About to Start Reta — What Did Your Dosing Look Like?

Shogun185

Shogun185

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Reta should show up tonight and I can't wait to get going. I'd like to hear what people recommend, plus any firsthand stories about starting doses and how they spaced them out. From what I can tell, some folks do well on 1x per week while others go 2 or 3 times a week, etc. A bit about me- 230 lbs, 32 , athlete , I stay very active once I'm off my 9-5 , spent a few months on oral wegovy and the scale barely moved.

Thanks. Help a newbie get caught up.
 
I made the switch to Reta 5 weeks back, coming off maintenance dosing of Tirz at 2.5mg/3mg. My starting dose was 2mg, and I held at that level for 4 weeks. The whole stretch, food noise was brutal (I got through it by eating healthy snacks to take the edge off), yet I resisted titrating up quickly because I wanted my body to get used to the way Reta works. Last night I moved up to 4mg, and I kept waking up during the night with a dry mouth (dehydrated)... so my whole point in posting is: drink plenty of water, and do it frequently!

The only reason I switched over to Reta was to see whether it improves my cholestrol markers (which are genetic).
 
People vary so much — different side effects, different amounts of weight loss, and so on. The best approach is to begin at a low dose, since you can always increase it later.
 
My starting dose was 0.5 mg, and each week I went up by 0.25 mg. Sure, that's "low and slow," but my goal was to keep side effects to a minimum (or avoid them altogether). Even so, the first few weeks brought mild nausea, a feeling of gastric fullness, higher HR, constipation, and more thirst. These days I'm on 2 mg per week, which feels like more than enough in my case — though it really does vary from person to person. That said, I suspect that jumping straight to the clinical dose of 2 mg would have hit me hard with side effects.
 
First time using it....15mg....a breakdown in communication and in understanding how the dosage and recon calculations worked....for 10 days I was vomiting, unable to eat, and only getting fluids by sucking on ice cubes. Dry heaving roughly every hour. An IV nurse came to the house on day 4, and by day 7 I was in the ER. Let me serve as a warning to others.
 
Shogun185 said:

Reta should show up tonight and I can't wait to get going. I'd like to hear what people recommend, plus any firsthand stories about starting doses and how they spaced them out. From what I can tell, some folks do well on 1x per week while others go 2 or 3 times a week, etc. A bit about me- 230 lbs, 32 , athlete , I stay very active once I'm off my 9-5 , spent a few months on oral wegovy and the scale barely moved.

Thanks. Help a newbie get caught up.
Click to expand...
If you had to estimate, what weight are you aiming for?
 
Just wrapping up week 4 and heading into week 5 of Reta. I'd read the trial data and seen reports of grey-market users kicking off at 2mg, though a good number of others began at a lower point — 1mg, or as little as .25mg. I decided to err on the side of caution and begin at 1mg, reasoning that the downside was minimal: if I couldn't feel anything, I'd simply bump it up the next week. It also bought me extra room for titration, since my plan was to hold at 1mg for 4+ weeks before reassessing.

So 1mg it was.

And I'm glad I went that route, because 1mg turned out to be PLENTY. During the first 2 days my body was confused — not eating felt completely normal. No hunger pangs, no stomach rumblings. I did nibble a bit, not wanting to throw my system into a full 2 day fast, and by day 2 I could deliberately eat small meals at times I knew I should. That's a huge shift from your body screaming at you to eat RIGHT NOW.

One adjustment I made after my second pin: I switched from injecting every 7 days to every 5 days. Around day 5 I'd begin noticing it taper off, and that change seems to have fixed it. Also, I'm about to take my 5th pin and I still don't need to move up to 1.5mg or 2mg. 1mg every 5 days continues to work for me, and I'll stay at that level for as long as it keeps delivering. I'm roughly at the point where saturation levels off, so I'll just keep watching as needed.

For reference:

32m

5'11

195 -> 187 (8lbs in 4 weeks)
 
My recommendation: begin with 0,5 mg, keep at that level for a minimum of a couple of weeks, after which increase by 0,5mg and hold there for a few weeks, then add another 0,5 and so on. Allow it time to build up. Avoid raising your dose too quickly. Should side effects appear, either reduce the dose or divide it into two per week.
 
OP, what's your order and what's your goal for weight loss? My suggestion would be to begin with 2mg, and definitely not below 1 mg.

carryon said:

First time using it....15mg....a breakdown in communication and in understanding how the dosage and recon calculations worked....for 10 days I was vomiting, unable to eat, and only getting fluids by sucking on ice cubes. Dry heaving roughly every hour. An IV nurse came to the house on day 4, and by day 7 I was in the ER. Let me serve as a warning to others.
Click to expand...
You began with 15mg? WTF.
 
carryon said:

First time using it....15mg....a breakdown in communication and in understanding how the dosage and recon calculations worked....for 10 days I was vomiting, unable to eat, and only getting fluids by sucking on ice cubes. Dry heaving roughly every hour. An IV nurse came to the house on day 4, and by day 7 I was in the ER. Let me serve as a warning to others.
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting this, it's great to hear you're doing better! 🙏
 
Male here, and my starting dose was 2mg. 2 of my male friends took the same amount. Zero issues. Everyone's pleased.

There are 3 women in my circle, and each of them began at 1,5mg. No issues there either, and all of them are happy too.
 
My first week was 0.5mg, and across roughly 6 weeks I worked my way up to 2.25 taken twice weekly, which is where I've stayed since. Roughly 47 lbs came off over about 5 or 6 months. More recently the food noise has crept back somewhat, yet I've still been able to steer clear of sugary-salty snacks and alcohol — though I suspect that's mainly because I'm too far invested in this lifestyle now to slip-up. Right from the start, food noise went quiet and saying no to beer and other bad stuff felt easy. Apart from a sensation like a mild sunburn, no real side effects showed up. My blood pressure went from high normal down to low normal, and my lipid panel is perfect. One recent tweak: I swapped out one of my two weekly reta shots for 1 mg tirz, which I'm titrating up towards 2.25. The reason I gave tirz a try is its reputation for stronger food noise suppression.
 
A couple of weeks back I kicked things off with 1mg. So far there's been nothing in the way of side effects, and my appetite has been kept in check reasonably well. For the next shot I intend to move up to 1.5. Something tells me I'll end up going a bit higher than that down the road. Taking things slow and going with your instinct (no pun avoidance here) really does look like the right approach.

carryon said:

It happened completely by accident!
Click to expand...

That sounds awful! Good to know you've come out the other side of it.
 
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