Evolution of the satellite mass as a function of time for three cases with a_s = 0.5 kpc, orbiting within the host galactic plane and with different initial velocities (v_i/v_c = 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, from left to right). The black line shows the evolution of the mass according to the N-body simulations. The solid coloured lines correspond to the mass evolution predicted by the semi-analytical model with different values for α, spanning the range [0.05 − 5]. The dashed grey line represents the mass predicted using the minimum tidal radius evaluated along the 1000 different directions – if let free to increase –, whereas the grey region represents the time from the beginning of the N-body simulation to the first apocentre, which is the starting point for the semi-analytical models.