Sources last read
Saxenda dosage schedule
Saxenda starts at 0.6 mg once a day. Its maximum dose is 3 mg. Only 2.4, 3 mg are doses the label says you can stay on.
Source for this answer
Source: Read from the Saxenda label, revision 02/2026
Source: Read from the Saxenda label, revision 02/2026
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Montecillo, MD · non-practicing medical reviewerReviewed 2026-08-13every number here is sourced
Key dose facts
Key facts
- 0.6 mg once a day
- 2.4 and 3 mg
- 3 mg once a day
- Shown step by step below
The Saxenda dosages, step by step
The label prints this table itself, week by week, and it is the only weekly table on this site attached to a daily drug. Four steps, one a week, then the dose you stay on. Nothing below is our arithmetic.
| When | Daily dose | Can you stay here? | What the label notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 0.6 mg | No — a step only | Starting dosage |
| Week 2 | 1.2 mg | No — a step only | Titration step |
| Week 3 | 1.8 mg | No — a step only | Titration step |
| Week 4 | 2.4 mg | Yes | Titration only for adults. From age 12 the label allows this as the dose to stay on where 3 mg is not handled well |
| Week 5 and onward | 3 mg | Yes | The dosage the label recommends, and the end of its printed table |
1.2 mg and 1.8 mg are steps you pass through. The label does not list them among the doses to settle on.
Which dose do you end up on?
3 mg a day, reached in four weekly steps. Saxenda is the only product here whose label sets a date to check whether you stay on it at all. At 16 weeks it says to stop unless at least 4% of starting body weight has gone. From age 12 the check comes at 12 weeks on the full dose and asks for a 1% drop in BMI.
| Who the label covers | Dose to settle on | Approved |
|---|---|---|
| Adults with obesity, or adults with overweight and at least one weight-related condition, alongside a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity, to cut excess body weight and hold the loss long term | 3 mg once daily. The label says the lower doses are titration only | 2014-12-23NDA 206321 |
| Patients aged 12 years and older with obesity who weigh more than 60 kg, which is about 132 pounds | 3 mg once daily, or 2.4 mg where 3 mg is not handled well | 2020-12-04NDA 206321/S-012 |
For adults, 3 mg once daily is the recommended dose; the label says to stop if it cannot be tolerated. Pediatric patients aged 12 years and older may use 2.4 mg daily if they cannot tolerate 3 mg. The label says to stop if they cannot tolerate 2.4 mg.
9Label details
Who does the label cover, and who does it not?
Patients aged 12 and older are covered if they weigh more than 60 kg and have obesity. The climb can run to 8 weeks rather than 4, a step can be taken back down, and 2.4 mg is allowed as the dose to stay on where 3 mg is not handled well. Nothing is established under age 12.
The Saxenda label does not cover type 2 diabetes, and says outright that nothing has been established for children aged 12 to 17 who have it. It also rules out taking it with another liraglutide product or with any other GLP-1 drug.
What if a week gets missed?
A missed day is skipped rather than made up. The label says to take the next scheduled dose and not to add one or raise it. Past 3 days without a dose, it sends a person back to 0.6 mg and through the four-week table again.
What does it come in?
The device matters for dosing, because some of these hold one dose and some hold four.
| Device | Strengths | Doses inside |
|---|---|---|
| Prefilled pen, one patient only | 6 mg/mL in 3 mL, giving doses of 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, 2.4 or 3 mg | Several doses per pen — the label prints no count |
Saxenda and Victoza are the same drug. So why are the doses different?
Victoza is the same drug substance from the same manufacturer, approved for blood sugar rather than weight, and its label stops at 1.8 mg a day where this one goes to 3 mg.
Both products contain liraglutide, and both come from Novo Nordisk. They were approved under separate applications, NDA 206321 and NDA 022341. Each label sets out its approved uses, dose schedule and instructions for a missed dose.
The highest labeled doses are 3 mg for Saxenda and 1.8 mg for Victoza. Their shared ingredient does not make their dose plans interchangeable.
Both labels print 0.6, 1.2 and 1.8 mg. Those are the same amounts of liraglutide on either label. What changes is where each one sits. 1.2 and 1.8 mg are steps you pass through on Saxenda, and doses the Victoza label says you can stay on.
