the next step, and the full picture at the standard maintenance level is covered in the 2.4mg results page. The honest answer to how much weight you lose on 0.5mg Wegovy is: it varies, it's early, and the prescriber's guidance on how long you stay there matters more than the number on the scale right now.

How private Wegovy pricing works, and what the 0.5mg period costs you

UK private pricing for Wegovy is structured per pen, per month, and varies between providers and by dose. Following Eli Lilly's list-price increase in September 2025 for tirzepatide, the wider market adjusted; Wegovy pricing from private providers typically falls in a range of roughly £149 to £375 per month, hedged by dose and supplier, as widely reported. The 0.5mg phase represents roughly weeks five to eight of treatment, so for most people it's a short window in a longer programme, worth understanding in context rather than in isolation.

What matters more than the per-pen figure is what any quoted price actually includes. Some providers list a medicine price and then add consultation fees, prescription charges, or delivery costs separately. Others charge for dose-review calls or ongoing clinical support as an add-on. When comparing costs, it takes under a minute to check whether a pharmacy appears on the GPhC register, that verification step costs nothing and tells you whether the dispensing pharmacy is properly regulated.

At nume, one transparent price covers the free consultation, the prescription, the treatment itself, and free next-working-day delivery by DPD. There are no subscription traps and no auto-renewals. Every repeat order goes back to a prescriber for clinical re-review. We're not the cheapest option (that's a deliberate choice) because the clinical infrastructure behind each order is part of what you're paying for. For a fuller breakdown of what Wegovy private treatment costs in the UK, the Wegovy price page covers the market context in detail.

Why 'cheapest' is the wrong question for a prescription medicine at any dose

Wegovy is a prescription-only medicine. That means the only legal route to it in the UK is a prescription issued following a proper clinical assessment, at 0.5mg, at 2.4mg, or anywhere on the schedule. The MHRA has warned publicly about counterfeit weight-loss pens sold online and via social media, some containing insulin rather than semaglutide, with real harm resulting. Prices far below the market range, sellers who don't ask for any clinical information, and "discount codes" offered by unverified accounts are all red flags worth taking seriously.

For a medicine that works by changing how your body handles appetite and digestion, the right questions are clinical ones: is this the right treatment for me, at this dose, given my health history? Anyone considering whether to move up the titration schedule may also find it useful to read about how much weight you can lose on Wegovy 1.7mg, since that dose sits just before the final maintenance step and gives a clearer sense of what the programme builds toward. Suspected counterfeit sellers can be reported at the MHRA's Yellow Card service. The Wegovy treatment page sets out how the full titration schedule works and what clinical oversight looks like at each stage.

If you're ready to find out whether Wegovy is clinically suitable for you, speak to our prescribers, the consultation is free, and a named clinician reviews it the same day.