Semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide all climb from a low starting dose to a maintenance dose — but each takes its own ladder to get there. Knowing your drug's structure helps you understand where you are in the process, and why a friend on a different medication is on a completely different schedule.
Why dose ladders differ by drug
Each GLP-1 medication has its own approved titration schedule, reflecting differences in the drug's potency, half-life, and clinical trial data — there's no single universal schedule across the class. This guide gives a general orientation to how the major drugs differ in structure, not a substitute for your specific prescribed schedule, which you should always confirm with your prescriber or pharmacist and the official prescribing information, since doses and schedules are occasionally updated.
Semaglutide (Ozempic / Wegovy)
Semaglutide titration generally uses monthly step increases — a low starting dose held for about four weeks, then increasing in defined steps roughly every four weeks, up to a maintenance dose. The weight-management version (Wegovy) has more titration steps and a higher eventual maintenance dose than the diabetes version (Ozempic), which is part of why switching between them isn't a simple direct swap — see our guide on switching between diabetes and weight-management dosing.