What this page establishes
- Semaglutide injectable: 0.25 / 0.5 / 1.0 / 1.7 / 2.4 mg weekly, 4 weeks per step, 2.4 mg maintenance; 14.9% mean loss at 68 weeks (STEP 1).
- Tirzepatide: 2.5 mg initiation then 5 / 10 / 15 mg weekly maintenance; 16.0% / (10 mg intermediate) / 22.5% mean loss at 72 weeks (SURMOUNT-1).
- Orforglipron: 6 / 12 / 36 mg once daily oral; 5.1% / 7.0% / 9.6% mean loss at week 72 vs 2.5% placebo on the treatment-regimen estimand, and 12.4% at 36 mg on the efficacy estimand (ATTAIN-1).
- The two orforglipron figures differ because they are different estimands; publish both or neither, never one alone.
Quick answers
Can this chart tell me my dose?
No. It reproduces published label schedules and trial averages. Individual dosing depends on tolerance, comorbidities and other medicines, which only a prescriber can weigh.
Why do two different weight-loss numbers appear for the same drug?
Trials report a treatment-regimen estimand, counting everyone randomised including people who stopped, and an efficacy estimand, counting adherent participants.
Read the full answer
The second is always the larger number. Orforglipron 36 mg reads as 9.6% or 12.4% at week 72 in ATTAIN-1 for that reason.Are these results comparable across drugs?
Only loosely. Trial lengths differ, running 64, 68 and 72 weeks in this chart alone, and populations and placebo responses differ too.
Read the full answer
Head-to-head trials are the only fair comparison.
This is the reference chart the rest of the site points at. One block per product, with the approved titration steps on one side and the trial-measured weight loss on the other, each figure tagged with the trial that produced it and the week it was measured. There is no microdose column, because no product in this class has an approved dose below its initiation step.
How to read this chart
Two kinds of information sit side by side here and they are not the same kind of thing.
The label column is regulatory. It says what a prescriber can write and what the manufacturer's schedule is. The trial column is empirical. It says what happened, on average, to people in a specific study of a specific length. A dose can appear in the label column with nothing next to it in the trial column, which is exactly the situation for every initiation step in the class.
Every percentage below carries a trial name and a week number. If you find one anywhere that does not, treat it as unsourced.
- Which trial produced this number?
- At which dose, and was that dose randomised or just a titration step someone passed through?
- At which week? Durations here run from 64 to 72.
- Which estimand? Treatment-regimen and efficacy figures differ, sometimes by several points.
- What did the placebo arm in that same trial do?
Semaglutide injectable (Wegovy, Ozempic)
Label: 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.7 and 2.4 mg weekly, four weeks per step, 2.4 mg maintenance.
Trial: STEP 1 measured 14.9% mean body-weight loss at 68 weeks on 2.4 mg weekly, against 2.4% on placebo. No other dose in the ladder has a maintenance-dose weight-loss estimate in an obesity population.
Oral semaglutide 25 mg (Wegovy pill)
Label: 25 mg once daily, approved 22 December 2025 for weight reduction and long-term maintenance.
Trial: OASIS 4 reported 16.6% mean body-weight loss at 64 weeks under adherence. Read the duration carefully, it is 64 weeks and not the 68 that the injectable figure uses.
Tirzepatide (Zepbound, Mounjaro)
Label: 2.5 mg weekly initiation for four weeks, then 5, 10 or 15 mg weekly maintenance.
Trial: SURMOUNT-1 measured 16.0% mean loss at 5 mg and 22.5% at 15 mg at 72 weeks, against 2.4% on placebo, across 2,539 participants. This is the only product in the class with more than one randomised maintenance dose.
Orforglipron / Foundayo (oral, small molecule)
Label: 6, 12 or 36 mg once daily, no food or water restriction. FDA approved it as Foundayo on 1 April 2026 under NDA 220934.
Trial: ATTAIN-1 measured 5.1%, 7.0% and 9.6% mean loss at week 72 for 6, 12 and 36 mg against 2.5% on placebo under the treatment-regimen estimand, and 12.4% at 36 mg under the efficacy estimand. In the 36 mg group, 59.6% lost at least 10% and 39.6% lost at least 15%.
| Product | Label steps | Maintenance | Trial-measured mean loss | Trial and week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semaglutide injectable | 0.25 / 0.5 / 1.0 / 1.7 / 2.4 mg weekly | 2.4 mg weekly | 14.9% | STEP 1, week 68 |
| Oral semaglutide | 25 mg daily | 25 mg daily | 16.6% (adherence) | OASIS 4, week 64 |
| Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg initiation, then 5 / 10 / 15 mg weekly | 5, 10 or 15 mg weekly | 16.0% at 5 mg, 22.5% at 15 mg | SURMOUNT-1, week 72 |
| Orforglipron | 6 / 12 / 36 mg daily | 6, 12 or 36 mg daily | 5.1% / 7.0% / 9.6%, or 12.4% at 36 mg | ATTAIN-1, week 72, two estimands |
Doses studied but not approved as maintenance
Some doses appear in the literature without ever becoming maintenance doses, and they are the ones microdosing content tends to lean on.
