Let’s Talk About Saturation

[FLglpguy]

About 4 mos into Tirz, after dropping 70lbs, I stalled out. I was on 12.5mg of Tirz, then brought Reta in and worked my way up to 4mg of Reta while staying at 12.5mg of Tirz—and the stall still wouldn’t budge. No movement on the scale either way.

What the research tells me is to drop Tirz RIGHT NOW, run Reta alone for 3-4wks, and then reassess once my receptors have reset, since I’m waaay over saturated at this point and the stall won’t break until Tirz is cleared and I’ve moved over to Reta.

A lot of members say NO. Stay at 12.5Tirz plus 4mg of Reta, then GO UP!!! It feels like increasing the dose over and over is treated as the fix every single time. But it’s clear to me that my receptors are oversaturated. That much has to be true. Reta and Tirz haven’t given me any ill affects at all, so going up doesn’t scare me—but what would be the point? My thinking is that I should come off Tirz and reset using Reta only, both to break the stall and to make the switch to Reta alone. I’ve still got 100lbs to lose.

When your receptors are over saturated and a stall has dragged on for 45 days, what have you done to break it? I haven’t eaten too many calories, but sciatica has kept me from being physically active. I know most people will point to exercise as the cause of the stall, but that isn’t it. I’m in a deficit right now and have been since my journey started on May 7th.

 

[Calm Logic]

FLglpguy said:

About 4 mos into Tirz, after dropping 70lbs, I stalled out. I was on 12.5mg of Tirz, then brought Reta in and worked my way up to 4mg of Reta while staying at 12.5mg of Tirz—and the stall still wouldn’t budge. No movement on the scale either way.

What the research tells me is to drop Tirz RIGHT NOW, run Reta alone for 3-4wks, and then reassess once my receptors have reset, since I’m waaay over saturated at this point and the stall won’t break until Tirz is cleared and I’ve moved over to Reta.

A lot of members say NO. Stay at 12.5Tirz plus 4mg of Reta, then GO UP!!! It feels like increasing the dose over and over is treated as the fix every single time. But it’s clear to me that my receptors are oversaturated. That much has to be true. Reta and Tirz haven’t given me any ill affects at all, so going up doesn’t scare me—but what would be the point? My thinking is that I should come off Tirz and reset using Reta only, both to break the stall and to make the switch to Reta alone. I’ve still got 100lbs to lose.

When your receptors are over saturated and a stall has dragged on for 45 days, what have you done to break it? I haven’t eaten too many calories, but sciatica has kept me from being physically active. I know most people will point to exercise as the cause of the stall, but that isn’t it. I’m in a deficit right now and have been since my journey started on May 7th.

That isn't what's going on here:

/community-link/thread/24132/

If it were me, I'd just keep titrating the reta higher. Should you have cash to spare, elora might be worth checking out.

(There's cagri too, though overdose is a concern I have with it.)

 

[Shittersfull]

Adding more reta while staying on the tirz sounds right to me. Your diet deserves a look too — are you taking in maintenance calories?

 

[BBA1969]

Stalls happen — they're just part of the journey. The peptides stop having the same effect as your body gets used to them, your calories need to be recalculated for your new weight, and plenty of other factors come into play.

In my case, the biggest culprit behind my stalls was that I wasn't tracking my nutrition closely enough.

Whenever the food noise ramps up now and then, I bump up one dose or the other.

 

[woundcarping]

Dropping 4lb each week across 17 weeks and then hitting a wall all at once is hard to explain. I'd bet the pace of your loss shifted gradually.

What number did you start at on the scale?

Put simply, you're taking in roughly the same amount of energy your body burns. Reta may nudge your base metabolic rate upward a bit, which helps somewhat. Stay in a deficit for 45 days and the scale would move, near certainly. Believing you've been adding water weight at a steady clip for 6 weeks just to hold your weight flat doesn't hold up.

Pausing Tirz while continuing Reta accomplishes nothing for the "wayyy oversaturated receptors," because Reta agonizes the very same receptors Tirz does. Beyond that, the whole theory is nonsense.

FLglpguy said:

About 4 mos into Tirz, after dropping 70lbs, I stalled out. I was on 12.5mg of Tirz, then brought Reta in and worked my way up to 4mg of Reta while staying at 12.5mg of Tirz—and the stall still wouldn’t budge. No movement on the scale either way.

