Has reta face happened to you?

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casprow

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What do you all think about “reta face,” similar to how people online claim that Ozempic, for instance, causes 70% - 95% of users to get what’s called “ozempic face,” which tends to look tired and not how we want to appear.

Is there any truth to this?

And one more quick thing: what about creatine monohydrate? I’ve heard that using it alongside reta would put a huge strain on the liver because both act there.
 
Ozempic Face stems from an ongoing, severe shortage that causes muscle loss, including in the facial area. As for Reta, my face looks more sculpted and improved overall, but I've got some extra wrinkles now, which Botox can take care of. In a few months, I'll likely introduce KLOW into my regimen to make further enhancements to how I look.

Conversely, from what I understand, creatine has no impact on the liver, or at least I've used it for years and gotten blood work. Taking 5 grams of creatine each day along with 2.5 mg of Reta results in no unusual readings for my pancreas, kidneys, or liver.
 
I think the main factor is how quickly someone drops weight, which makes it stand out a lot. If the same amount of weight came off, the face would change the same way regardless of the method used. Plus, if you're not young and your skin doesn't bounce back, losing a lot of facial fat will result in wrinkles, same as it would anywhere else on the body.

I dropped 50 lbs with keto across roughly a year. My face got significant wrinkles and the typical hollow cheeks, but I'm in my 50's. Keto stopped working, so I switched to Tirz to keep losing. My face hasn't changed much more even though I've shed additional weight.
 
I'm 45 years old and I've dropped 55 lbs. Compared to before, I appear somewhat older, and on top of that there's what looks like mild drooping around my upper eyelids. My under-eye bags stand out more now than they did back when I was heavy. Some of my family members have the same pronounced under-eye bags, and they've never carried extra weight. When my thin grandmother's upper lids began blocking her sight, she had surgery to fix them.

Still, I look MILES better than I did when I was heavy, so it doesn't really bother me. I lost 55 lbs in under a year, and my skin can't possibly have finished settling into whatever it'll end up being. And if it has, well, I suppose I'll just cry myself to sleep at night in a two-piece white bathing suit while holding my fabulous new figure, and save up for an upper and lower blepharoplasty.

Honestly, I think ozempic-face is so overblown and mostly based on "you shouldn't be allowed to lose weight without suffering, there must be SOME punishment" wishful thinking.
 
I suppose I'm past the age where I'd know, and I'm not on social media enough to really get what "reta face" refers to. On reddit I keep coming across people in their 20s showing off sharper, leaner jawlines - though maybe it's actually about looking worn out and hollow?

Fortunately, I was already old when I started reta, so there's no way for me to say whether any looseness comes from the reta or simply from getting older.
 
ktg123 said:

I think the main factor is how quickly someone drops weight, which makes it stand out a lot. If the same amount of weight came off, the face would change the same way regardless of the method used. Plus, if you're not young and your skin doesn't bounce back, losing a lot of facial fat will result in wrinkles, same as it would anywhere else on the body.

I dropped 50 lbs with keto across roughly a year. My face got significant wrinkles and the typical hollow cheeks, but I'm in my 50's. Keto stopped working, so I switched to Tirz to keep losing. My face hasn't changed much more even though I've shed additional weight.
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That's the right take. That's really all there is to it. The outcome tends to be kinder if you're on the younger side or haven't dropped as much weight, compared with being older and/or starting from a higher weight. Sure, facial muscle loss might play some role, but it isn't the main force behind it, and it accounts for only a very small share of your overall muscle.

On the liver side, Reta has demonstrated solid beneficial results when it comes to fatty liver. As for creatine, it's been researched exhaustively, and even at doses far above what you'd need for any benefit, no adverse effects have turned up.
 
Omxxl said:

Ozempic Face stems from an ongoing, severe shortage that causes muscle loss, including in the facial area. As for Reta, my face looks more sculpted and improved overall, but I've got some extra wrinkles now, which Botox can take care of. In a few months, I'll likely introduce KLOW into my regimen to make further enhancements to how I look.

Conversely, from what I understand, creatine has no impact on the liver, or at least I've used it for years and gotten blood work. Taking 5 grams of creatine each day along with 2.5 mg of Reta results in no unusual readings for my pancreas, kidneys, or liver.
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That's a really intriguing perspective — so the idea is that cutting calories gradually helps preserve the muscles in your face, while a harsh cut is harmful because it could make you lose muscle there too, something I definitely want to steer clear of.

To be completely upfront, I feel like I've been approaching this all wrong my whole life. I always assumed that doing a super aggressive cut, like before a vacation, was the smartest move, because you'd drop a huge amount of weight especially from your face, making you look completely different to others (a glow up). But I'd never come across the warning that you might actually lose facial muscle, which would leave you looking worse instead of better.
 
