No changes noticed yet on week 2 of Reta

GortBong

GortBong

Explorer
Joined
Mar 12, 2026
Messages
17
Reaction score
0
Location
Detroit, Michigan
58m, began Reta at .5mg 2 weeks back. Because new supplements tend to give me gi trouble, I started on the low side. Appetite suppression or any other effect—nothing so far. During week 2 I went up to 1mg, and still there’s no difference. I’ve switched to clean eating, putting the focus on protein, and I’m making myself skip snacks.

For the next dose, I’m thinking about raising it to 2mg.

Any input?
 
If snacking still feels like something you can't resist, my suggestion would be to move up to 2mg next week — that's the dose the trials started participants on. On top of that, your serum levels should be near steady state by then, which means the amount of medication in your system stays fairly even from one week to the next.

After you've hit steady state, standard protocols may not require any bump at all, unless a couple of weeks pass without losses, or your hunger becomes extreme.

For me, going above 3mg was never necessary. Across my whole 12 week run to goal, I sat at 2mg almost the entire time. Things moved more slowly toward the end, with more food noise, yet the losses kept coming, just smaller. Because of that, tapering off while eating more has been really manageable.
 
Switch to 2, but divide it across the week (1mg each injection). That way, stomach upset should be kept to a minimum.

And double-check your numbers, in case the decimal point landed in the wrong spot. During my first recon, I had it off by a decimal and was getting far less than I should have.

Since my approach was to go up gradually and watch for any bad reactions first, that mistake didn't bother me, though taking 1/10 of what I'd meant to start with was never the plan.

These days I'm on 3mg/wk, and for the moment I'm quite content at that level.
 
A couple of points regarding Reta. First off, it is a peptide, so signaling is what matters. From what I've heard, inflammation along with gut problems may weaken Reta's signaling. Personally, even with inflammation and gut issues, I responded fairly well to Reta once I dialed in the right starting dose. My titration was aggressive. I began at 2mg and landed at 4mg inside of a month.

There are super responders out there who need only a small amount of Reta to get things moving. For others, it takes more. My wife happens to be a super responder. For her, 1 mg was borderline too strong, and it took several weeks before the worst side effects calmed down. She has been using Reta for roughly two months, just moved up to 1.5mg, and is still dropping 1 pound a week.

My guess is that you'll probably begin to notice something in the 3-4mg range, though that is only a guess. If side effects worry you, there's no need to hurry toward feeling something. Go up by .5mg each week or every other week until either the suppression shows up or the number on the scale moves. For most people, going past 3-4mg will produce full activation of Reta at the receptors. When I had concerns about sides, one thing I did was split the dose: half on dose day, half the following day. That worked out fine for me. These days the only real side effect I contend with is a cold burning feeling that comes and goes, like having flu and a sunburn together. It's mild now compared to months back and comes across more like a chill.

Here's another thought, and it's just my perspective, so others might disagree. Try not to fixate too much on appetite suppression unless resisting food is genuinely hard for you. What sets Reta apart from the other GLP-1s is its capacity to raise energy expenditure and burn fat. It's well known that its appetite suppression can hit hard early and then taper off somewhat. That's why you see some people stacking a second GLP-1 for extra appetite suppression. Still, my view is that stacking other GLP-1's will probably blunt Reta's glucagon advantage.

For me, weaker appetite suppression isn't a problem, since its superpower is fat burning while keeping muscle loss to a minimum--provided you get enough protein and train. Most days food doesn't cross my mind. But when I need to eat more, I'm able to. The key thing is not to wreck your thyroid by eating too little.

Even without the strong suppression I had when I first began, I'm still losing weight, and I can still turn away from food even when I really want it. Hope that helps.
 
GortBong said:

58m, began Reta at .5mg 2 weeks back. Because new supplements tend to give me gi trouble, I started on the low side. Appetite suppression or any other effect—nothing so far. During week 2 I went up to 1mg, and still there’s no difference. I’ve switched to clean eating, putting the focus on protein, and I’m making myself skip snacks.

