Zepbound Dosage Chart & Titration Schedule.

Chemically, yes: both are tirzepatide from Eli Lilly, in the identical strengths (2.5 to 15 mg per 0.5 mL) with the identical titration schedule. The difference is regulatory: Mounjaro is approved for type 2 diabetes, Zepbound for weight management and obstructive sleep apnea. That distinction drives insurance coverage, pricing and prior authorisation, not pharmacology. What you must not do is take both, or take Zepbound alongside a GLP-1 agonist like semaglutide; the label specifically says coadministration with other tirzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist is not recommended.

No, and most people shouldn't. The goal is the lowest dose that gives you good appetite control and holds your weight. In SURMOUNT-1, 5 mg still produced 15.0% mean weight reduction at 72 weeks against 20.9% at 15 mg; the top of the range buys a few extra percentage points at a meaningfully higher side-effect cost. The exception is obstructive sleep apnea, where only 10 mg and 15 mg are approved maintenance doses, so treatment for that indication does require reaching at least 10 mg.

Clinically, plenty of people do, and a prescriber can absolutely keep you there if it's your best-tolerated effective dose. Formally, though, the label lists only 5, 10 and 15 mg as maintenance dosages for weight management; 7.5 and 12.5 mg are titration steps. The practical consequence is administrative: refills and prior-authorisation renewals written for 7.5 or 12.5 mg are more likely to get queried, so it's worth having your prescriber document why that dose was chosen.

Take it as soon as you can within 4 days (96 hours) of the missed day, then go back to your usual weekly day. If more than 4 days have passed, skip that dose completely and take the next one on schedule. Never take two doses close together to make up for it; with a ~5-day half-life you'd be stacking exposure, and the result is usually severe nausea and vomiting rather than faster progress.

Yes. The label allows you to change your weekly dosing day as long as at least 72 hours (3 days) separate the two injections. So if you normally dose Sunday and want to switch to Wednesday, that's fine; switching to Monday is not. Time of day doesn't matter at all, and food doesn't either. You can inject morning or night, fed or fasted.

Milligrams aren't comparable across different molecules; they say nothing about potency, only about how much of that particular compound is needed. What is comparable is a head-to-head trial, and SURMOUNT-5 ran one: over 72 weeks, tirzepatide at its maximum tolerated dose produced 20.2% mean weight reduction versus 13.7% for semaglutide 2.4 mg, with greater waist reduction (−18.4 cm vs −13.0 cm). Notably, GI-related discontinuations were lower on tirzepatide (2.7% vs 5.6%).

Weight comes back for most people. In SURMOUNT-4, participants randomised to placebo after 36 weeks of tirzepatide regained roughly 14% of body weight over the next 52 weeks, while those who continued lost a further 5.5%, a 19.4 percentage-point gap, ending at 25.3% below baseline on treatment versus 9.9% on placebo. Put another way, 89.5% of continuers held on to at least 80% of the weight they had lost during the lead-in, against 16.6% of those switched to placebo. A post hoc analysis showed cardiometabolic gains reversed in proportion to the regain. This mirrors what happens when treatment for any chronic condition is withdrawn, so if coming off is the plan, do it deliberately with your prescriber, keep resistance training and protein intake up, and consider stepping down to a lower maintenance dose rather than stopping outright.

Keep pens and vials refrigerated at 2 – 8 °C (36 – 46 °F). They can sit at room temperature up to 30 °C (86 °F) for a maximum of 21 days, cumulatively; once out, that clock doesn't reset. Never freeze it, and discard any pen that has frozen even if it looks normal. Keep it in the original carton to protect from light, don't use past the expiry date, and never share a pen with another person even with a new needle. Injecting straight from the fridge is safe but stings more, so many people let the pen sit out for 20 – 30 minutes first.