Getting started: what to expect

The path in one view

1. Pick where your care comes fromYour own primary care clinician, an obesity medicine clinic, an online service, or a program through your employer or insurer.
2. Check whether you qualifyGuidelines and labels use body mass index and weight-related health conditions.
3. Sort out cost and coverageInsurance rules, prior approval and the real monthly price.
4. Fill in the intake formHealth history, medicines, pregnancy plans and goals. Most of it is safety screening.
5. Have the visitA video call, phone call or written review by a licensed clinician.
6. Get the prescription filledA pharmacy dispenses it. Where the medicine comes from matters.
7. Start low and step upDoses rise in steps over weeks or months, and your clinician sets the plan.
8. Follow upSide effects, dose changes, eating, muscle and the longer-term plan.

The twelve pages

From decision to first dose

Every stage in order, with what happens and what to have ready.

The intake form, question by question

What you will be asked, why they ask, and a worksheet to fill in before you start.

Your first visit and what comes next

What a good visit covers, what to leave with, and the first weeks.

Side effects, week by week

When digestive side effects show up as the dose goes up, how common they are, and when to call.

Compounded versus brand-name

What the FDA says, what changed when the shortages ended, and what to ask.

What a 503A pharmacy is

How compounding works, why it costs less, and what FDA-approved does and does not cover.

What are semaglutide and tirzepatide?

The two medicines in plain English, and whether compounded versions are the same thing.

What to watch for in injection instructions

A checklist, red flags and questions for your clinic or pharmacy. It does not show how to inject.

Brand-name pen instructions, from the makers

A plain-English walk through the written instructions for the Zepbound, Mounjaro and Wegovy pens, with links to the originals.

Protecting muscle

How much weight lost is lean mass, what helps, and which muscle-saving drugs are in trials.

Paying for GLP-1 medicines

Insurance, Medicare, maker cash prices and savings offers, and how to compare costs.

Choosing an online service

Questions to ask before you sign up. The Atlas does not rate or list any service.

The Atlas does not list, rank or recommend any clinic or online service, and none of them pay to be mentioned. The pages explain how the process works so you can judge any service yourself.

Everything here is general. Your clinician decides what is right for you.

What is still unknown

• Services differ a lot in how they run the intake and the visit, and there is no single standard flow.
• The Atlas found no study comparing the quality of care across online services.
• Prices, coverage rules and compounding policies change often, so check the current details.