How long does it take to reach the 3 mg dose?
The label does not promise one date. It sets the timing for each step in the schedule below.
Saxenda starts at 0.6 mg and has a 3 mg ceiling. Read the published timing beside each row rather than adding the waits into one calendar estimate.
Nothing in the label says a person has to keep climbing. The maintenance choices are listed separately below.
Whether to move up, stay put or stop is a decision for whoever wrote the prescription.
Can you stay on a low dose of Saxenda?
Yes at 2.4 mg, which is the lowest dose this label recognizes as one to stay on.
The label names 2.4 and 3 mg as doses to settle on. 2.4 mg is the lowest of those. Below it the label is describing a climb, not a destination.
0.6, 1.2 and 1.8 mg are printed on the same ladder and are not on that list. The label treats them as somewhere you pass through.
The label sets doses. It does not rank them, and it does not say a higher one suits a given person better.
How does the Saxenda schedule compare with other GLP-1 brands?
Saxenda tops out at 3 mg once a day. Compare starting and ongoing doses for the 9 brands below.
The table below compares the highest labeled doses, starting doses and ongoing dose choices. Each row comes from that product’s label.
Milligrams do not carry across molecules. 3 mg of liraglutide is not comparable to 3 mg of anything else. The last column says so on every row where the drug substance differs.
Brands can share a drug but differ in form, approved use or dose schedule. A matching milligram amount does not make products interchangeable.
| Brand | Drug | Starts at | Tops out at | Doses to stay on | Against Saxenda |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundayo | Orforglipron | 0.8 mg daily | 17.2 mg | 5.5 mg can continue; further increases depend on response and tolerability | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Zepbound | Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg weekly | 15 mg | 5, 10 and 15 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Mounjaro | Tirzepatide | 2.5 mg weekly | 15 mg | 2.5 mg can continue; increases depend on blood sugar control | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Rybelsus | Semaglutide | 3 mg daily | 14 mg | 7 and 14 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Wegovy | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 7.2 mg | 1.7, 2.4 and 7.2 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Trulicity | Dulaglutide | 0.75 mg weekly | 4.5 mg | 0.75 mg can continue; increases depend on blood sugar control | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Saxenda | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 3 mg | 2.4 and 3 mg | This page |
| Ozempic | Semaglutide | 0.25 mg weekly | 2 mg | 0.5, 1 and 2 mg | Different drug — milligrams do not compare |
| Victoza | Liraglutide | 0.6 mg daily | 1.8 mg | 1.2 and 1.8 mg | Same drug, ceiling lower at 1.8 mg |
Do the side effects change as the dose goes up?
The Saxenda label includes side effects and warnings. This dosage guide does not include a trial-rate table.
A trial group’s assigned dose and each dose increase are different things. The table counts reports over the study, including time spent increasing doses.
These group results cannot tell someone whether a dose change caused their symptoms. Read each result with its trial group and study period.
The source label linked below contains the trial results and warnings. The schedule here gives the label’s timing for dose changes.
Where to read next
2 pages sit next to this one, and each answers something this page deliberately does not.
- The liraglutide dosage chart covers the drug rather than the brand, including the vial and syringe arithmetic no pen needs.
- What Saxenda costs reads the price off the manufacturer’s own terms rather than the label, including who those terms shut out.
- Saxenda (liraglutide) injection — FDA-approved Prescribing Information (DailyMed)retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- Saxenda (liraglutide) Prescribing Information, revised 02/2026 — Drugs@FDA NDA 206321/S-025retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- FDA approval letter, NDA 206321 — Saxenda (liraglutide) injection, chronic weight management in adultsretrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- FDA supplement approval letter, NDA 206321/S-012 — addition of a Saxenda pediatric indication for ages 12 and older (trial NN8022-4180)retrieved 2026-08-13FDA label
- Drugs@FDA via openFDA — applications containing liraglutide, including the approved abbreviated new drug applications from Sandoz, Teva, Lupin, Hikma, Biocon, Mylan, Fresenius Kabi and others, and the label each one carriesretrieved 2026-08-13FDA label