Pinc PeptideThe girly peptide research blog

Liraglutide · Dose evidence · updated 8 October 2026

Liraglutide dosage: what studies actually used

The short answer

The Saxenda label starts liraglutide at 0.6 mg once a day and raises it by 0.6 mg each week to 3 mg once a day from week 5, for weight management in adults and in children 12 and older who meet its weight criteria1. The Victoza label, for type 2 diabetes in adults and children 10 and older, also starts at 0.6 mg once a day but goes no higher than 1.8 mg once a day2. This page reports those doses and is not dosing advice. Pens bought without a prescription are another matter: by 20 November 2023, the UK medicines regulator had five reports in which Saxenda and Ozempic pens were confirmed to be fakes containing insulin3.

Not dosing advice. This page reports doses that studies and approved labels used, with their sources. It does not recommend a dose, and we do not give mixing, injection or unit-conversion instructions. Gray-market vials often do not contain what their label says. How we report doses.

Every dose studied in people

StudyWhoPeopleDose and routeWhat happened
LEADER (Marso 2016), randomized trial Adults with type 2 diabetes and high cardiovascular risk 9,340 1.8 mg once a day, added to standard care
Injection under the skin · Median follow-up 3.8 years		 Heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death in 13.0% versus 14.9% on placebo; death from any cause in 8.2% versus 9.6%4.
SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes (Pi-Sunyer 2015), randomized trial Adults with obesity, or overweight with high blood pressure or abnormal blood fats, without type 2 diabetes 3,731 3.0 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 56 weeks		 Weight fell by a mean of 8.4 kg, versus 2.8 kg on placebo; 63.2% versus 27.1% lost at least 5% of their weight5.
SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes, 3-year part (le Roux 2017), randomized trial Adults with prediabetes and obesity, or overweight with a related condition 2,254 3.0 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 160 weeks		 Type 2 diabetes was diagnosed during treatment in 2% versus 6% on placebo; weight fell 6.1% versus 1.9%, and 50% of participants completed the 160 weeks6.
SCALE Diabetes (Davies 2015), randomized trial Adults with type 2 diabetes and overweight or obesity 846 3.0 or 1.8 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 56 weeks		 Weight fell 6.0% on 3.0 mg and 4.7% on 1.8 mg, versus 2.0% on placebo; digestive side effects were more common on 3.0 mg than on 1.8 mg or placebo7.
SCALE Maintenance (Wadden 2013), randomized trial Adults with obesity, or overweight with a related condition, who had first lost at least 5% of their weight on a low-calorie diet 422 3.0 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 56 weeks		 Weight fell a further 6.2%, versus 0.2% on placebo; 81.4% versus 48.9% kept off the weight lost on the diet8.
SCALE Sleep Apnea (Blackman 2016), randomized trial Adults with obesity and moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea, without diabetes 359 3.0 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 32 weeks		 Breathing pauses during sleep fell by 12.2 events an hour, versus 6.1 on placebo; weight fell 5.7% versus 1.6%9.
STEP 8 (Rubino 2022), randomized trial Adults with obesity, or overweight with a weight-related condition, without diabetes 338 3.0 mg once a day after a 4-week step-up, versus semaglutide 2.4 mg once a week
Injection under the skin · 68 weeks		 Weight fell 6.4% on liraglutide, versus 15.8% on semaglutide and 1.9% on placebo; 27.6% versus 13.5% stopped treatment for any reason10.
SCALE Teens (Kelly 2020), randomized trial Adolescents aged 12 to under 18 with obesity 251 3.0 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 56 weeks, then 26 weeks off treatment		 BMI fell by at least 5% in 43.3% versus 18.7% on placebo; BMI scores rose more than on placebo after treatment stopped; 10.4% versus none stopped because of side effects11.
Ellipse (Tamborlane 2019), randomized trial Children and teens aged 10 to under 17 with type 2 diabetes, all taking metformin 135 Up to 1.8 mg once a day
Injection under the skin · 26 weeks, then a 26-week open-label extension		 HbA1c (a measure of average blood sugar) fell 0.64 points, versus a rise of 0.42 on placebo; digestive side effects were more common on liraglutide12.
SCALE Kids (Fox 2025), randomized trial Children aged 6 to under 12 with obesity 82 3.0 mg once a day, or the highest tolerated dose
Injection under the skin · 56 weeks, then 26 weeks off treatment		 BMI fell 5.8%, versus a 1.6% rise on placebo; digestive side effects affected 80% versus 54%13.

