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← Episode 2: L-Obeżità f'Malta
Episode 2 · 5 October 2026
The claim

Once you reach your target weight, it is important for your doctor to guide you how to microdose.

Maria Bugeja

Verdict Not entirely accurate

Medical supervision after reaching a target weight matters: people who stop these drugs tend to regain much of the weight. But "microdosing" is not an approved or established way to maintain weight loss; the licensed instructions set standard maintenance doses.How we reached this verdict ↓

Analysis and evaluation

Medical guidance after reaching a target weight matters, because stopping these drugs tends to bring the weight back. Microdosing is not part of that guidance.

Stopping treatment brings weight back

Obesity is increasingly treated as a long-term condition. In SURMOUNT-4, everyone took tirzepatide for 36 weeks and lost about 21% of their body weight. Half were then switched to a placebo. By week 88 those who kept taking the drug had lost 25.3% in total; those switched to a placebo had regained most of it and were left 9.9% below their starting weight. The STEP 1 extension found the same pattern with semaglutide: a year after stopping, people had regained about two-thirds of the weight they had lost.

Body weight after stopping or continuing tirzepatide (SURMOUNT-4) Line chart. Everyone lost 20.9% of body weight on tirzepatide by week 36. Those who continued reached a 25.3% loss at week 88; those switched to placebo were back to a 9.9% loss. -30% -20% -10% 0% Start Week 36 Week 88 0% -20.9% -25.3% Kept taking it -9.9% Switched to placebo
Average change in body weight from the start of the trial. All participants took tirzepatide for 36 weeks, then were randomly assigned to continue or switch to a placebo. Source: Aronne et al., JAMA (2024).

Microdosing is not an approved maintenance step

The European Medicines Agency's product information for Wegovy and Mounjaro sets specific maintenance doses. Neither tells patients to move to a smaller "microdose" on reaching a target weight. Some doctors and patients are interested in lower doses or less frequent injections to hold weight steady with fewer side effects or at lower cost, but this has not been tested in large trials.

Evaluation

What was said is partly right. Patients should not change or stop these drugs on their own, and a doctor should guide what happens after the target is reached: staying on a maintenance dose, adjusting it, or stopping. Presenting microdosing as the step a doctor should guide goes beyond current evidence and approved dosing.

Editorial note

How we assessed this claim

We looked at two questions: whether medical supervision matters after reaching a target weight, and whether microdosing is an established maintenance approach for semaglutide or tirzepatide. We compared trial evidence on stopping treatment with the authorised dosing instructions.

The first part holds and is the core of the advice. The second part, microdosing as the step to take, has no support in approved dosing or in trial evidence, which rules out anything above Not entirely accurate.

Limitations

  • "Microdosing" has no agreed meaning here. It can mean a lower dose than normal or the usual dose taken less often.
  • Research into lower-dose maintenance is under way, and future trials could support approaches that are not part of current guidance.

Sources

  1. World Health Organization, Guideline on the use of GLP-1 therapies for the treatment of obesity in adults (2025)
  2. Wilding J.P.H. et al., Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: the STEP 1 trial extension, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (2022)
  3. Aronne L.J. et al., Continued treatment with tirzepatide for maintenance of weight reduction in adults with obesity: the SURMOUNT-4 randomized clinical trial, JAMA (2024)
  4. European Medicines Agency, Wegovy (semaglutide): product information
  5. European Medicines Agency, Mounjaro (tirzepatide): product information