Strength Loss While on Reta?

I've been using Reta for around 4 months at this point. The weight has come off nicely, and most of that has been fat. At the moment I'm tapering the dose down gradually until I'm off it completely. Anyway, I'm just curious whether anyone else has seen their gym strength drop while taking Reta.

What was your typical weekly weight loss? How many years have you been lifting without breaks?

Usually, strength drops when you're in a calorie deficit—this is typical and anticipated, particularly for those at intermediate or advanced levels. Once you move into maintenance, you'll regain much of that strength.

Just a heads-up: restarting it won't give you the same results, and it won't be as effective.

Usually, a calorie deficit is the culprit behind this — even when you're just cutting calories through diet alone, no medication involved. And if your training is intense, that shortage of "fuel" becomes especially noticeable.

Being in a calorie deficit makes this completely expected.

Yep, once I began reta my training sessions became much harder, and I had to reduce the weight I was lifting. Consuming carbs prior to the gym gave me a slight boost in energy, yet my strength kept declining.

What worked for me was adding GH secretagogues. CJC/IPA was helpful, but tesamorelin worked even better. I actually began making strength gains again. For context, I have been lifting for more than 3 decades and currently train 3x/week. My guess is that this comes down to better recovery.

In all fairness, I also went back on 5mg per day creatine not long after I started the GH secretagogues, and that probably contributed too.

The catch is that my weight loss has largely been stuck for the past month. That is a tradeoff I can accept. For me, keeping strength matters more than what the scale says. I am within 15 lbs of my goal weight.

Each 10 lbs you drop while taking Reta includes 2.2 lbs of lean muscle mass. Train with weights as if your survival hinges on it, since it truly does. Holding onto muscle, particularly once you pass 40, matters more than anything.

As every one of these knowledgeable folks already pointed out, this is completely expected. You just need to make sure you are hitting these hard: protein, EAAs/electrolytes, and creatine. As long as you handle your end by lifting things up and setting them back down, that ought to keep muscle and strength loss to a minimum.

Justchillin said:

I've been using Reta for around 4 months at this point. The weight has come off nicely, and most of that has been fat. At the moment I'm tapering the dose down gradually until I'm off it completely. Anyway, I'm just curious whether anyone else has seen their gym strength drop while taking Reta.

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A handful of factors are at play here. For starters, you might be running too large a calorie or protein deficit. Take a close look at your macros and total calories — chances are you are eating far less than you should. On top of that, glycogen stores are likely depleted, because reta sharply boosts insulin sensitivity and changes the way glucose is handled by the body. That pulls glycogen out of the muscles, leaving them "flatter".

My first suggestion: eat a modest snack of easily digested carbs plus protein roughly 45 minutes ahead of training.

Next, make protein intake a priority, as I said in a different thread — get enough, but don't go overboard. Aim for 1g per LB of LEAN body mass.

Third, you are definitely losing weight fast, which is great and is sort of the goal, but it also shifts your hormonal patterns and slows gastric emptying, which can affect your hydration (or rather dehydration) and electrolyte levels. Drink more water and add a sensible amount of electrolytes (I have a solid ratio recipe you can mix yourself if you want it, just ask!)

All in all, some strength loss is to be expected. Keep lifting, keep recovering, keep protein and carbs adequate, and enjoy the weight loss. As someone else noted, once you reach maintenance, muscle memory will kick in and you'll regain part of it.

Keep up the good work!

Yep, sometimes it boils down to insufficient rest or calories. I can figure out from my chair whether that day's session went well.

Justchillin said:

I've been using Reta for around 4 months at this point. The weight has come off nicely, and most of that has been fat. At the moment I'm tapering the dose down gradually until I'm off it completely. Anyway, I'm just curious whether anyone else has seen their gym strength drop while taking Reta.

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Without a doubt, muscle is lost too.

Make sure you're getting enough Carbs — that makes a big difference for me at the gym

Since June 16th I've dropped 31.3lbs while adding muscle and strength. Every day since June 16th I've trained. Being on trt and gh definitely gives me an edge, but I credit my training approach for keeping my muscle intact. Each day I do 21 sets of heavy lifting and 1 hour of cardio, and on some days I add another hour of cardio. Calories aren't something I track, though I keep a running protein tally in my head and aim for 200 grams. Carbs haven't been off-limits either, even right before bed at times.

This week I cut my Reta dosage in half, going from 12mg down to 6mg each week, so I could take in maintenance-level macros. I had to rework how I eat so that carbs were back in the picture, both before and after training, and that made a big difference. Moving out of a cutting phase and into maintenance is genuinely tough, especially after 2 years of cutting like I did. My guess is that if I were simply eating at maintenance, there would be no need for an "energy stack" (SS-31/Mots-C/NAD+) to fight the "fatigue" that comes with Reta. When I go by appetite alone, it calls for +150g of carbs pre-workout and an even larger amount afterward. I'm figuring this out as I go, and so far the scale hasn't moved much while the mirror still looks fine.

Keep an eye on your calorie intake — you can eat more than you likely are right now, and you should. I bumped my daily total up by around 700 cals, and I'm still dropping weight while feeling way better during gym sessions.

My Reta run should wrap up by the end of the month, and I don’t plan to start it again unless I want to do a cut roughly a year from now. Over the past 2 years I’ve gone from 111kg down to 91kg, so 20kg total. Of that, about 6-7kg came off while on Reta. I’m 35yr, so progress isn’t as quick as it once was.

Food options have been fairly narrow for me these last few months. My job is in the mines and I was staying in camps, but I’ve just switched to accommodation in town where I can cook for myself. Mostly carnivore, with a little yogurt and rice. Since that change, my protein and how much I eat have clearly increased.

Next I’m looking at Tesamorelin and ipamorelin. I’d also add wolverine, since it really helps with recovery and my messed-up rugby knees. Right now I’m doing proper research and checking out suppliers and so on.

Justchillin said:

I've been using Reta for around 4 months at this point. The weight has come off nicely, and most of that has been fat. At the moment I'm tapering the dose down gradually until I'm off it completely. Anyway, I'm just curious whether anyone else has seen their gym strength drop while taking Reta.

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What you're describing happens to a lot of people, and I've seen it in myself too. The cause is muscle tissue being broken down. Most likely, you should be eating more protein.

BNLFL said:

Just a heads-up: restarting it won't give you the same results, and it won't be as effective.

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From what I understand, Reta remains active in the body for roughly 4-6 weeks once the final dose is taken. How long would someone need to pause before the compound works as well as it did during their initial dose or cycle?

Since January I've dropped roughly 60 pounds. Once I got to around the 40lb point and beyond, I began noticing my strength declining — or at least I've mostly been training just to hold onto my current lifts. I'd call myself an intermediate lifter; I've been lifting 3 times a week for roughly 4 years. When I was at my heaviest, I could bench about 6-8 reps at 225. These days, getting 6 is a struggle, and some weeks only 4 come up.

Creatine made a big difference, but it slowed my weight loss so much that I quit taking it (even though I'm aware it's only water weight, and intramuscular water at that, I've gotten hooked on seeing the scale number go down week after week).

pinch a tucan said:

BNLFL said:

Just a heads-up: restarting it won't give you the same results, and it won't be as effective.

Click to expand...

From what I understand, Reta remains active in the body for roughly 4-6 weeks once the final dose is taken. How long would someone need to pause before the compound works as well as it did during their initial dose or cycle?

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I'm not sure what you're trying to ask.