Does Wegovy need to be tapered off?

No: Wegovy's FDA label gives no taper or step-down schedule for stopping, and its only rule about a break is for coming back — after 2 or more missed weekly doses in a row, it says to "reinitiate dosage escalation at a lower dosage to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal adverse reactions" rather than resume the old dose. The drug also leaves slowly on its own: the label says semaglutide stays in the circulation for about 5 to 7 weeks after the last 2.4 mg or 7.2 mg injection. In the label's withdrawal trial, people went straight from 2.4 mg to placebo with no taper, and that group regained 6.9% of body weight over 48 weeks. No randomized trial has tested whether tapering changes that. The only tapering figures are observational: a Danish online weight clinic reported at the European Congress on Obesity in May 2024 that 353 of its 2,246 patients stepped down to zero over a median of 9 weeks, and that weight 26 weeks after the last dose averaged 1.5% lower among those who had not restarted (95% CI: 6.4% lower to 3.3% higher), with a 21.5% chance of having restarted by then. There was no comparison group and the clinic ran the study. A step-down, or the dose to restart at, is for the prescriber to set.

Do you regain everything after stopping Wegovy?

Not all of it, on this trial. Over the 20 weeks on the drug the average person went from 107.2 kg to 96.1 kg, a loss of 11.1 kg. In the 11 months after stopping they put back 6.6 kg, which is 60% of what they had lost — so roughly 40% of the loss was still there at the end. Note that the two percentages on this page are measured against different weights, and dividing one by the other overstates the regain.

Does that mean Wegovy has to be taken forever?

The trial does not answer that and neither does this page: it measured 48 weeks off the drug in people who had been on it for 5 months, and it was not designed to test whether anything else — a slower taper, a lower maintenance dose, a different diet — changes the shape. What it does establish is that stopping is not a neutral event, which is the assumption a monthly price invites.

What does that do to the cost?

It changes what the yearly figure is. Wegovy is $349 a month at maintenance here, and a first year comes to $4,237 once the titration steps are priced and the thirteen fills a 28-day month bills are counted. If the weight comes back when the drug stops, that is not a one-off cost to reach a goal; it is $4,537 a year at maintenance for as long as the result is wanted. Every comparison on this site prices a year. This trial is the reason to multiply it.

← Wegovy (semaglutide injection)

What happens if you stop Wegovy?

Came off the drug

+6.9%

Body weight gained over the 11 months after stopping

Stayed on it

-7.9%

Over the same 11 months, in the same trial

No clinician has reviewed this page. Label and trial statements are quoted from the FDA label or the trial cited beside them. General guidance is marked as such, and every price carries the date it was verified. That is sourcing, not medical review. What we do and do not check · Who checked the price

What happens if you stop taking Wegovy?

The label for Wegovy carries Study 5 on the label (NCT03548987), a 68-week placebo-withdrawal trial: everyone was put on the drug for 20 weeks, and the 803 who reached the maintenance dose were then randomly assigned either to keep taking it or to switch to placebo for 48 weeks without being told which. It is the only design that measures stopping rather than never starting. They had lost 10.4% of body weight during the run-in, a figure worked out from the kilograms the label prints rather than one it states. Over the 48 weeks that followed, the group that stopped gained 6.9% and the group that carried on lost a further 7.9% — 14.8 points of body weight between the same people, decided by nothing but whether the drug continued. In kilograms: 11.1 kg lost, 6.6 kg of it back, which is 60% of the loss rather than the two-thirds a straight division of the two percentages would suggest.

Weight was not the only thing that came back

The same table in the label follows what else the drug had moved. Each row is the change over the 11 months after randomization, in the two arms.

Measure	After stopping	Staying on
Waist circumference(cm)	+3.3	-6.4
Systolic blood pressure(mmHg)	+4.4	+0.5
Diastolic blood pressure(mmHg)	+0.9	+0.3

What this trial cannot tell you

The label says it plainly: because people who could not tolerate the titration were never randomized, the results may not reflect the experience of someone first starting the drug. Ninety-nine of the 902 enrolled stopped during the 20-week run-in; adverse reactions were the most common reason, for 48 of them.

What it means for the price

Every page on this site prices a year, because a monthly figure hides the titration months. This trial is the reason the year is the wrong unit too. At $349 a month at maintenance, a second year is $4,537 and five years come to $22,385 — and the trial says the alternative to paying it is not keeping the result.

What a year of Wegovy actually costs, step by step →

Where the price on this page comes from

Where the trial figures come from

FDA prescribing information for WEGOVY, section 14.2primary

FDA prescribing information for WEGOVY, sections 2.4 (missed doses) and 12.3 (elimination)primary

Seier S, et al. Tapering semaglutide to the most effective dose (TAILGATE). European Congress on Obesity 2024, abstract 164conference abstract, observational

Questions

Does Wegovy need to be tapered off?: No: Wegovy's FDA label gives no taper or step-down schedule for stopping, and its only rule about a break is for coming back — after 2 or more missed weekly doses in a row, it says to "reinitiate dosage escalation at a lower dosage to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal adverse reactions" rather than resume the old dose. The drug also leaves slowly on its own: the label says semaglutide stays in the circulation for about 5 to 7 weeks after the last 2.4 mg or 7.2 mg injection. In the label's withdrawal trial, people went straight from 2.4 mg to placebo with no taper, and that group regained 6.9% of body weight over 48 weeks. No randomized trial has tested whether tapering changes that. The only tapering figures are observational: a Danish online weight clinic reported at the European Congress on Obesity in May 2024 that 353 of its 2,246 patients stepped down to zero over a median of 9 weeks, and that weight 26 weeks after the last dose averaged 1.5% lower among those who had not restarted (95% CI: 6.4% lower to 3.3% higher), with a 21.5% chance of having restarted by then. There was no comparison group and the clinic ran the study. A step-down, or the dose to restart at, is for the prescriber to set.
Do you regain everything after stopping Wegovy?: Not all of it, on this trial. Over the 20 weeks on the drug the average person went from 107.2 kg to 96.1 kg, a loss of 11.1 kg. In the 11 months after stopping they put back 6.6 kg, which is 60% of what they had lost — so roughly 40% of the loss was still there at the end. Note that the two percentages on this page are measured against different weights, and dividing one by the other overstates the regain.
Does that mean Wegovy has to be taken forever?: The trial does not answer that and neither does this page: it measured 48 weeks off the drug in people who had been on it for 5 months, and it was not designed to test whether anything else — a slower taper, a lower maintenance dose, a different diet — changes the shape. What it does establish is that stopping is not a neutral event, which is the assumption a monthly price invites.
What does that do to the cost?: It changes what the yearly figure is. Wegovy is $349 a month at maintenance here, and a first year comes to $4,237 once the titration steps are priced and the thirteen fills a 28-day month bills are counted. If the weight comes back when the drug stops, that is not a one-off cost to reach a goal; it is $4,537 a year at maintenance for as long as the result is wanted. Every comparison on this site prices a year. This trial is the reason to multiply it.

Everything on Wegovy

Last updated 2026-06-30 — the label version this page quotes. Read and dated by Alex Seot.