Semaglutide Dosage Chart: Titration Weeks 1 to 16

A semaglutide dosage chart lays out the titration ladder: the step-by-step schedule that raises a weekly dose in stages rather than all at once. In published GLP-1 programs the ladder usually climbs from 0.25 mg up toward a 2.4 mg maintenance dose over several months, with roughly four weeks at each step.

This page is a neutral reference. It explains the math behind the common ladder and maps each milligram dose to the units you would draw on a U-100 syringe. It is educational only and is not dosing advice. Any actual schedule belongs to a licensed clinician who knows the specific product and the individual.

The common titration ladder, week by week

Most reference schedules follow five steps, each held for about four weeks before the next increase. A typical 16-week view looks like this:

• Weeks 1 to 4: 0.25 mg once weekly
• Weeks 5 to 8: 0.5 mg once weekly
• Weeks 9 to 12: 1.0 mg once weekly
• Weeks 13 to 16: 1.7 mg once weekly
• Week 17 and beyond: 2.4 mg once weekly (maintenance)

The 0.25 mg starting step is generally treated as an introductory dose, not a target. The idea of stepping slowly is to let the body adjust before each increase. Some schedules pause or repeat a step instead of moving up on the strict four-week cadence, which is a clinical decision, not a math one.

Turning milligrams into syringe units

A dosage chart in milligrams only becomes useful once you know your vial's concentration, because that decides how far to pull the plunger. Concentration is total peptide divided by the volume of bacteriostatic water you reconstitute with. A 5 mg vial mixed with 2 mL of water gives 2.5 mg per mL.

On a U-100 insulin syringe, 1 mL equals 100 units, so units = (dose in mg / mg per mL) x 100. At 2.5 mg/mL the math is clean. The semaglutide calculator runs this conversion for your exact vial and water volume, and the general mg to units calculator does the same for any concentration.

The ladder mapped to U-100 units

Using the 2.5 mg/mL example above (a 5 mg vial in 2 mL of water), the same ladder reads like this in milliliters and units:

1. 0.25 mg = 0.10 mL = 10 units
2. 0.5 mg = 0.20 mL = 20 units
3. 1.0 mg = 0.40 mL = 40 units
4. 1.7 mg = 0.68 mL = 68 units
5. 2.4 mg = 0.96 mL = 96 units

Change the water volume and every number shifts. The same 5 mg vial in 1 mL of water is 5 mg/mL, which halves each unit count: 0.25 mg becomes 5 units instead of 10. That is why a chart alone is never enough. Always recompute units against your own concentration.

Why concentration matters more than the chart

Two people can follow the identical milligram ladder and draw completely different unit amounts, simply because they reconstituted with different water volumes. A milligram is a fixed quantity of drug; a unit is a mark on a syringe barrel. Confusing the two is the most common reconstitution error.

• More water means a larger, easier-to-read draw at the same dose.
• Less water means a smaller draw and less margin for misreading the line.
• Switching vial sizes or water volumes mid-schedule changes every unit figure on your chart.

Before each draw, confirm your numbers with the reconstitution calculator or the broader peptide dosage calculator, and log what you actually drew. Stackr keeps the concentration, the dose, and the date together so the unit count is never a guess. You can browse other compounds on the peptides reference page.

A note on scope

Semaglutide is a research compound that is not approved for general human consumption outside of an approved product and a prescriber's direction. The ladder above is a widely cited reference pattern, not a recommendation to follow any particular schedule. Decisions about whether, when, and how much belong to a licensed clinician. See the full disclaimer for details.