What the research tells me is to drop Tirz RIGHT NOW, run Reta alone for 3-4wks, and then reassess once my receptors have reset, since I’m waaay over saturated at this point and the stall won’t break until Tirz is cleared and I’ve moved over to Reta.

A lot of members say NO. Stay at 12.5Tirz plus 4mg of Reta, then GO UP!!! It feels like increasing the dose over and over is treated as the fix every single time. But it’s clear to me that my receptors are oversaturated. That much has to be true. Reta and Tirz haven’t given me any ill affects at all, so going up doesn’t scare me—but what would be the point? My thinking is that I should come off Tirz and reset using Reta only, both to break the stall and to make the switch to Reta alone. I’ve still got 100lbs to lose.

When your receptors are over saturated and a stall has dragged on for 45 days, what have you done to break it? I haven’t eaten too many calories, but sciatica has kept me from being physically active. I know most people will point to exercise as the cause of the stall, but that isn’t it. I’m in a deficit right now and have been since my journey started on May 7th.

Since your dose isn't working the way it used to, and nothing on the side effect front stops you from going higher.

 

[FartfulCodger]

There was a time when I figured my GLP-1 receptors had become oversaturated as well, yet from what I understand that scenario can't actually happen. Their mechanism isn't the same as insulin receptors, for example — they simply continue to consume the Tirz. The way it was explained to me, at some point your body concludes that your calorie intake has been too low, and it manages to partially override the usual appetite suppression signal. I don't know the exact mechanism, but your brain cells are essentially working against starvation, no matter how hard you try to push forward.

It's possible you'll need to hold out until Reta's own form of appetite suppression takes effect. While you wait, you can still take advantage of Reta's fat-burning properties and continue dropping weight — just at a slower pace than when genuine appetite suppression was present.

 

[GLiPtest]

Which research are you referring to?

“Reset receptors”? Huh? GLPs don’t work that way. From what’s been observed, stopping and starting again appears to lead to a lasting drop in how well it works compared with staying on it without interruption. That “break” might give the body room to adapt in ways that make its defenses against weight loss stronger.

What protocol actually works? The ones Eli Lily and Novo Nordisk created for billions of dollars and confirmed with tens of thousands of participants, including thousands who by now have been in the extended maintenance trials for 5 years or more. There’s no evidence that effectiveness drops off or that weight comes back when the same dose is used for years.

In other words: begin at the starting dose, hold for 4 weeks, or until weight loss stalls, move up to the next dose level, hold for 4 weeks or until weight loss stalls, keep repeating until you hit your goal weight, then remain at that dose or step down one level for long-term maintenance.

If you get to the maximum dose, 15mg for Tirz, and still haven’t reached your target weight, that’s when you should start looking at other options. Before that point, you’re just wasting effort on advice from Reddit randos who never seem to reach the kind of results the trials showed with their “boring” slow and steady, proven, protocols.

 

[spanky2026]

The idea that oversaturation means anything beyond bro-science has ZERO research behind it. You definitely shouldn't be operating as if you're some special exception on that front. After a loss like that, your body IS going to fight tooth and nails — it reads the situation as famine, because your body is a drama queen by nature and is built for self-preservation.

Like others have said, increase the dosage. Also confirm that your calories and activity level are properly matched to the NEW weight. I'm stuck in an annoying stall myself, 55 pounds down with plenty left to lose. For now I'm just trying to stay patient, waiting on a GB of Sema to add in B4 I give up and give reta a shot.

 

[CHELMON01]

Here's one more possibility: consider a pause. Drop your Tirz dose and give yourself a 2-week "holidays". Consume slightly more, though do your best to avoid a binge. Your body needs to be convinced the bad days have ended, which lets your base metabolism rise. I follow this routine on a regular basis, rather than sitting around until a stall hits.

 

[ladyj779]

Grab the loseit app and set your activity level to sedentary. Whatever calories you burn through exercise, don't add them back into what you eat.

Right now, you aren't in a calorie deficit.

If staying in a calorie deficit feels awful, raise your dose. These meds make the calorie deficit you need for weight loss tolerable — they won't cause weight loss on their own if you aren't in a deficit.

