Combining Tirz and Reta — any advice?

[funkytwisternumber9]

I'm thinking about stacking these 2, but I'm struggling to locate reliable dosing examples. Does anyone have personal experience or research material to share?

 

[woundcarping]

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

 

[5byfive]

Once I'd been using Tirz for some time, my energy levels seemed to take a hit, which pushed me toward stacking. I cut the Tirz dose by 1mg, then introduced 1mg of Reta. That combination appears to work well for me. Going purely off what I've personally seen, the two seem roughly 1:1 in terms of dosing—meaning 1mg of Tirz matches 1mg of Reta as a dose. This is just 1 person's experience, so keep that in mind.

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

5byfive said:

Once I'd been using Tirz for some time, my energy levels seemed to take a hit, which pushed me toward stacking. I cut the Tirz dose by 1mg, then introduced 1mg of Reta. That combination appears to work well for me. Going purely off what I've personally seen, the two seem roughly 1:1 in terms of dosing—meaning 1mg of Tirz matches 1mg of Reta as a dose. This is just 1 person's experience, so keep that in mind.

appreciate the input

 

[woundcarping]

funkytwisternumber9 said:

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

Going from BMI 35 down to BMI 29 is no small change — that's where I'm sitting right now too, and your goal of 24 lines up almost exactly with mine.

When progress has flatlined, my move would be to bump the Reta, as long as side effects aren't getting in the way. For me they haven't been a problem. I dose in 2 parts, every 3.5 days — that started back when I was on Tirz, because food noise would creep back around day ~5.

On the Tirz question specifically: keep the Reta where it is, then layer in 1-2mg split away from your usual dosing time(s), and see how it performs.

My Reta dose is on the higher side. So far, food noise, appetite and portion control haven't been problems... I appreciate still being able to eat and feel something close to a "population normal" appetite. If I ever do need extra help, I'm undecided between adding Tirz or Cagri. I've got plenty of both, though sticking to 1 peptide appeals to me. A few more months and I should hopefully land at my target, at which point I can taper down to a maintenance dose.

 

[LongevitybroTX]

woundcarping said:

funkytwisternumber9 said:

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

Going from BMI 35 down to BMI 29 is no small change — that's where I'm sitting right now too, and your goal of 24 lines up almost exactly with mine.

When progress has flatlined, my move would be to bump the Reta, as long as side effects aren't getting in the way. For me they haven't been a problem. I dose in 2 parts, every 3.5 days — that started back when I was on Tirz, because food noise would creep back around day ~5.

On the Tirz question specifically: keep the Reta where it is, then layer in 1-2mg split away from your usual dosing time(s), and see how it performs.

My Reta dose is on the higher side. So far, food noise, appetite and portion control haven't been problems... I appreciate still being able to eat and feel something close to a "population normal" appetite. If I ever do need extra help, I'm undecided between adding Tirz or Cagri. I've got plenty of both, though sticking to 1 peptide appeals to me. A few more months and I should hopefully land at my target, at which point I can taper down to a maintenance dose.

I'm with you on that. My suggestion would be to raise your Reta dose while still including some tirz for extra effect. A range of 2.5-5mg should work fine; given that you mentioned coming from a fairly low dose to begin with, there's not much need to taper down unless you have a separate motive for doing so or you're experiencing side effects.

 

[BigDog8084]

funkytwisternumber9 said:

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

One idea: you could look into adding Cagrilintide to get stronger appetite suppression, which might make stacking Tirz unnecessary.

 

[eidos]

You should get a CGM, since hypoglycemia is a risk in your case. Last month I went through three episodes.

At this point I take 10 mg of each every week. I intend to remain at this dose for a while. My blood sugar has become far more stable. My weight loss has sped up slightly. I do feel tired, but it isn’t the same as the fatigue that comes with diabetes. A few days ago I began 5-amino-methylquinolinium, and it takes that fatigue away.

