Guide · updated 2026-08-24

Dosing, administration, and storage — from the labels, not a chart

Last verified 2026-08-24 · methodology · conflict-of-interest disclosure · dataset: open JSON

Everything below is sourced from the approved products’ FDA labels and stated as education: semaglutide titrates 0.25→0.5→1→1.7→2.4 mg weekly at ≥4-week steps; tirzepatide 2.5→5→7.5→10→12.5→15 mg at the same cadence — ceilings and cadences a prescriber slows freely for tolerability. For compounded preparations, your pharmacy label overrides everything here, and this site will never convert doses to syringe units — concentrations vary by pharmacy and batch, and FDA has documented multi-fold overdoses from exactly that math. Last verified 2026-08-24.

The approved titration schedules (education, not instruction)

Step	Semaglutide (Wegovy label)	Tirzepatide (Zepbound label)
Start	0.25 mg weekly × 4 wks	2.5 mg weekly × 4 wks
Then	0.5 → 1 → 1.7 mg (4-wk steps)	5 → 7.5 → 10 → 12.5 mg (4-wk steps)
Maintenance ceiling	2.4 mg weekly	15 mg weekly
Slower is allowed	Yes — tolerability governs	Yes — tolerability governs

Staying at a lower dose that’s working is a legitimate prescriber decision — the schedule is a ceiling and a cadence, not a race. “Microdosing” marketing is this fact wearing a trend name; what matters is whether your dose, chosen with your prescriber, is doing the job tolerably.

Missed doses and breaks, per label logic

Semaglutide: a missed weekly dose is taken within 5 days, otherwise skipped — never doubled. Tirzepatide: within 4 days, same rule. Breaks beyond two weeks (illness, supply gaps, surgery — and GLP-1s are held before anesthesia per your surgical team) usually mean restarting titration at a prescriber-chosen step rather than resuming the old dose cold; that call belongs to the prescriber, made before the next injection.

Injection practice, storage, travel

Sites: abdomen, thigh, upper arm — rotate. Day and time: consistent weekly anchor, changeable by moving gradually or per label’s allowed windows. Storage: refrigerate per label; the approved pens tolerate limited room-temperature windows (label-specified — e.g., up to 28 days for some presentations); compounded vials follow the beyond-use date and storage line on your pharmacy label, full stop. Travel: keep it in carry-on with a cold pack; TSA allows medically necessary injectables with syringes when accompanied by the medication — label on, pharmacy info visible. The units question — mg vs mL vs syringe units — gets a page of its own on the label-literacy side and a firm rule: the label and pharmacist convert; websites don’t.

Update log

2026-08-24 — Page created per the Pass-12 audit; sources inline.