Thirty injections a month, not four
A weekly GLP-1 gives you four injection sites to think about per month. Liraglutide gives you thirty. Nobody keeps that rotation straight from memory, and skin that gets the same spot ten times in a row shows it.
Penwise puts the sites on a body map, records which one you used, and always suggests the one you have used least recently. Over a daily schedule that is the difference between a rotation you intend and a rotation that happens. It also stores the pain you recorded per site, so after a month you have a real answer about which areas are comfortable for you rather than a feeling. There is more in GLP-1 injection sites.
A short half-life means a missed dose is a real gap
Liraglutide clears in about thirteen hours. Practically, that means the level reaches a stable daily rhythm within two or three days of starting or changing a dose, and it also means a missed day is a genuine hole rather than a small dip in a long tail.
On semaglutide, a dose two days late barely registers on the curve. On liraglutide, a missed day drops you close to where you started. That is why the label guidance for liraglutide is different from the weekly drugs, and why “just take it when you remember” is not one piece of advice that works for every GLP-1. What to do about a missed dose covers each product separately.
Two pens, two ladders
Saxenda and Victoza are the same molecule at the same concentration, 6 mg/ml in a 3 ml pen, dialled to different maximums.
| Saxenda | Victoza | |
|---|---|---|
| Dose steps | 0.6, 1.2, 1.8, 2.4, 3.0 mg | 0.6, 1.2, 1.8 mg |
| Usual titration | One week per step, five weeks to 3.0 mg | One week per step, to 1.8 mg |
| Cadence | Once daily | Once daily |
| Clicks for a full dose | 50 to 3.0 mg | 30 to 1.8 mg |
| Days usable once started | 30 | 30 |
| Doses per pen at maintenance | 6 at 3.0 mg | 10 at 1.8 mg |
Both are 18 mg in 3 ml. Click counts are a community reference, not manufacturer guidance – see the pen click chart.
The bottom row is the practical one. At the Saxenda maintenance dose a pen is six days, so a month is five pens and the thirty-day in-use window never binds. On Victoza at 1.8 mg a pen is ten days, so three pens a month. Penwise counts your remaining days of supply from the dose you are actually on, which is the number that tells you when to reorder.
Titration in weeks, not months
Because liraglutide settles fast, the ladder climbs fast: typically 0.6 mg for a week, then 1.2, 1.8, 2.4 and 3.0 mg, a week at each. Five weeks from start to the Saxenda maintenance dose, against sixteen weeks for Wegovy.
That speed has a cost. The side effects arrive in a shorter, sharper window, and there is less time at each step to work out whether what you are feeling is the dose or the increase. Penwise records the step you were on for every single day, so a symptom pattern can be read against the ladder rather than against a vague memory of “the second week”.
Side effects, day by day
On a daily drug, “which day after the shot” stops being the interesting question – every day is the day after a shot. What matters instead is whether a symptom tracks the dose step, the time of day you inject, or something else entirely.
Penwise tracks twenty named side effects on a 0 to 5 scale and nine sliding measures including appetite, fullness and food noise. Because the shot time is recorded rather than just the date, a pattern like “worse when I inject in the morning” is something the history can actually show. Insights only appear when there is enough of your own data behind them.
Weight, and the trend under the noise
Weight, body fat, lean mass, waist and resting heart rate all sit alongside the dose history, with a goal weight and progress against it. Daily weighing produces a lot of noise, so the trend line matters more here than the individual readings. A scale connected to Apple Health or Health Connect can supply the numbers on its own.
What it costs, and where the data lives
Logging doses, sites, pain, weight, cravings and notes is free forever, along with the calendar, reminders and full CSV and JSON export. Penwise+ adds the estimated level curve, insights, health-platform sync, doctor-ready PDF reports and themes, from 2,49 € a month after a fourteen-day trial that needs no card.
None of it goes anywhere. There is no account, no sign-in and no Penwise server for health data. The only copy that leaves your phone is a backup you export yourself, encrypted with a passphrase we do not hold.
Track a daily injection without losing the thread
Site rotation that actually rotates, reminders that keep arriving, and nothing sent to a server.
Common questions
Does Penwise support daily GLP-1 medications?
What is the difference between Saxenda and Victoza?
How long does a Saxenda pen last?
What happens if I miss a day of liraglutide?
Can Penwise remind me at the same time every day?
Is Penwise connected to Novo Nordisk?
Sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to the product information a regulator publishes, or to a published trial. Links open on the site of whoever issued the document.
- Saxenda: EPAR product information European Medicines Agency
- Victoza: EPAR product information European Medicines Agency
- A Randomized, Controlled Trial of 3.0 mg of Liraglutide in Weight Management (SCALE) New England Journal of Medicine, 2015
Penwise is a tracking and education tool, not a medical device. Nothing on this page is medical advice, a diagnosis or a recommendation to start, stop or change a dose. Dosing decisions belong to you and your clinician. Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Saxenda and Victoza are trademarks of Novo Nordisk; Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity are trademarks of Eli Lilly. Penwise is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to either company.