 

[ToeMittens]

I’d like to jump into this thread too, because I’m after similar guidance.

My details:

47/F

Beginning weight: 235 lbs

Now holding steady near 145 lbs

I began Tirz in December ‘23, and by June ‘24 I had increased step by step to 15 mg each week.

In March ‘26 I went up to 20 mg weekly.

My weight loss had already flattened roughly 12 months ago. Given my starting point, I mostly accepted that, but more recently the food noise has started returning and I’ve noticed myself choosing poorer options. If possible, I’d like to lose another 10-15 lbs. I recently raised my dose to 20 mg per week, which gave me some improvement. Last week I began dividing the dose into 10 mg twice weekly (Tuesday PM and Saturday AM), and that has helped further. Still, I worry that this peptide may be close to the limit of what it can do for me, so I’m exploring other options.

A few months back I came across the whole Grey market world. At first I only went that route to cut costs (thinking about how much I’ve wasted at Mochi across the last 30 months… /cry), but reading all this research has shown me possibilities I hadn’t considered.

One idea is possibly changing to a Reta/Cagri stack. My thinking is that I’d want to gradually replace Tirz with Reta and finish that change before attempting to add Cagri, but I can’t decide what amount to begin with. Nearly every post I’ve seen comes from people using 10/mg or less of Tirz weekly. At my current Tirz dose, would a Reta dose of 2 mg/week even register for me? Should I test that for several weeks while keeping my Tirz dose unchanged? Should I reduce my Tirz dose once I begin Reta?

Has anyone else transitioned away from such a high Tirz dose as it stops working as well? Any ideas, suggestions, or guidance? Am I over- or under-thinking this? Are there other peps you’d suggest for someone like me who is in the early stages of Peri?

If you got through all of that, thanks for reading! I’m so grateful for this community!

 

[lessthanhalf]

ToeMittens said:

I’d like to jump into this thread too, because I’m after similar guidance.

My details:

47/F

Beginning weight: 235 lbs

Now holding steady near 145 lbs

I began Tirz in December ‘23, and by June ‘24 I had increased step by step to 15 mg each week.

In March ‘26 I went up to 20 mg weekly.

My weight loss had already flattened roughly 12 months ago. Given my starting point, I mostly accepted that, but more recently the food noise has started returning and I’ve noticed myself choosing poorer options. If possible, I’d like to lose another 10-15 lbs. I recently raised my dose to 20 mg per week, which gave me some improvement. Last week I began dividing the dose into 10 mg twice weekly (Tuesday PM and Saturday AM), and that has helped further. Still, I worry that this peptide may be close to the limit of what it can do for me, so I’m exploring other options.

A few months back I came across the whole Grey market world. At first I only went that route to cut costs (thinking about how much I’ve wasted at Mochi across the last 30 months… /cry), but reading all this research has shown me possibilities I hadn’t considered.

One idea is possibly changing to a Reta/Cagri stack. My thinking is that I’d want to gradually replace Tirz with Reta and finish that change before attempting to add Cagri, but I can’t decide what amount to begin with. Nearly every post I’ve seen comes from people using 10/mg or less of Tirz weekly. At my current Tirz dose, would a Reta dose of 2 mg/week even register for me? Should I test that for several weeks while keeping my Tirz dose unchanged? Should I reduce my Tirz dose once I begin Reta?

Has anyone else transitioned away from such a high Tirz dose as it stops working as well? Any ideas, suggestions, or guidance? Am I over- or under-thinking this? Are there other peps you’d suggest for someone like me who is in the early stages of Peri?

If you got through all of that, thanks for reading! I’m so grateful for this community!

You mention that tirzepatide has stopped working as well, but you're sitting at roughly 145 lbs after beginning at 235 lbs — that's 90 lbs gone. That's a real, significant accomplishment, and the medication is doing its job, not failing. (Unless the scale is creeping up.) What it can't do beyond that point is produce further loss; it can only keep the weight from returning. To me, that maintenance effect is the single most valuable thing these drugs offer. From a long-term health and quality-of-life standpoint, holding onto the loss is both the toughest and the most crucial piece.

