What is the minimum weight requirement for Wegovy in the UK?

You've checked your BMI and you're sitting right on the line

It's one of the most common situations our prescribers see: someone has calculated their BMI, found it's 27 or 28, and wants to know whether that's enough. The short answer is that it can be — but only if you also have at least one weight-related health condition. The UK licence for Wegovy specifically covers adults with a BMI of 27 to 29.9 who have a qualifying comorbidity such as hypertension, obstructive sleep apnoea, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease. For people whose BMI is 30 or above, no additional condition is required by the licence.

This two-tier structure exists because the clinical trials that supported Wegovy's approval enrolled both groups, and the medicine's benefit-risk profile was shown to be positive across them. The NHS medicines page for semaglutide sets out these criteria in plain language if you want to read the official summary. One practical point worth knowing: if your BMI is close to the threshold, the timing of your assessment matters, early in the month after payday is when many people think to start, but your eligibility is assessed on the day your prescriber reviews your consultation, so it's worth submitting it when you're ready rather than waiting.

Lower BMI thresholds also apply for adults from South Asian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Black African and African-Caribbean backgrounds, reflecting the fact that cardiometabolic risk rises at lower BMI values in these groups. Your prescriber will apply the correct threshold automatically during their review.

Where the NHS sets the bar higher than the licence

There is a meaningful gap between the minimum BMI in Wegovy's UK licence and the criteria the NHS uses when deciding who qualifies for treatment. NICE's appraisal of semaglutide (TA875, published in March 2023) recommends it only for adults with a BMI of 35 or above and at least one weight-related comorbidity, within a specialist weight management service offering multidisciplinary support. NHS eligibility also caps treatment at two years.

For people with a BMI between 30 and 34.9, or between 27 and 29.9 with a qualifying condition, the NHS route is generally not available under current commissioning. That gap is exactly where private treatment through a regulated online pharmacy becomes relevant. A private prescription follows the licensed criteria rather than NICE's more restrictive NHS thresholds, which means someone with a BMI of 28 and well-controlled hypertension could be eligible privately when they would not be on the NHS. You can read more about how different weight-loss treatments compare in terms of eligibility on our weight-loss treatments overview.

If you're unsure whether your BMI and health history put you in scope, the NHS BMI calculator is a reliable starting point before you speak to a prescriber.

What a prescriber actually checks beyond your BMI figure

BMI is a screening number, not a clinical decision. When a prescriber at a service like ours reviews your consultation, they're looking at a broader picture. Your current medicines matter: some drugs interact with semaglutide or raise safety questions. Your medical history matters too, a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma, or a history of pancreatitis, would prompt careful discussion. The MHRA's prescribing guidance and the Wegovy SmPC on the eMC list the full set of contraindications and precautions that a prescriber must work through.

Pregnancy, breastfeeding and actively trying to conceive are situations in which Wegovy is not recommended, not because of BMI, but because semaglutide is not licensed for use in those circumstances. The same applies to anyone under 18. Beyond those absolute restrictions, a prescriber is weighing up whether the likely benefit of treatment outweighs any individual risk. That assessment cannot be reduced to a number on a scale.

If you're comparing Wegovy with other options, our prescribers can also discuss tirzepatide, the Mounjaro versus Wegovy page covers how the two medicines differ in mechanism and trial outcomes. For a direct comparison of the two GLP-1 treatments and whether one tends to produce better results than the other, our Wegovy versus Saxenda comparison sets out the key clinical distinctions. If semaglutide is on your shortlist and you want to understand how Wegovy and Ozempic differ when it comes to losing weight, our Wegovy vs Ozempic for weight loss guide walks through the practical and clinical differences between the two.

Checking your eligibility through a regulated UK pharmacy

If you're reading this because you want to find out whether you personally qualify, the most reliable thing to do is go through a proper clinical assessment with a registered prescriber. Any legitimate online pharmacy should be listed on the GPhC register, which you can check at pharmacyregulation.org/registers. At nume, every consultation is read the same day by a GPhC-registered Independent Prescriber, a real clinician, not automated screening. If you meet the criteria and treatment is appropriate, your prescription is issued and your medication dispatched the same working day (for orders completed before 12pm, Monday to Friday), arriving in plain packaging via tracked DPD delivery.

For context on how Wegovy pricing fits into a decision about private treatment, our guide to where to buy Wegovy covers what to look for in a provider. And if you'd like a fuller picture of the medicine itself before deciding, including guidance on how the starting dose of 0.25 mg compares with moving up to 0.5 mg, the Wegovy .25 vs .5 page and the Wegovy treatment page are both good places to start.

When you're ready to find out whether you're eligible, speak to our prescribers through a free consultation, it takes a few minutes and there's no obligation.