What happens if you skip a week of Wegovy

Step 1: understand what semaglutide is doing while you wait

Semaglutide (the active ingredient in Wegovy) stays in your body for roughly a week after each injection, which is precisely why once-weekly dosing works. Skip a week and that reservoir runs low. Most people notice hunger creeping back within three to five days, and the feeling of fullness after small meals that they have got used to starts to fade. This is not a sign that the medicine has stopped working permanently; it is a predictable pharmacological consequence of the dose gap.

One misconception worth letting go gently: many people assume that skipping a week means their body has become resistant to semaglutide or that the drug no longer suits them. In the vast majority of cases, that is simply not true. A temporary gap changes your drug level, not your response to the medicine.

The NHS semaglutide medicines page is the clearest patient-level explanation of how the drug behaves between doses, worth bookmarking alongside your Patient Information Leaflet for moments exactly like this.

Step 2: work out how long the gap actually was

The practical guidance differs depending on the length of the delay. If your next injection is due and fewer than five days have passed since you skipped, most clinical guidance suggests taking the missed dose provided your next scheduled dose is still at least two days away. If more than five days have elapsed, skip the missed dose entirely and simply resume on your normal day. Never take two doses close together to compensate, taking a double dose of Wegovy significantly raises the risk of gastrointestinal side effects without any benefit to weight loss.

The precise rule for your situation lives in your Patient Information Leaflet. The leaflet is not a formality; the wording there is legally verified, dose-specific, and the safest reference for any missed-dose question. If you are unsure which rule applies, your prescriber or pharmacist can clarify the same day. There is also a fuller breakdown of the clinical considerations around missing a single Wegovy dose if you want the detail before calling.

Step 3: restarting after a longer break

A gap of more than two weeks sits in a different category. At that point, your prescriber may recommend stepping back down to a lower dose before working back up. This is not a setback, it is a safety measure. Reintroducing semaglutide at a maintenance dose after a significant break can produce more intense nausea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal effects than your system has already adjusted to. Retitration protects you from that.

The full Wegovy dose schedule covers how titration works from the initial 0.25 mg starting point through to the 2.4 mg maintenance dose and, for some patients, the higher 7.2 mg dose approved by the MHRA in 2026. The key point: whether you restart at your current dose or a step below is a clinical judgement your prescriber makes based on how long you have been off it, your tolerance history, and what happened during the gap. It is worth exploring how starting or restarting at 1.7 mg works in practice, since that is a common reintroduction point.

For context on what genuine continuity looks like and how supply reliability affects your plan, the guide to sourcing Wegovy through a regulated UK pharmacy covers what to check before committing to a provider.

Step 4: consider what caused the gap, and whether it signals something to raise

Sometimes a missed week is logistics: the pen arrived late, you were travelling, or it slipped your mind. Those are solvable problems. Other times a gap happens because of a side effect that made you reluctant to inject again, or because you felt you were not making progress. Both are worth raising with your prescriber rather than managing silently. Side effects can often be addressed by adjusting the titration pace; plateaus in weight loss are a recognised pattern that clinical support can help navigate.

The NHS page on semaglutide lists the side effects most commonly associated with dose increases, which is relevant context for anyone who skipped a week because of GI discomfort. If side effects felt severe or you are uncertain about continuing, the clinical team at nume offers 7-day aftercare, a prescriber can advise on your next step without you having to start the process from scratch. You can also read a broader overview of how Wegovy works for weight management to ground your thinking before that conversation.