5byfive said:

ktg123 said:

I think the main factor is how quickly someone drops weight, which makes it stand out a lot. If the same amount of weight came off, the face would change the same way regardless of the method used. Plus, if you're not young and your skin doesn't bounce back, losing a lot of facial fat will result in wrinkles, same as it would anywhere else on the body.

I dropped 50 lbs with keto across roughly a year. My face got significant wrinkles and the typical hollow cheeks, but I'm in my 50's. Keto stopped working, so I switched to Tirz to keep losing. My face hasn't changed much more even though I've shed additional weight.
Click to expand...
That's the right take. That's really all there is to it. The outcome tends to be kinder if you're on the younger side or haven't dropped as much weight, compared with being older and/or starting from a higher weight. Sure, facial muscle loss might play some role, but it isn't the main force behind it, and it accounts for only a very small share of your overall muscle.

On the liver side, Reta has demonstrated solid beneficial results when it comes to fatty liver. As for creatine, it's been researched exhaustively, and even at doses far above what you'd need for any benefit, no adverse effects have turned up.
Click to expand...
How does the "face bloating" stage from creatine fit into this?

Background: I used to take 8g of creatine daily at a bodyweight of 80kg, up until 3 month ago. I've now been on reta for 5 weeks at 2 mg, and I quit creatine because of how it interacted with reta side effect-wise. I hit the gym 4-6 times weekly and also run long distance, covering 30-50 km each week. Should I go back on creatine? If yes, do I need a loading phase given I've been off it for roughly 3 month?
 
5byfive said:

ktg123 said:

I think the main factor is how quickly someone drops weight, which makes it stand out a lot. If the same amount of weight came off, the face would change the same way regardless of the method used. Plus, if you're not young and your skin doesn't bounce back, losing a lot of facial fat will result in wrinkles, same as it would anywhere else on the body.

I dropped 50 lbs with keto across roughly a year. My face got significant wrinkles and the typical hollow cheeks, but I'm in my 50's. Keto stopped working, so I switched to Tirz to keep losing. My face hasn't changed much more even though I've shed additional weight.
Click to expand...
That's the right take. That's really all there is to it. The outcome tends to be kinder if you're on the younger side or haven't dropped as much weight, compared with being older and/or starting from a higher weight. Sure, facial muscle loss might play some role, but it isn't the main force behind it, and it accounts for only a very small share of your overall muscle.

On the liver side, Reta has demonstrated solid beneficial results when it comes to fatty liver. As for creatine, it's been researched exhaustively, and even at doses far above what you'd need for any benefit, no adverse effects have turned up.
Click to expand...
That is precisely my view too. Just because 2 things line up doesn't mean 1 is causing the other.
 
Water retention from creatine mostly sits in your muscles, not as general bloat. How that connects to Reta, I honestly can't see.

The whole idea of a loading phase was invented by big Creatine as a way to move more product. A regular dose will have your muscles saturated within a week or two anyway. Loading speeds that up, sure, but there's no real benefit. Since you're taking it long term, reaching saturation 1 week sooner makes no difference.
 
5byfive said:

Water retention from creatine mostly sits in your muscles, not as general bloat. How that connects to Reta, I honestly can't see.

The whole idea of a loading phase was invented by big Creatine as a way to move more product. A regular dose will have your muscles saturated within a week or two anyway. Loading speeds that up, sure, but there's no real benefit. Since you're taking it long term, reaching saturation 1 week sooner makes no difference.
Click to expand...
Yeah, same here — I don't get the Reta connection either.

My creatine routine: 10mg on days I get good sleep, 15mg if my sleep is a bit rough, and 20mg when it's really bad. That way I'm not fighting off sleep at work.
 
45/f here. 65lbs gone over 6 months, and wrinkles have shown up on my face that weren't there before. I wouldn't say I look bad, and I don't think I look sunken or anything like that. But my neck definitely reveals how old I am these days. Having that round moon pie face did cover up my age somewhat. Now I come across as older, though not past 45 — I just look closer to my actual age.
 
casprow said:

What do you all think about “reta face,” similar to how people online claim that Ozempic, for instance, causes 70% - 95% of users to get what’s called “ozempic face,” which tends to look tired and not how we want to appear.

Is there any truth to this?

And one more quick thing: what about creatine monohydrate? I’ve heard that using it alongside reta would put a huge strain on the liver because both act there.
Click to expand...
With age, our faces tend to shed muscle, bone, and fat from particular spots. Oddly enough, some regions of the face actually gain fat as we get older — aging works in strange ways!

Losing weight quickly can play a part in creating that appearance, or at least make it more likely.

So it comes down to a trade-off: do you prefer a leaner body and a leaner face, or a heavier body with a rounder face?

For me, health comes first. If I ever want more volume, I figure I can track down a skilled injector and get some HA filler in my face — assuming I decide that's what I want.
 
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