The approved schedule (Saxenda (FDA label))

The Saxenda label (version 22, revised June 2026) is for weight management, together with a reduced-calorie diet and more physical activity, in “adults and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older with body weight greater than 60 kg and obesity” and in “adults with overweight in the presence of at least one weight-related comorbid condition”1. It raises the dose each week to reduce the risk of digestive side effects, and says Saxenda is not recommended together with other liraglutide products or any other GLP-1 receptor agonist1.

WhenDose on the labelNote
Week 10.6 mg once a dayStarting dose
Week 21.2 mg once a day
Week 31.8 mg once a day
Week 42.4 mg once a day
Week 5 onward3 mg once a dayFor adults, the recommended dose; the lower doses are for the step-up only
Children 12 and older3 mg once a day, or 2.4 mg if 3 mg is not toleratedMaintenance dose; the step-up may take up to 8 weeks

Studies, animals and users: kept apart

Doses below are what studies used or what a label says. They are not advice, and gray-market products may not contain what their label says.

In human studies

Approved labels: Saxenda starts at 0.6 mg once daily and rises by 0.6 mg each week (1.2, 1.8, 2.4 mg) to 3 mg daily from week 5. For adults, 3 mg is the recommended dose and lower doses are for the step-up only; the label says to stop if 3 mg is not tolerated, or if weight has not fallen by at least 4% after 16 weeks. For children 12 and older, the maintenance dose is 3 mg, or 2.4 mg if 3 mg is not tolerated; the step-up may take up to 8 weeks, and treatment stops if BMI has not fallen by at least 1% after 12 weeks on the maintenance dose1. Victoza starts at 0.6 mg once daily for one week (a dose that does not control blood sugar in adults), then 1.2 mg, with a maximum of 1.8 mg daily; children 10 and older step up in 0.6 mg increments to at most 1.8 mg2. Trial doses: 3.0 mg daily in SCALE Obesity and Prediabetes, SCALE Teens, SCALE Kids and STEP 8; 3.0 or 1.8 mg daily in SCALE Diabetes; 1.8 mg daily in LEADER257101113.

In animal studies

Two-year cancer studies on the US Saxenda label: mice received 0.03, 0.2, 1 or 3 mg/kg/day under the skin for 104 weeks. Benign thyroid C-cell adenomas increased at 1 and 3 mg/kg/day, malignant C-cell carcinomas occurred in 3% of females at 3 mg/kg/day, and males at 3 mg/kg/day had more skin tumors (fibrosarcomas) at the injection site. Rats received 0.075, 0.25 or 0.75 mg/kg/day for 104 weeks: benign adenomas increased in males at 0.25 and 0.75 mg/kg/day and in females at every dose, and malignant carcinomas increased in every male group and in females at 0.25 and 0.75 mg/kg/day1. These are animal doses, not human doses.

What users report

No community dosing page was cited for this compound.

Half-life and how it is taken

Half-life
About 13 hours1Elimination half-life after injection under the skin (Saxenda label). Blood levels peak about 11 hours after a dose, about 55% of an injected dose reaches the bloodstream, and more than 98% is bound to blood proteins. Natural GLP-1 lasts 1.5 to 2 minutes.
Routes
  • Subcutaneous injection once daily (approved as Saxenda, Victoza and generic liraglutide; human trial data)
  • Subcutaneous injection combined with insulin degludec (approved as Xultophy)
  • Fake or illegal products sold outside the legal supply chain, including counterfeit Saxenda pens (no quality control; no trials of these products found)

The Victoza schedule for type 2 diabetes

Victoza is liraglutide for a different use and a different group of people: “as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults and pediatric patients aged 10 years and older with type 2 diabetes mellitus,” and to lower the risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease2. Its label (version 31, revised October 2025) sets separate schedules for adults and children2:

  • Adults: 0.6 mg once a day for one week, a starting dose that the label says does not control blood sugar in adults; then 1.2 mg once a day; then, if more blood-sugar control is needed, 1.8 mg once a day after at least one week on 1.2 mg2.
  • Children 10 and older: 0.6 mg once a day to start; if more blood-sugar control is needed, increases of 0.6 mg after at least one week on the current dose, up to 1.8 mg once a day2.