And no, cycling them isn't the answer. That's not how they work, but it is how they don't work.

 

[FLglpguy]

Appreciate everyone steering me straight again! Sounds like dropping Tirz while staying on Reta at 4mg, then bumping to 6mg next week, could actually work against me.

So maybe the smarter move is moving from 12.5mg Tirz plus 4mg Reta up to 15mg Tirz plus 4mg Reta, which would give me appetite control along with the 3rd receptor of Reta doing its thing. OR?????

 

[ladyj779]

FLglpguy said:

Appreciate everyone steering me straight again! Sounds like dropping Tirz while staying on Reta at 4mg, then bumping to 6mg next week, could actually work against me.

So maybe the smarter move is moving from 12.5mg Tirz plus 4mg Reta up to 15mg Tirz plus 4mg Reta, which would give me appetite control along with the 3rd receptor of Reta doing its thing. OR?????

Just my 2 cents: I threw in a very small dose of sema, since among the glp1s it suppresses appetite the hardest.

Worth researching cag and elora too. And nail down your calorie deficit, that way you have a clear picture of what your intake needs to be.

 

[woundcarping]

spanky2026 said:

The idea that oversaturation means anything beyond bro-science has ZERO research behind it. You definitely shouldn't be operating as if you're some special exception on that front. After a loss like that, your body IS going to fight tooth and nails — it reads the situation as famine, because your body is a drama queen by nature and is built for self-preservation.

Like others have said, increase the dosage. Also confirm that your calories and activity level are properly matched to the NEW weight. I'm stuck in an annoying stall myself, 55 pounds down with plenty left to lose. For now I'm just trying to stay patient, waiting on a GB of Sema to add in B4 I give up and give reta a shot.

I experimented with a single vial of Sema (which left 69 on the spreadsheet ). It did the job, but the side effects were the harshest I've encountered so far, even though they were fairly mild compared to what most people report and completely manageable in daily life.

Once I reached my first target (200lb) on August 5th and spent some time messing around with trial runs on lower Reta doses, quality of life tweaks, and similar things, I buckled down again to get rid of the remaining ~20lb.

I swapped out .25mg/ week of Sema for 2.5mg of Tirz. Reta went back up to 20mg/week, and Elora sits at 1mg/week. Quality of life so far is pretty much in line with what I had on the reduced dose, and the weight loss trend is running 2 days behind my original 1% week/week projection from 12/12/25.

Bottom line, I'm happy I tried Sema, but I don't plan on adding more personal experience with it.

 

[woundcarping]

FLglpguy said:

Appreciate everyone steering me straight again! Sounds like dropping Tirz while staying on Reta at 4mg, then bumping to 6mg next week, could actually work against me.

So maybe the smarter move is moving from 12.5mg Tirz plus 4mg Reta up to 15mg Tirz plus 4mg Reta, which would give me appetite control along with the 3rd receptor of Reta doing its thing. OR?????

Raise the dose so that efficacy is reached and held, right up to the point where adverse sides become the limit.

According to you, there are no sides at all, so you aren't stuck in a tough spot, and no option here is obviously the wrong one. My own preference would be to push Reta exposure upward, though honestly it doesn't matter much either way. There's still plenty of distance left for you to cover.

 

[HouseCat]

spanky2026 said:

The idea that oversaturation means anything beyond bro-science has ZERO research behind it. You definitely shouldn't be operating as if you're some special exception on that front. After a loss like that, your body IS going to fight tooth and nails — it reads the situation as famine, because your body is a drama queen by nature and is built for self-preservation.

Like others have said, increase the dosage. Also confirm that your calories and activity level are properly matched to the NEW weight. I'm stuck in an annoying stall myself, 55 pounds down with plenty left to lose. For now I'm just trying to stay patient, waiting on a GB of Sema to add in B4 I give up and give reta a shot.

Absolutely agree with this, 100%. Nearly 20lbs gone every month across 4 months — that is incredible! At the same time, a body isn’t a machine. After losses that big, yours is likely still recalibrating. Even with liposuction, the body often responds by temporarily retaining water to offset what was removed.

Putting in the work and not seeing the scale move can be genuinely maddening, I get that — but results don’t arrive on a fixed timetable. For instance, a few weeks back I dropped 5lbs out of nowhere, during a stretch when my eating was far from dialed in. This week, with consistent daily deficits and more exercise than I’ve managed in a long time, the loss was tiny. Eventually it balances out. What counts is the downward trend overall.

