How Should Reta Dosing Increases Actually Be Scheduled?

I settled on taking my main dose on a 7-day cycle, specifically every Sunday. After a few weeks of that, I began adding just 0.5mg on Thursdays so that hunger wouldn't hit me on Friday and Saturday.

Here is the protocol I've followed from the beginning up through yesterday:

WeekDosage12mg22mg32.5mg43mg53.5mg63.2mg73mg (+0.5mg after 4 days)83mg (+0.5mg after 4 days)93mg103mg 07.06 (+0.5mg after 4 days)113.5mg

For week 11 the dose goes up. Whether that extra +0.5mg will still be needed, I'll have to wait and find out 🙂

P.S. Once week 5 was behind me, I chose to bring the dosage down since, in my opinion, it had become too much.
 
BNLFL said:

BlueDog55 said:

Wenjo said:

Hi! I'm new to reta and I've been reading so much about it that I'm actually getting more confused instead.

There are those who say you ought to begin with a low dose and then titrate up gradually. Others say begin at 2mg and raise it by 1mg/week.

I decided to start low and titrate up, but now I'm also hearing people say you should remain at a low dose for four weeks, since that's the estimated time the body needs to get used to reta and begin getting the full effect.

What do you all think? Is there any real facts about this, or is it just peoples own experiences?
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Each person reacts differently. My own start was 1mg, and I never increased it, which led to a 30lb loss over 8 weeks. After a 1-month break, I began again at 1mg, and 4 weeks in I'm down 10lbs. If the scale keeps moving, there's no need to raise the dose.
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Dropping weight too quickly is a problem. The timeframe for that 10lb loss was acceptable.
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I'm with you on this — I wasn't trying to suggest they ought to drop weight at a quicker pace. Looking back, the reason I shed pounds so quickly the first time around was probably that I was on carnivore. Of that last 10lbs lost over 4 weeks, I worked out that 5lbs was water weight, since I was training outdoors all week.
 
Thanks to the half life, over the course of a month the amount in your system keeps climbing until it reaches close to 2x the amount you took during week 1. That's why a dose really ought to be held for a full month, since the effects accumulate over that time. If you instead bump it up every week or every couple of weeks until you feel enough of an effect, you'll end up overshooting by as much as 2x.

On top of that, the body needs time to adjust to these drugs, and fast increases make the sides worse. Going up every 4 weeks, as the trials did, is the quickest anyone should move, and honestly I think those trials were very aggressive in order to demonstrate effects, since plenty of people do fine on a much lower dose when they judge it by weight loss and appetite suppression. The way to look at it is that once you're on a dose you stay there for at least a month, and the half life means you genuinely can't go any faster than that.
 
peptideus said:

I settled on taking my main dose on a 7-day cycle, specifically every Sunday. After a few weeks of that, I began adding just 0.5mg on Thursdays so that hunger wouldn't hit me on Friday and Saturday.

Here is the protocol I've followed from the beginning up through yesterday:

WeekDosage12mg22mg32.5mg43mg53.5mg63.2mg73mg (+0.5mg after 4 days)83mg (+0.5mg after 4 days)93mg103mg 07.06 (+0.5mg after 4 days)113.5mg

For week 11 the dose goes up. Whether that extra +0.5mg will still be needed, I'll have to wait and find out 🙂

P.S. Once week 5 was behind me, I chose to bring the dosage down since, in my opinion, it had become too much.
Click to expand...
Honestly, the whole game is finding a level that does the job — a little coming off each week — while keeping the nasty side effects away, and only after that do you start tweaking. The faster you land there, the faster you leave the on-ramp behind and hit the freeway, where all you have to do is choose a lane. And then, of course, you get a fresh set of mistakes to make 🤣
 
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