The Victoza maximum, 1.8 mg once a day, is lower than Saxenda’s 3 mg, and the Victoza label says it is not recommended together with other liraglutide products12. LEADER, the heart-outcomes trial in the table above, compared Victoza 1.8 mg with placebo2.

Why the dose goes up slowly

The Saxenda label raises the dose one step a week to reduce the risk of digestive side effects, and if a new dose is not tolerated, it says to consider delaying the next increase by about one week1. In the adult trials behind the label, about 68% of people on Saxenda reported digestive side effects, versus 39% on placebo, and 6.2% versus 0.8% stopped treatment because of them1. The label says nausea became less common as treatment went on, and that most people who stopped because of side effects did so in the first few months1.

Not everyone reaches 3 mg1. In the adolescent trial, 82.4% reached 3 mg, and for 8.8% the highest dose they could tolerate was 2.4 mg1. In adults with type 2 diabetes, SCALE Diabetes reported more digestive side effects on 3.0 mg than on 1.8 mg or placebo7.

How the European rules differ

The US label’s stopping checks are in the human-studies summary above; the European ones differ114. Saxenda’s EU authorization says adults should stop if they have not lost at least 5% of their starting weight after 12 weeks on 3.0 mg a day14. The US label instead checks adults 16 weeks after they start, for a loss of at least 4%1. In the EU, Saxenda also covers children aged 6 to under 12 with obesity who weigh at least 45 kg14. Adolescents and these children should stop and be reassessed if their BMI, or their BMI z score (BMI adjusted for age and sex), has not fallen by at least 4% after 12 weeks on 3.0 mg a day or the highest tolerated dose14. The European Medicines Agency’s overview adds that a doctor should reassess the need for treatment once a year14.

What happens if you miss a dose (per the labels)

Both labels give the same rule: resume the once-a-day schedule with the next scheduled dose, without an extra dose or a higher dose to make up for the missed one12. If more than 3 days have passed since the last dose, both say to restart at 0.6 mg once a day12. The Saxenda label then repeats its weekly step-up, while the Victoza label leaves the pace of increases to the health care provider12.

Semaglutide doses do not carry over

Semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) is a different molecule with its own labels and doses, and those doses do not carry over to liraglutide101516. STEP 8 compared the two directly, at liraglutide 3.0 mg once a day versus semaglutide 2.4 mg once a week10. Semaglutide’s own doses are on the semaglutide dose page.

Why fake pens make doses unreliable

In October 2023, the UK medicines regulator (MHRA) warned that fake Ozempic and Saxenda pens had been found in the UK17. By 20 November 2023, it had received 16 reports of suspected fake semaglutide or liraglutide products; in five, Saxenda and Ozempic pens were confirmed to be fakes containing insulin, and some of the people who used them were hospitalized3.

On 3 September 2025, the European Medicines Agency warned of a sharp rise in illegal medicines marketed as GLP-1 drugs, including liraglutide, often sold through fraudulent websites18. Finnrick, a service that publishes lab results for peptide samples, does not mention liraglutide in its analysis of more than 21,000 testing requests, and we found no independent lab tests of gray-market liraglutide19.

Questions people ask

How much liraglutide should I take?

It depends on the product and the reason it is prescribed12. For weight management, the Saxenda label steps up from 0.6 mg once a day to 3 mg once a day from week 5; for type 2 diabetes, the Victoza label uses 1.2 or 1.8 mg once a day in adults, after a week at 0.6 mg12. Ask your prescriber which dose, if any, fits you.

What is the maximum dose of Saxenda?

