GLP-1 medicines for weight

The short version

There are two medicines approved in the United States for long-term weight management that most people are actually asking about, plus an older one and a set of pharmacy-made copies.

Approved for weightNot approved for weight

semaglutideWegovyOzempic

tirzepatideZepboundMounjaro

liraglutideSaxenda

made by a compounding pharmacy"Compounded semaglutide / tirzepatide"

The two names get mixed up constantly because Wegovy and Ozempic are the same molecule at different doses, and so are Zepbound and Mounjaro.

What the labels warn about

Both Wegovy and Zepbound carry a boxed warning — the strongest warning the FDA uses. For Zepbound it reads:

WARNING: RISK OF THYROID C-CELL TUMORS. In rats, tirzepatide causes dose-dependent and treatment-duration-dependent thyroid C-cell tumors at clinically relevant exposures.

Both are contraindicated — meaning you should not take them at all — if you or a close relative has had medullary thyroid carcinoma, or if you have multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2.

What they cost

List prices and what people actually pay are very different numbers, and both move. The cost pages below are dated, and we re-check them rather than leaving a number up because it was true once.

How the doses step up

Every one of these starts low and steps up on a fixed schedule, and the schedule is the part people get wrong. Zepbound, for example, starts at 2.5 mg once a week for four weeks, then moves to 5 mg, and only then may rise in 2.5 mg steps with at least four weeks on each dose.

The reason for the slow start is tolerability, not caution for its own sake — the side effects that make people quit cluster in the first weeks after each increase.

Every guide

• Calibrate has stopped selling to individualsAs of February 2026 Calibrate serves employers and health plans, not consumers. What that means if you were looking to sign up, and where the same kind of program still exists.
• GLP-1 patches, gummies and supplements: what is actually in them44,000 people a month search for GLP-1 patches and 24,000 for GLP-1 supplements. No GLP-1 medicine is approved as a patch, a gummy or a supplement. What these products contain and why the delivery method cannot work.
• The Zepbound dose schedule, week by weekEvery Zepbound (tirzepatide) dose step from 2.5 mg to the 15 mg maximum, how long each one lasts, which maintenance doses the label allows, and why moving up early backfires.
• The Zepbound savings card, and what it actually paysTwo different Zepbound savings card offers exist depending on whether your plan covers the drug — around $25 a fill if it does, around $499 if it does not. Who qualifies, who is excluded, and the clause worth reading.
• Units or milligrams? The dosing mistake behind 1,700 FDA reportsCompounded GLP-1s come in a vial measured in units, not milligrams. Confusing the two has caused ten-fold overdoses. How the conversion works, and why the branded pen removes the problem.
• What Found weight loss actually costsFound advertises $99 and $169 a month, but both are twelve-month plans paid up front and billed every 28 days. What the month-to-month price is, and what the 28-day cycle does to the annual total.
• What GoodRx does and does not do for ZepboundGoodRx works well on generics. On brand-name GLP-1s the discount is 5–22%, which on Zepbound is often within rounding error of the cash price. Why, and what to use instead.
• What Hims weight loss actually costsHims lists GLP-1s from $149 a month, but the membership is separate and required. The real all-in monthly figures as of 23 September 2026, taken from their own pricing page.
• What a GLP-1 costs without insurance, by routeManufacturer self-pay prices for Wegovy and Zepbound as of September 2026, what telehealth memberships add on top, and the questions that decide whether your plan covers any of it.
• Where to inject ZepboundThe three places the Zepbound label allows, why one of them needs another person, what rotating sites means in practice, and what the label says about a missed dose.
• Zepbound for sleep apnea: what the approval actually coversZepbound is approved for moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity — the only GLP-1 that is. Which doses, who qualifies, and what it does not replace.
• Zepbound side effects, straight from the labelThe side effects listed on Zepbound's FDA-approved label, with the percentages from the trials, which ones are serious, and when the label says to stop and call someone.
• Zepbound vs Mounjaro: the same drug, approved for different thingsBoth are tirzepatide made by Eli Lilly. What differs is what each is approved to treat, which decides insurance coverage, pricing and whether your use is on-label.
• Zepbound vs Wegovy: what the two labels actually differ onA side-by-side of the two FDA-approved weekly weight medicines — the drugs, the dose schedules, the injection sites, the missed-dose rules, the warnings and what each one is approved to treat.