As others have pointed out, your BMR is now that of someone 70lbs lighter, and that has to be factored in. Given that pain is blocking you from exercising, raising the meds so you can reach your new deficit target is likely the best path.

ladyj779 said:

Grab the loseit app and set your activity level to sedentary. Whatever calories you burn through exercise, don't add them back into what you eat.

Right now, you aren't in a calorie deficit.

If staying in a calorie deficit feels awful, raise your dose. These meds make the calorie deficit you need for weight loss tolerable — they won't cause weight loss on their own if you aren't in a deficit.

And no, cycling them isn't the answer. That's not how they work, but it is how they don't work.

100% on this too! My advice would be not to titrate down before you’re at goal, since these meds don’t reset after a break — in fact, many people who stop and then re-start end up having to INCREASE their dose just to feel the effects again.

 

[moodymama76]

Not sure saturation is really a thing. For me it seems like the more time I spend on tirz, and the more I stay away from junk food, the more tirz does its job. My shot was due Friday, but even now I still don't have an appetite, so I'll do one today — only it'll be 3mg instead of the 4mg I've been on.

Today the only thing I've eaten is 5 medium eggs straight from my chickens' fluffy butts plus 3 thick slices of bacon, and 16 ounces of coffee with zero sugar pumpkin spice creamer too. Cronometer is showing 519 calories and 45g protein, so tonight I'll need 3 scoops of whey protein and to track down something else to eat. To cover my nutritional needs I take a multivitamin that has literally everything in it, fish oil, and a mag glycinate supplement.

Maybe 3mg is my new normal, idk. If desensitized receptors were real, though, I'd have to be magically immune. My honest take is that the people who never dropped junk from what they eat struggle the most. Cutting back on junk is still junk — that isn't metabolically healthy, and most people are up against insulin resistance.

 

[AllCourtTENNIS]

High-dose tirz also left me stuck at a plateau. So I brought reta into the mix, then lowered the tirz step by step as I moved the reta upward. That combination got me past the plateau, and now I'm chipping away at the final 15-20lbs, which is going slowly.

Were I in your position, I'd want to ease off that speed. Dropping weight too quickly carries a lot of risk. The goal should be a weekly loss of no more than 0.5-2% of your current weight. Over time, that approach is far safer.

 

[bada bing]

Have you been keeping any kind of food log or diet diary? Once your weight has held steady for 6 weeks, that record will reveal what your new BMR is. Compared with when you started losing weight, are you now taking in more food? Most likely, your BMR has dropped quite a bit by now.

Sadly, having limits on what you can do physically is a real handicap. Working out does burn calories, but just as important, it supports a higher BMR and helps you hold onto muscle. I would genuinely try to figure out whether there is any form of activity that would work for you. What about swimming, or calisthenics in a pool? Dropping weight fast while doing no exercise is extremely, extremely far from ideal.

When it comes to Tirz doses above 10mg, I have no personal experience, so there is nothing I can offer on that. One warning I would give: if you cannot exercise, be careful about going back to anything near the pace of loss you had before. Pushing your metabolism down to a very low set point is a very real phenomenon.

 

[woundcarping]

AllCourtTENNIS said:

High-dose tirz also left me stuck at a plateau. So I brought reta into the mix, then lowered the tirz step by step as I moved the reta upward. That combination got me past the plateau, and now I'm chipping away at the final 15-20lbs, which is going slowly.

Were I in your position, I'd want to ease off that speed. Dropping weight too quickly carries a lot of risk. The goal should be a weekly loss of no more than 0.5-2% of your current weight. Over time, that approach is far safer.

A rate of 2% is very rapid, and it comes with a lot of danger.

 

[Skidude]

woundcarping said:

A rate of 2% is very rapid, and it comes with a lot of danger.

My own drop was strange. In the first 30 days I shed a large amount once I made big adjustments to how I ate and how much I moved, and then things flattened out.

That opening month was quite aggressive — on average a bit more than 2.5% each week (5+lb).

Then it settled down fast, and I was averaging 1.5lb weekly.

EDIT-

Honestly, it spooked me somewhat