Usually, when weight comes off — with or without GLPs — energy use falls because there's less fat, organ, and muscle mass to metabolize, and the body then tries to save energy by lowering it further. On top of that, hunger runs higher than normal. So a lower calorie need plus extra appetite almost always leads people to regain, whereas GLP drugs suppress that appetite rise and improve metabolic function, and have consistently shown weight loss maintained, at the weight-loss dose, for as long as 4 years so far. There's no solid evidence of tolerance to the weight-loss effect over the long term.

Maintenance is the stage where nearly every diet-and-exercise approach collapses. With GLP drugs it isn't as hard, but it isn't necessarily easy either. At this point, I'd say staying on tirz or another agent to hold the lost weight is essential — but you're asking it, even at a higher dose, to do more than it managed in trials, where the maximum average loss was closer to 25%, while you're asking it to hold back 38% (90/245).

Switching to reta is one option, though I doubt it would do much better than 20mg of tirz at standard doses, and you clearly already handle that fine. (My own choice, at 15mg of tirz while still hungry and trying to keep off about a 50% loss, was to add 5mg of reta, and later 0.5 of cagri.) Switching to reta does come with more side-effect risk than staying on tirz, but it's a legitimate route. Alternatively, adding cagri very gradually at 0.25mg and ramping slowly is the least disruptive approach, or adding reta alongside tirz at not huge doses since you're already at 20mg of tirz. Or simply push tirz up to 25mg, though there's a fair chance you're entering diminishing-returns territory as doses climb. In theory, reta plus cagri should be the strongest combination currently available, but it likely brings more side effects than tirz.

My view is that using these drugs above standard doses or in combinations probably does add risk of known or unknown adverse effects, but in situations where it seems necessary — severe obesity with very high long-term health risks — the drugs are probably safer than regaining the weight.

 

[WannabeLoser]

My tirz journey began in May 2025. Then in Sept 2025 I introduced Reta as well. The tirz dose stayed put at 7.5mg while I began increasing the Reta. As of March I've been at Reta 6mg, and since last May the total loss is 100#, going from 259 to 159. For the time being, my plan is simply to stay at these doses without changes.

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

LongevitybroTX said:

woundcarping said:

funkytwisternumber9 said:

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

Going from BMI 35 down to BMI 29 is no small change — that's where I'm sitting right now too, and your goal of 24 lines up almost exactly with mine.

When progress has flatlined, my move would be to bump the Reta, as long as side effects aren't getting in the way. For me they haven't been a problem. I dose in 2 parts, every 3.5 days — that started back when I was on Tirz, because food noise would creep back around day ~5.

On the Tirz question specifically: keep the Reta where it is, then layer in 1-2mg split away from your usual dosing time(s), and see how it performs.

My Reta dose is on the higher side. So far, food noise, appetite and portion control haven't been problems... I appreciate still being able to eat and feel something close to a "population normal" appetite. If I ever do need extra help, I'm undecided between adding Tirz or Cagri. I've got plenty of both, though sticking to 1 peptide appeals to me. A few more months and I should hopefully land at my target, at which point I can taper down to a maintenance dose.

I'm with you on that. My suggestion would be to raise your Reta dose while still including some tirz for extra effect. A range of 2.5-5mg should work fine; given that you mentioned coming from a fairly low dose to begin with, there's not much need to taper down unless you have a separate motive for doing so or you're experiencing side effects.

thanks for the reply

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

BigDog8084 said:

funkytwisternumber9 said:

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

One idea: you could look into adding Cagrilintide to get stronger appetite suppression, which might make stacking Tirz unnecessary.

I went ahead and placed an order for additional reta plus 2 boxes of tirz, lol! Maybe I'll explore selling it and bringing cagri into the mix — I'll need to research that further. Thanks for your input!

