Anyone else had a similar run-in with Retatrutide?

[Competitive Bird]

I spent roughly 5 months using Retatrutide, and at the start it felt like a miracle. My sciatic discomfort disappeared, about 30 pounds came off in what felt like just weeks, and my bloodwork improved across the board, particularly ApoB and BUN. Then, for reasons I still can't pin down, I began dealing with ongoing dizziness and simply could not stay properly hydrated. Whether this was the medication's side effects finally showing up or endotoxins from a fresh vial, I can't say, but the symptoms stuck around even when I dropped to 2mg.

So I chose to let everything clear out and try Tirz instead. The higher heart rate aspect made me uneasy, though honestly it wasn't severe, at least not until I reached 6mg. Still, I'd feel better once the trials finish and it's officially labeled a safe side effect. Right now I'm waiting on my testing reports before I start, but I've already dropped 80% of the weight I set out to lose. My focus now is building muscle, keeping food noise in check, and maintaining good insulin sensitivity. Health markers matter more to me than the scale at this point, even though I've still got about 20 pounds of fat left to shed.

Option 2 would be going back on Reta and staying at lower doses to dodge the heart rate spikes, maybe 4mg as a ceiling, working up from 1mg with 4 weeks between each step. If the dizziness was really endotoxins rather than the drug itself, then it shouldn't come back. But it got rough. I had my first ocular migraine ever. The dizziness was constant. Not enough to make me fall, but enough that I knew something was off. I've come across a few reports of this happening, though it doesn't appear common, and it didn't hit me for 5 months. That's what makes me lean toward endotoxins being the culprit.

 

[dailychemicals]

Hi! Do you keep track of how many kcal you take in each day? This tends to happen to me often when I haven't eaten enough, or during my fasting days.

 

[Competitive Bird]

dailychemicals said:

Hi! Do you keep track of how many kcal you take in each day? This tends to happen to me often when I haven't eaten enough, or during my fasting days.

That might be a factor too. My calorie intake was quite low — likely 700-800 under maintenance. At 230lbs with 20% body fat, I was taking in 2000-2200 daily while staying very active. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind.

 

[dailychemicals]

Sounds like a real situation here. Your blood sugar keeps dropping low. To stop feeling awful, you need to keep eating. Including 25-30g of protein alongside good carbs in each meal ought to ease the lightheadedness.

 

[BNLFL]

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

 

[Competitive Bird]

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Every single day I had Redmonds Relyte plus Gatorade Zero going in, yet it still fell short. Water retention needs carbs, and mine were probably running too low. Ketosis showed up in both blood and urine no matter what, even when I was taking in 70-80 grams of carbs daily. When the labs came back, sodium and chloride sat in normal range, but wouldn't you know it, that was a day without symptoms, so whether that result was accurate or only accurate for that one day, I can't say.

 

[BNLFL]

Monday I have an appointment with my regular doctor, and I expect he'll order another BT in 4-6 months. During my annual visit on Monday, my cardiologist went over the water and sodium situation. That little shit discovered my BT at the lab.

 

[DragonOfTheSea]

From what people report, adding more carbs tends to ease a lot of the negative effects that come with Reta. Electrolytes matter too, no question. If it were me, I'd raise both while restarting the Reta and just watch what happens.

Going back to how things started out great on Reta and then turned, did you actually switch to a different product? You brought up a new bottle — did that come from another kit, or were you buying vials one at a time? And when you mixed it yourself, did you run it through a filter?

 

[blackkaiser]

Competitive Bird said:

I spent roughly 5 months using Retatrutide, and at the start it felt like a miracle. My sciatic discomfort disappeared, about 30 pounds came off in what felt like just weeks, and my bloodwork improved across the board, particularly ApoB and BUN. Then, for reasons I still can't pin down, I began dealing with ongoing dizziness and simply could not stay properly hydrated. Whether this was the medication's side effects finally showing up or endotoxins from a fresh vial, I can't say, but the symptoms stuck around even when I dropped to 2mg.

So I chose to let everything clear out and try Tirz instead. The higher heart rate aspect made me uneasy, though honestly it wasn't severe, at least not until I reached 6mg. Still, I'd feel better once the trials finish and it's officially labeled a safe side effect. Right now I'm waiting on my testing reports before I start, but I've already dropped 80% of the weight I set out to lose. My focus now is building muscle, keeping food noise in check, and maintaining good insulin sensitivity. Health markers matter more to me than the scale at this point, even though I've still got about 20 pounds of fat left to shed.