3 mg once a day, which is also the recommended dose for adults; the label says to stop Saxenda if an adult cannot tolerate 3 mg1. Children 12 and older may have their maintenance dose lowered to 2.4 mg once a day1.

Is Victoza the same as Saxenda?

Both contain liraglutide, but they are separate products with separate labels: Victoza is for type 2 diabetes, at up to 1.8 mg once a day, and Saxenda is for weight management, at 3 mg once a day12. Both labels say they are not recommended together with other liraglutide products12.

How long does it take to get to 3 mg of Saxenda?

Four weeks on the label schedule: one week each at 0.6, 1.2, 1.8 and 2.4 mg, then 3 mg from week 51. It can take longer, because the label allows an increase to be delayed by about a week if a dose is not tolerated, and says the step-up may take up to 8 weeks in children1.

How much weight do people lose on 1.8 mg of liraglutide?

In SCALE Diabetes, adults with type 2 diabetes lost 4.7% of their weight on 1.8 mg once a day over 56 weeks, versus 6.0% on 3.0 mg and 2.0% on placebo7. The Victoza label caps the dose for type 2 diabetes at 1.8 mg, while the Saxenda label uses 1.8 mg in adults only as a step on the way to 3 mg12.

Go deeper

Sources

  1. 1SAXENDA (liraglutide) injection: prescribing information (SPL version 22) Novo Nordisk via DailyMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine), 15 Jun 2026. dailymed.nlm.nih.gov
  2. 2VICTOZA (liraglutide) injection: prescribing information (SPL version 31) Novo Nordisk via DailyMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine), 17 Nov 2025. dailymed.nlm.nih.gov
  3. 3Ozempic (semaglutide) and Saxenda (liraglutide): vigilance required due to potentially harmful falsified products Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (GOV.UK), 23 Nov 2023. gov.uk
  4. 4Liraglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes New England Journal of Medicine, 2016. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  5. 5A Randomized, Controlled Trial of 3.0 mg of Liraglutide in Weight Management New England Journal of Medicine, 2015. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  6. 63 years of liraglutide versus placebo for type 2 diabetes risk reduction and weight management in individuals with prediabetes: a randomised, double-blind trial The Lancet, 2017. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  7. 7Efficacy of Liraglutide for Weight Loss Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: The SCALE Diabetes Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA, 2015. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  8. 8Weight maintenance and additional weight loss with liraglutide after low-calorie-diet-induced weight loss: the SCALE Maintenance randomized study International Journal of Obesity, 2013. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  9. 9Effect of liraglutide 3.0 mg in individuals with obesity and moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea: the SCALE Sleep Apnea randomized clinical trial International Journal of Obesity, 2016. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  10. 10Effect of Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Daily Liraglutide on Body Weight in Adults With Overweight or Obesity Without Diabetes: The STEP 8 Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA, 2022. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  11. 11A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Liraglutide for Adolescents with Obesity New England Journal of Medicine, 2020. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  12. 12Liraglutide in Children and Adolescents with Type 2 Diabetes New England Journal of Medicine, 2019. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  13. 13Liraglutide for Children 6 to <12 Years of Age with Obesity - A Randomized Trial New England Journal of Medicine, 2025. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  14. 14Saxenda (liraglutide): EPAR medicine overview European Medicines Agency, 31 Jul 2025. ema.europa.eu
  15. 15WEGOVY (semaglutide) injection and tablets: prescribing information (SPL version 19) Novo Nordisk via DailyMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine), 30 Jun 2026. dailymed.nlm.nih.gov
  16. 16OZEMPIC (semaglutide) injection: prescribing information (SPL version 20) Novo Nordisk via DailyMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine), 10 Jun 2026. dailymed.nlm.nih.gov
  17. 17MHRA warns of unsafe fake weight loss pens Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (GOV.UK), 26 Oct 2023. gov.uk
  18. 18Warning about sharp rise in illegal medicines sold in the EU European Medicines Agency, 3 Sep 2025. ema.europa.eu
  19. 19We’d Rather Buy the Future Than Wait For It Finnrick, 10 Jun 2026. finnrick.com

Not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before using any drug. Report an error.