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

woundcarping said:

funkytwisternumber9 said:

woundcarping said:

To give you a useful starting point, it would help a lot to know your current situation, your goals, what GLP experience you've had before, and what you're hoping to achieve.

Got it — I never want to be the guy who begs for guidance and then sits back expecting everyone else to map out the whole plan, which is exactly why I left things vague at first. I didn't want to give that impression. But since you asked, I'll lay out the specifics clearly.

My Tirz journey began last year in November through a large-name pharmacy. By around month 3, I had worked up to 5 mg per week, and that's when I chose to move to the grey market instead. I made the switch to reta, and honestly the appetite suppression was underwhelming. Still, I stuck with it, and even without feeling much in the way of side effects, the scale kept moving down. That's the short version of how I got here. Starting Tirz, I weighed roughly 230, and right now I'm sitting at about 192. Tirz carried me down to around 210-205, and reta handled the remainder. I came off Tirz at 5 mg and started reta at 4. My body tolerated the change fine, and I'm now at 8 mg, with plans to hold there until things stall. The reason I'm thinking about bringing Tirz back in is simple: I genuinely miss how it killed my appetite and quieted the food noise. Not having eating on my mind constantly felt amazing. I do still eat, and I keep myself hydrated. My target is roughly 160. For reference, I'm a 24-year-old male, 5'8. Cardio and weight training will be added to the mix soon too. I'm open to hearing anything and I take criticism well, so please share your thoughts and feedback.

Going from BMI 35 down to BMI 29 is no small change — that's where I'm sitting right now too, and your goal of 24 lines up almost exactly with mine.

When progress has flatlined, my move would be to bump the Reta, as long as side effects aren't getting in the way. For me they haven't been a problem. I dose in 2 parts, every 3.5 days — that started back when I was on Tirz, because food noise would creep back around day ~5.

On the Tirz question specifically: keep the Reta where it is, then layer in 1-2mg split away from your usual dosing time(s), and see how it performs.

My Reta dose is on the higher side. So far, food noise, appetite and portion control haven't been problems... I appreciate still being able to eat and feel something close to a "population normal" appetite. If I ever do need extra help, I'm undecided between adding Tirz or Cagri. I've got plenty of both, though sticking to 1 peptide appeals to me. A few more months and I should hopefully land at my target, at which point I can taper down to a maintenance dose.

Wow, that was seriously useful — thanks so much for pitching in and sharing your thoughts! I'll definitely take all of it into account. And I hope everything goes great for you too, and that you hit your goal weight when you're aiming to

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

eidos said:

You should get a CGM, since hypoglycemia is a risk in your case. Last month I went through three episodes.

At this point I take 10 mg of each every week. I intend to remain at this dose for a while. My blood sugar has become far more stable. My weight loss has sped up slightly. I do feel tired, but it isn’t the same as the fatigue that comes with diabetes. A few days ago I began 5-amino-methylquinolinium, and it takes that fatigue away.

appreciate the tip, I'll check that out.

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

ToeMittens said:

I’d like to jump into this thread too, because I’m after similar guidance.

My details:

47/F

Beginning weight: 235 lbs

Now holding steady near 145 lbs

I began Tirz in December ‘23, and by June ‘24 I had increased step by step to 15 mg each week.

In March ‘26 I went up to 20 mg weekly.

My weight loss had already flattened roughly 12 months ago. Given my starting point, I mostly accepted that, but more recently the food noise has started returning and I’ve noticed myself choosing poorer options. If possible, I’d like to lose another 10-15 lbs. I recently raised my dose to 20 mg per week, which gave me some improvement. Last week I began dividing the dose into 10 mg twice weekly (Tuesday PM and Saturday AM), and that has helped further. Still, I worry that this peptide may be close to the limit of what it can do for me, so I’m exploring other options.