Option 2 would be going back on Reta and staying at lower doses to dodge the heart rate spikes, maybe 4mg as a ceiling, working up from 1mg with 4 weeks between each step. If the dizziness was really endotoxins rather than the drug itself, then it shouldn't come back. But it got rough. I had my first ocular migraine ever. The dizziness was constant. Not enough to make me fall, but enough that I knew something was off. I've come across a few reports of this happening, though it doesn't appear common, and it didn't hit me for 5 months. That's what makes me lean toward endotoxins being the culprit.

Yes. Low blood sugar

 

[Competitive Bird]

dailychemicals said:

Sounds like a real situation here. Your blood sugar keeps dropping low. To stop feeling awful, you need to keep eating. Including 25-30g of protein alongside good carbs in each meal ought to ease the lightheadedness.

I tested my blood sugar often and it stayed normal almost every time. Even so, I believe something connected to carbs rather than blood sugar was going on. My guess is electrolytes plus too few total carbs/calories, so glycogen could not be built quickly enough to keep my body holding water.

Once my reta dose went above 3mg, I stayed in mild ketosis the whole time. By its very nature, the glucagon agonist drives ketosis. Ketosis makes you lose water, and so does Retatrutide, and so does another medication I take for blood pressure. When I gave real ketosis a try just to see what happened, everything fell apart.

It is a long story, but I will never do ultra low carb while on reta again lol. I honestly thought I was dying. I got into my car and started driving to the ER, and right after I merged onto the highway I hit a 12 mile bumper to bumper backup caused by a major accident that had just occurred.

About 40 minutes later I took the next exit and got a Gatorade with sugar, and 2 minutes after that I felt better. Sitting in traffic with a HR in the 150s was a pretty miserable experience. My blood sugar reading at the time was actually high, so I am not sure the sugar in the Gatorade was what helped. Then again, maybe it was, I do not know.

Roughly a week after I quit reta, all of these symptoms went away. My conclusion is that I simply was not getting enough calories, carbs, electrolytes, not enough of anything for how active I was (regular weight training and cardio plus 13000+ steps a day).

 

[Competitive Bird]

DragonOfTheSea said:

From what people report, adding more carbs tends to ease a lot of the negative effects that come with Reta. Electrolytes matter too, no question. If it were me, I'd raise both while restarting the Reta and just watch what happens.

Going back to how things started out great on Reta and then turned, did you actually switch to a different product? You brought up a new bottle — did that come from another kit, or were you buying vials one at a time? And when you mixed it yourself, did you run it through a filter?

Same vendor, same initial purchase. Only the vial was different, though whether the adverse effects started with that particular vial I can't confirm. I'm fairly confident they did, but it's possible that's just coincidence. Around that same period I also began increasing my activity levels dramatically without changing how many calories I was eating. After talking about this here and hearing other perspectives, I lean toward that being the bigger factor.

At this point I'm certain of it. The upside is that I'm able to restart Reta. Coming off it was something I really didn't want to do. The only thing I needed was for the dizziness to go away. Constantly fearing I was dying or had some terminal illness was weighing on me. Waking up dizzy and staying that way until bed, with only occasional brief windows of feeling better, is miserable.

 

[Competitive Bird]

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

 

[BNLFL]

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

 

[Competitive Bird]

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

Apologies for piling on the questions, but there's one more. Once I reached 6mg, my bowels stopped moving entirely. How did your dose escalation go?

 

[BNLFL]

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

Apologies for piling on the questions, but there's one more. Once I reached 6mg, my bowels stopped moving entirely. How did your dose escalation go?

No worries. My schedule was 2, then 4, then 6, each for 4 weeks. I actually stayed at 4mg for 5 weeks, but progress stalled so I moved up to 6mg. Tomorrow morning will be my 5th dose of 6mg. Things still seem to be going well. I'm dropping 1.5-2lbs per week. As for my wife, she had that constipation issue during her first week at 2mg, but it went away. Honestly, I can't recall what she did to resolve it. We still occasionally get some heartburn at bedtime when lying down.

 

[Competitive Bird]

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

Apologies for piling on the questions, but there's one more. Once I reached 6mg, my bowels stopped moving entirely. How did your dose escalation go?

