Wondering if others commonly hit a wall with RETA once they've spent a year on TIRZ. TIRZ at low doses worked well for me, and I made the personal choice to move over to RT. I'm raising the dose little by little, but what I'm seeing doesn't match what I expected. I've got exercise and protein covered. That said, right now I'm only at 4 mg (a 7 month climb). A lot of us, from what I read, are dropping more fat while still on lower doses. Lately I added Mot C and TESA into the mix to target the visceral part. Any tips or advice would be welcome?
Curious About Reta Results After a Year on TIRZ
- Thread starter adbh
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Where you begin with obesity and your target amount of weight loss make all the difference. According to clinical data, losing more than 20% of body weight happens only when doses reach the clinical range of 8-12mg, never below that. Tesa works well against visceral fat, yet it falls short for total weight reduction. For overall weight loss, reta remains the better choice. Climbing to 4mg over 7 months is also far too gradual. Increase the dose faster! You will notice a difference.
Cheers!
Appreciate the feedback. TZ was started when I weighed 135 kg, and I brought that down to 110. After moving over to RT, the most I've managed is 15 kg lost across 7 months. Should I increase by 0.5 mg /1mg every 14 days? Planning to stay on the Tesa for another 3 months. There's still 20 kg left to shed. Hoping to reach that by december.
What dose of tirz were you taking? You said low-dose tirz worked well for you and you dropped 25kg, after which you moved to reta. If you were still only at a low dose, I wonder whether simply continuing to titrate tirz upward could have worked.
On tesa, my own approach would have been to hold off until you're nearer your goal weight. With 20kg still to go, I'm not sure you'd notice much of a difference. It's not that it wouldn't do anything, but you already have plenty in motion at the moment — moving from tirz to reta, starting MOTS-c, and so on.
Also, you're dropping a bit more than 2kg per month (15kg across 7months), which is solid. As you get leaner, weight loss will slow down on its own, so I doubt the solution is to keep pushing reta up every two weeks hoping to shed the last 20kg in five months (4kg per month).
On tesa, my own approach would have been to hold off until you're nearer your goal weight. With 20kg still to go, I'm not sure you'd notice much of a difference. It's not that it wouldn't do anything, but you already have plenty in motion at the moment — moving from tirz to reta, starting MOTS-c, and so on.
Also, you're dropping a bit more than 2kg per month (15kg across 7months), which is solid. As you get leaner, weight loss will slow down on its own, so I doubt the solution is to keep pushing reta up every two weeks hoping to shed the last 20kg in five months (4kg per month).
For reta, the usual titration goes 2/4/8/10/12mg, with each step up happening roughly every 3 weeks. That means 0.5mg every 2 weeks is on the slow side, and 1mg is close to the standard pace but still slow.
Your aim is dropping 20kg across 4 months, which works out to roughly 5kg each month. In my opinion, you'd have to increase the dose much more aggressively and quickly. Since 8mg tends to be where reta works best, I'd at least aim to reach that level. Wanting to shed another 15% of your starting bodyweight after already losing a lot is a tall order. Getting past 30% is really only likely for a large portion of people at 12mg of reta. That doesn't mean 8mg can't get you there, just that the odds are lower.
As others have mentioned, I'd save tesa for the end, once you've hit your target weight or are close to it. It won't produce major weight loss, and it's mainly a tool for targeting stubborn visceral fat.
Hope this helps!
Th
Appreciate the feedback. My TZ dose was 5 mg, yet eating stopped appealing to me entirely and turned into something I had to force myself to do. On top of that, it seemed like that dose could not push my weight any lower. I paused for 2 months, after which I made the change to RT.
Appreciate it — my plan is to raise the dose by 2 mg each month and watch how I respond. A number of folks seem to get great outcomes at small doses, so perhaps I'm just not in that group. I've also stepped things up with heavier lifting and more protein, so we'll find out what happens.
Appreciate it. I'll increase my weekly dose and just watch what happens — I suppose I still haven't landed on the right level for me. On TZ, even 5mg felt like a lot, but with RT that hasn't been the situation so far.
lessthanhalf
Explorer
If your goal is to drop 45kg starting from 135kg, that works out to roughly 33% — a substantial amount, and above what the reta trial showed on average for best results. Still, you appear to be progressing quite well on relatively low doses, which suggests you may respond more strongly than the typical person. My guess is that over the long haul, reaching or approaching that 33% reduction will very likely mean you need higher doses, and in all likelihood the maximum 12mg of reta, provided side effects permit it. That does not mean you should raise doses more quickly, but it is very likely you will eventually need to go higher.
If someone drops more fat while taking less medication, does that really mean they're doing better than someone else? Whatever dose you're on is the right one for you — there's no point measuring yourself against anyone else. Just titrate upward when it's time. And drop the tesamorelin; watching the number on the scale climb as water weight accumulates won't be pleasant.
HI — appreciate the insights you shared, and I'm on the same page. Speaking as a physician, the pharma rep kept urging me to increase my dose (this was during my TIRZ stretch), but since 5mg had already brought on side effects, I chose not to ramp it up. After a 2 month break, I figured I'd try RT instead. Among my diabetic patients, plenty are shedding a solid amount of fat on TZ across 2/3 years. No two journeys look alike.
With RT things have moved slowly but steadily. My sweet spot is likely still ahead of me. Timing genuinely isn't a concern for me. While on RT, my metabolic profile is already looking good. I'll keep ramping up and see how it goes on it. Loose hanging skin is something I'd rather avoid, which is probably why I went with the gradual climb. Hoping to get there ..
Hi , Not exactly — comparison isn't really the issue here. Each person's physical and metabolic makeup is unique. With RE`TA, I likely require a higher amount than my current dose. I'm 2 weeks into TESA and plan to check my measurements at 1 month, then decide if I'll continue for 8 weeks or halt. The journey goes on ..