A few months back I came across the whole Grey market world. At first I only went that route to cut costs (thinking about how much I’ve wasted at Mochi across the last 30 months… /cry), but reading all this research has shown me possibilities I hadn’t considered.

One idea is possibly changing to a Reta/Cagri stack. My thinking is that I’d want to gradually replace Tirz with Reta and finish that change before attempting to add Cagri, but I can’t decide what amount to begin with. Nearly every post I’ve seen comes from people using 10/mg or less of Tirz weekly. At my current Tirz dose, would a Reta dose of 2 mg/week even register for me? Should I test that for several weeks while keeping my Tirz dose unchanged? Should I reduce my Tirz dose once I begin Reta?

Has anyone else transitioned away from such a high Tirz dose as it stops working as well? Any ideas, suggestions, or guidance? Am I over- or under-thinking this? Are there other peps you’d suggest for someone like me who is in the early stages of Peri?

If you got through all of that, thanks for reading! I’m so grateful for this community!

Those compounding pharmacies rubbed me the same way! 350 for 5 mg of tirz is absolutely wild! And the reddit resellers — I won't even go there. Pure greed stacked on greed stacked on greed stacked on greed. Anyway, I'm happy that thread turned out helpful for you

 

[funkytwisternumber9]

WannabeLoser said:

My tirz journey began in May 2025. Then in Sept 2025 I introduced Reta as well. The tirz dose stayed put at 7.5mg while I began increasing the Reta. As of March I've been at Reta 6mg, and since last May the total loss is 100#, going from 259 to 159. For the time being, my plan is simply to stay at these doses without changes.

That's wonderful to hear. Happy it's going well, and thanks for sharing your feedback.

 

[ToeMittens]

lessthanhalf said:

ToeMittens said:

I’d like to jump into this thread too, because I’m after similar guidance.

My details:

47/F

Beginning weight: 235 lbs

Now holding steady near 145 lbs

I began Tirz in December ‘23, and by June ‘24 I had increased step by step to 15 mg each week.

In March ‘26 I went up to 20 mg weekly.

My weight loss had already flattened roughly 12 months ago. Given my starting point, I mostly accepted that, but more recently the food noise has started returning and I’ve noticed myself choosing poorer options. If possible, I’d like to lose another 10-15 lbs. I recently raised my dose to 20 mg per week, which gave me some improvement. Last week I began dividing the dose into 10 mg twice weekly (Tuesday PM and Saturday AM), and that has helped further. Still, I worry that this peptide may be close to the limit of what it can do for me, so I’m exploring other options.

A few months back I came across the whole Grey market world. At first I only went that route to cut costs (thinking about how much I’ve wasted at Mochi across the last 30 months… /cry), but reading all this research has shown me possibilities I hadn’t considered.

One idea is possibly changing to a Reta/Cagri stack. My thinking is that I’d want to gradually replace Tirz with Reta and finish that change before attempting to add Cagri, but I can’t decide what amount to begin with. Nearly every post I’ve seen comes from people using 10/mg or less of Tirz weekly. At my current Tirz dose, would a Reta dose of 2 mg/week even register for me? Should I test that for several weeks while keeping my Tirz dose unchanged? Should I reduce my Tirz dose once I begin Reta?

Has anyone else transitioned away from such a high Tirz dose as it stops working as well? Any ideas, suggestions, or guidance? Am I over- or under-thinking this? Are there other peps you’d suggest for someone like me who is in the early stages of Peri?

If you got through all of that, thanks for reading! I’m so grateful for this community!

You mention that tirzepatide has stopped working as well, but you're sitting at roughly 145 lbs after beginning at 235 lbs — that's 90 lbs gone. That's a real, significant accomplishment, and the medication is doing its job, not failing. (Unless the scale is creeping up.) What it can't do beyond that point is produce further loss; it can only keep the weight from returning. To me, that maintenance effect is the single most valuable thing these drugs offer. From a long-term health and quality-of-life standpoint, holding onto the loss is both the toughest and the most crucial piece.