No worries. My schedule was 2, then 4, then 6, each for 4 weeks. I actually stayed at 4mg for 5 weeks, but progress stalled so I moved up to 6mg. Tomorrow morning will be my 5th dose of 6mg. Things still seem to be going well. I'm dropping 1.5-2lbs per week. As for my wife, she had that constipation issue during her first week at 2mg, but it went away. Honestly, I can't recall what she did to resolve it. We still occasionally get some heartburn at bedtime when lying down.

That's odd. 4mg was the exact point where I hit a plateau. My guess is the stall comes from the glucagon component being fairly weak until you reach the 5-6+ range. Up to those higher doses, the binding affinity and agonism are quite subtle. While at the lower doses, the weight loss follows the same pattern as Tirzepatide. Once you moved to 6mg, how did things go? Were you able to break through the stall?

 

[DragonOfTheSea]

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

Apologies for piling on the questions, but there's one more. Once I reached 6mg, my bowels stopped moving entirely. How did your dose escalation go?

Water and fiber, together. Repeat that combo.

 

[BNLFL]

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

Apologies for piling on the questions, but there's one more. Once I reached 6mg, my bowels stopped moving entirely. How did your dose escalation go?

No worries. My schedule was 2, then 4, then 6, each for 4 weeks. I actually stayed at 4mg for 5 weeks, but progress stalled so I moved up to 6mg. Tomorrow morning will be my 5th dose of 6mg. Things still seem to be going well. I'm dropping 1.5-2lbs per week. As for my wife, she had that constipation issue during her first week at 2mg, but it went away. Honestly, I can't recall what she did to resolve it. We still occasionally get some heartburn at bedtime when lying down.

That's odd. 4mg was the exact point where I hit a plateau. My guess is the stall comes from the glucagon component being fairly weak until you reach the 5-6+ range. Up to those higher doses, the binding affinity and agonism are quite subtle. While at the lower doses, the weight loss follows the same pattern as Tirzepatide. Once you moved to 6mg, how did things go? Were you able to break through the stall?

Yeah, it happened almost immediately. My weight plateaued for just over 1 week. I’d have to check my spreadsheet for the exact figures. 6 has stayed at 1.5-2lbs/week, and BMI plus fat % drop .1-.2 point each week as well. Tomorrow morning is my main weigh-in, which is also shot day. I also weigh myself on Tuesdays.

 

[BillC]

DragonOfTheSea said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

Competitive Bird said:

BNLFL said:

My last 2 blood tests came back showing low chloride and sodium. Turns out I had been overdoing it with water, which was washing out those electrolytes along with other useful stuff. I'd wake up 5-6 times every night to urinate. On top of that, my sleep was terrible — I'd wake at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep.

After seeing the doctor on Monday, I drastically reduced my water intake and now have either 1 sugar-free Gatorade or half a Liquid IV each day. Gatorade provides 250mg sodium and 50mg potassium. Liquid IV contains 500mg sodium and 370mg potassium, which is why I split half a packet between 2 empty bottles. Both also include other electrolytes.

We began a diet at the start of the year, and I assumed drinking lots of water would be beneficial — it wasn't. Last night my sleep felt a bit better, though still not great, and I got up 4 times to pee. Fingers crossed it improves.

Out of interest, how much are you running?

6mg, and my wife is on the same dose.

Apologies for piling on the questions, but there's one more. Once I reached 6mg, my bowels stopped moving entirely. How did your dose escalation go?

Water and fiber, together. Repeat that combo.

You could also consider adding magnesium. I have it before bed and wake up feeling ready. Plus, I put ground flaxseed in my shake.

 

[lessthanhalf]

In the setting of weight loss, dizziness is a vague symptom that could stem from so many different things.

Does your dizziness depend on your posture? If you sit or lie down, does it stop? You say you take blood pressure pills. Do you own a BP monitor? Have you measured your BP while sitting and while standing? Postural hypotension may not be the explanation, but it is extremely common with weight loss from any cause, and reta on its own does lower blood pressure a little too.

How many calories are you taking in each day? Are you trying to push the weight loss to fast for your tolerance?

It sounds like you have thought about electrolytes, fluid and blood sugar as causes, so just checking if you have considered BP and just not enough calories as well.