Semaglutide 0.5 and 1.0 mg were studied in the SUSTAIN diabetes programme with glycaemic primary endpoints, in a different population from the obesity trials. Semaglutide 0.25 mg and tirzepatide 2.5 mg exist only as four-week titration steps with no maintenance outcome attached. Nothing below those figures has been randomised at all in weight management.
Orforglipron 6 mg is the interesting case in the other direction. It is an approved dose with a published outcome, 5.1% mean loss at week 72 in ATTAIN-1 under the treatment-regimen estimand, which makes it the lowest approved dose in the class with real evidence attached to it. That is what a genuinely studied low dose looks like, and it is nothing like a microdose.
Dates and verification status
Two entries here are newer than the trials behind them and deserve a flag.
Oral semaglutide 25 mg was approved on 22 December 2025, sourced to Novo Nordisk's own announcement. Orforglipron was approved as Foundayo on 1 April 2026, sourced to the FDA approval letter for NDA 220934. Regulatory status in this class has been changing quarter to quarter, so a date on a page is worth less than the source behind it.
The trial figures are more stable, but several here come from company press releases and journal news coverage rather than full papers. Where a decision turns on a number, go to the primary publication.
What this chart is not
It is not a dosing plan and it cannot be turned into one. It reproduces published label schedules and published trial averages, both of which describe populations.
An average is a poor guide to an individual even inside the range it covers. The SURMOUNT-1 5 mg arm averaged 16.0% at 72 weeks, and that arm contained people who lost 25% or more and people who lost almost nothing. Knowing the mean tells you very little about which of those you would be.
The calculator built on this data works the same way. It reads the dose-response curves backwards from a goal you type in and returns the trial-observed band closest to it, marked with the trial and the week, and flagged when your input runs past the edge of the measured range. It is an estimation reference. It does not know your medical history and it is not a dosing tool.
The evidence, one row per claim
| Claim | Tier | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Semaglutide injectable: 0.25 / 0.5 / 1.0 / 1.7 / 2.4 mg weekly, 4 weeks per step, 2.4 mg maintenance; 14.9% mean loss at 68 weeks (STEP 1). | established | STEP 1 |
| Oral semaglutide 25 mg once daily: reported 16.6% mean weight loss at 64 weeks under adherence (OASIS 4); approved 22 Dec 2025. | weak evidence | Drugs@FDA record for NDA 218316 (Wegovy tablets, Novo Nordisk) via openFDA |
| Tirzepatide: 2.5 mg initiation then 5 / 10 / 15 mg weekly maintenance; 16.0% / (10 mg intermediate) / 22.5% mean loss at 72 weeks (SURMOUNT-1). | established | Eli Lilly / NEJM |
| Orforglipron: 6 / 12 / 36 mg once daily oral; 5.1% / 7.0% / 9.6% mean loss at week 72 vs 2.5% placebo on the treatment-regimen estimand, and 12.4% at 36 mg on the efficacy estimand (ATTAIN-1). | established | ClinicalTrials.gov posted results for ATTAIN-1 (NCT05869903), first posted 14 August 2026 |
| The two orforglipron figures differ because they are different estimands; publish both or neither, never one alone. | established | ClinicalTrials.gov posted results for ATTAIN-1 (NCT05869903), first posted 14 August 2026 |
| No product has an approved dose below its label initiation step, so the chart has no 'microdose' column by design. | established | FDA (absence of approved microdose indication) |
Questions people ask
Why is there no microdose column?
Sources
- STEP 1
- Drugs@FDA record for NDA 218316 (Wegovy tablets, Novo Nordisk) via openFDA
- Eli Lilly / NEJM
- ClinicalTrials.gov posted results for ATTAIN-1 (NCT05869903), first posted 14 August 2026
- FDA (absence of approved microdose indication)
Keep reading
- GLP-1 Microdosing: What the Term Means and What the Evidence ShowsThe term explained honestly: no regulator uses it, no trial tested it, and every dose-response curve in the fi
- Semaglutide Microdosing: The Ladder, the Data and the GapsThe label ladder laid next to the STEP programme, so you can see exactly how far a microdose sits from anythin
- Tirzepatide Microdosing: What SURMOUNT-1 Says About Low DosesTirzepatide has the only published maintenance dose-response curve in the field, and a microdose sits below th
- The Next-Generation Obesity Drug Pipeline: Who Is WhereA maintained status board, not an essay. One row per candidate, with a visible review date.
- Oral GLP-1 Options Compared: Orforglipron vs Oral Semaglutide 25 mgThe comparison people search for, with the honest caveat that nobody has run the trial that would settle it.