Usually, when weight comes off — with or without GLPs — energy use falls because there's less fat, organ, and muscle mass to metabolize, and the body then tries to save energy by lowering it further. On top of that, hunger runs higher than normal. So a lower calorie need plus extra appetite almost always leads people to regain, whereas GLP drugs suppress that appetite rise and improve metabolic function, and have consistently shown weight loss maintained, at the weight-loss dose, for as long as 4 years so far. There's no solid evidence of tolerance to the weight-loss effect over the long term.

Maintenance is the stage where nearly every diet-and-exercise approach collapses. With GLP drugs it isn't as hard, but it isn't necessarily easy either. At this point, I'd say staying on tirz or another agent to hold the lost weight is essential — but you're asking it, even at a higher dose, to do more than it managed in trials, where the maximum average loss was closer to 25%, while you're asking it to hold back 38% (90/245).

Switching to reta is one option, though I doubt it would do much better than 20mg of tirz at standard doses, and you clearly already handle that fine. (My own choice, at 15mg of tirz while still hungry and trying to keep off about a 50% loss, was to add 5mg of reta, and later 0.5 of cagri.) Switching to reta does come with more side-effect risk than staying on tirz, but it's a legitimate route. Alternatively, adding cagri very gradually at 0.25mg and ramping slowly is the least disruptive approach, or adding reta alongside tirz at not huge doses since you're already at 20mg of tirz. Or simply push tirz up to 25mg, though there's a fair chance you're entering diminishing-returns territory as doses climb. In theory, reta plus cagri should be the strongest combination currently available, but it likely brings more side effects than tirz.

My view is that using these drugs above standard doses or in combinations probably does add risk of known or unknown adverse effects, but in situations where it seems necessary — severe obesity with very high long-term health risks — the drugs are probably safer than regaining the weight.

Reading this really helps — I appreciate you laying it out that way for me!

By "losing its effectiveness," I mean the number on the scale has started climbing (not a huge jump, but more than I'm comfortable with), and getting it back down has taken way more effort than before. What scares me most is the idea of the weight returning and me not having any strategy ready to fight it. On top of that, I'm already at a pretty high dose, so there isn't much room left to go up. If this ends up being the weight I settle at, I can accept that — I just can't handle the idea of sliding backward. I've never had a problem with the idea of staying on something like this for life; I think I just hadn't accepted that eventually, it wouldn't be enough to just hold my current weight steady.

Either way, I'm not giving up. My plan is more activity plus strength training, and I'm hoping Reta gives me the energy boost to make that happen. We'll see!

Thanks again for the insight!

 

[woundcarping]

ToeMittens said:

lessthanhalf said:

ToeMittens said:

I’d like to jump into this thread too, because I’m after similar guidance.

My details:

47/F

Beginning weight: 235 lbs

Now holding steady near 145 lbs

I began Tirz in December ‘23, and by June ‘24 I had increased step by step to 15 mg each week.

In March ‘26 I went up to 20 mg weekly.

My weight loss had already flattened roughly 12 months ago. Given my starting point, I mostly accepted that, but more recently the food noise has started returning and I’ve noticed myself choosing poorer options. If possible, I’d like to lose another 10-15 lbs. I recently raised my dose to 20 mg per week, which gave me some improvement. Last week I began dividing the dose into 10 mg twice weekly (Tuesday PM and Saturday AM), and that has helped further. Still, I worry that this peptide may be close to the limit of what it can do for me, so I’m exploring other options.

A few months back I came across the whole Grey market world. At first I only went that route to cut costs (thinking about how much I’ve wasted at Mochi across the last 30 months… /cry), but reading all this research has shown me possibilities I hadn’t considered.

One idea is possibly changing to a Reta/Cagri stack. My thinking is that I’d want to gradually replace Tirz with Reta and finish that change before attempting to add Cagri, but I can’t decide what amount to begin with. Nearly every post I’ve seen comes from people using 10/mg or less of Tirz weekly. At my current Tirz dose, would a Reta dose of 2 mg/week even register for me? Should I test that for several weeks while keeping my Tirz dose unchanged? Should I reduce my Tirz dose once I begin Reta?

Has anyone else transitioned away from such a high Tirz dose as it stops working as well? Any ideas, suggestions, or guidance? Am I over- or under-thinking this? Are there other peps you’d suggest for someone like me who is in the early stages of Peri?

If you got through all of that, thanks for reading! I’m so grateful for this community!

You mention that tirzepatide has stopped working as well, but you're sitting at roughly 145 lbs after beginning at 235 lbs — that's 90 lbs gone. That's a real, significant accomplishment, and the medication is doing its job, not failing. (Unless the scale is creeping up.) What it can't do beyond that point is produce further loss; it can only keep the weight from returning. To me, that maintenance effect is the single most valuable thing these drugs offer. From a long-term health and quality-of-life standpoint, holding onto the loss is both the toughest and the most crucial piece.

Usually, when weight comes off — with or without GLPs — energy use falls because there's less fat, organ, and muscle mass to metabolize, and the body then tries to save energy by lowering it further. On top of that, hunger runs higher than normal. So a lower calorie need plus extra appetite almost always leads people to regain, whereas GLP drugs suppress that appetite rise and improve metabolic function, and have consistently shown weight loss maintained, at the weight-loss dose, for as long as 4 years so far. There's no solid evidence of tolerance to the weight-loss effect over the long term.

Maintenance is the stage where nearly every diet-and-exercise approach collapses. With GLP drugs it isn't as hard, but it isn't necessarily easy either. At this point, I'd say staying on tirz or another agent to hold the lost weight is essential — but you're asking it, even at a higher dose, to do more than it managed in trials, where the maximum average loss was closer to 25%, while you're asking it to hold back 38% (90/245).

Switching to reta is one option, though I doubt it would do much better than 20mg of tirz at standard doses, and you clearly already handle that fine. (My own choice, at 15mg of tirz while still hungry and trying to keep off about a 50% loss, was to add 5mg of reta, and later 0.5 of cagri.) Switching to reta does come with more side-effect risk than staying on tirz, but it's a legitimate route. Alternatively, adding cagri very gradually at 0.25mg and ramping slowly is the least disruptive approach, or adding reta alongside tirz at not huge doses since you're already at 20mg of tirz. Or simply push tirz up to 25mg, though there's a fair chance you're entering diminishing-returns territory as doses climb. In theory, reta plus cagri should be the strongest combination currently available, but it likely brings more side effects than tirz.

My view is that using these drugs above standard doses or in combinations probably does add risk of known or unknown adverse effects, but in situations where it seems necessary — severe obesity with very high long-term health risks — the drugs are probably safer than regaining the weight.

Reading this really helps — I appreciate you laying it out that way for me!

By "losing its effectiveness," I mean the number on the scale has started climbing (not a huge jump, but more than I'm comfortable with), and getting it back down has taken way more effort than before. What scares me most is the idea of the weight returning and me not having any strategy ready to fight it. On top of that, I'm already at a pretty high dose, so there isn't much room left to go up. If this ends up being the weight I settle at, I can accept that — I just can't handle the idea of sliding backward. I've never had a problem with the idea of staying on something like this for life; I think I just hadn't accepted that eventually, it wouldn't be enough to just hold my current weight steady.

Either way, I'm not giving up. My plan is more activity plus strength training, and I'm hoping Reta gives me the energy boost to make that happen. We'll see!

Thanks again for the insight!

With steady dosing, the trial results typically don't show that pattern.

My initial reaction points toward how the data was collected, differences in calories in versus calories out, and whether doses were taken consistently (which seems like the least probable explanation to me).