For the next dose, I’m thinking about raising it to 2mg.

Any input?
Click to expand...
Try not to stress about it. Everyone responds in their own way.

My dose is 8mg, taken every 6th day; I began in January at .5mg, same as you.

Appetite suppression hasn't happened for me. From what I've read, a lot of people get none at all.

When it comes to food noise; it comes down to a mix of Reta and willpower.

I simply check the mirror and junk/snack food doesn't even cross my mind.

Every 2.5hrs I eat small portions of very healthy lean proteins, carbs and veggies.

I've dropped 15lbs of body weight while adding muscle mass.

To keep from losing muscle, I doubled my TRT dose and work out daily.
 
DunningKruger said:

If snacking still feels like something you can't resist, my suggestion would be to move up to 2mg next week — that's the dose the trials started participants on. On top of that, your serum levels should be near steady state by then, which means the amount of medication in your system stays fairly even from one week to the next.

After you've hit steady state, standard protocols may not require any bump at all, unless a couple of weeks pass without losses, or your hunger becomes extreme.

For me, going above 3mg was never necessary. Across my whole 12 week run to goal, I sat at 2mg almost the entire time. Things moved more slowly toward the end, with more food noise, yet the losses kept coming, just smaller. Because of that, tapering off while eating more has been really manageable.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that clears things up a lot. My assumption is that once I hit 2mg, effects should show up not long after — does that sound right?

And down the line, would it be better to switch from 1mg taken 2x per week over to 2mg taken 1x per week??
 
GortBong said:

58m, began Reta at .5mg 2 weeks back. Because new supplements tend to give me gi trouble, I started on the low side. Appetite suppression or any other effect—nothing so far. During week 2 I went up to 1mg, and still there’s no difference. I’ve switched to clean eating, putting the focus on protein, and I’m making myself skip snacks.

For the next dose, I’m thinking about raising it to 2mg.

Any input?
Click to expand...
You began at 1/4 of the trial starting dose, and it generally needs around 4 weeks to accumulate in the body.

Probably worth waiting a bit longer.
 
In my opinion, a few of these suggestions lean toward the aggressive end. Because Reta's half life runs 6-7 days, serum levels won't reach steady state until 4 weeks have passed. Beginning at a low dose and increasing gradually is perfectly fine, particularly for someone who tends to get GI upsets. A lot of folks kick off at 2 mg since that's what the trials used, but I believe starting at 0.5 mg the way you did is a smart move. My own approach is to keep any dose steady for a minimum of 4 weeks before moving up, and I only move up after back-to-back weeks with no loss. I suppose I'm simply more patient than most people. That said, my goal is -1-2 lbs/week of loss, and even though it's dull, it's steady and heads off plenty of problems (side effects, loose skin, endless questions about "what are you doing to lose weight?!?!"). Apart from a mild skin tingling, I've experienced no side effects at all.
 
Has your weight risen? Dropped? Stayed the same?

Looking at the reta trial data, the majority of participants did reasonably well when beginning at 2 mg (the starting dose across all phase 3 arms). In the phase 2 trial, some began at 4 mg, and that proved to be a much harsher experience by comparison:

Gemini said:


Dose GroupNausea (%)Diarrhea (%)Constipation (%)Vomiting (%)Source (PMID)Placebo~2%~9%~1%~1%373663150.5 mg~9%~10%~4%~2%374140581 mg~14%~9%~7%~3%373663152 mg (Standard)~18%~18%~11%~3%TRIUMPH-14 mg (Fast Start)~45%~30%~16%~15-20%37366315

Click to expand...
Click to expand...
That said, it remains possible that Eli Lilly might reduce reta's starting dose to a bit under 2 mg. (Following orfo's phase 3 trials, Eli Lilly cut orfo's starting dose by 20% to help secure FDA approval.)
 
GortBong said:

DunningKruger said:

If snacking still feels like something you can't resist, my suggestion would be to move up to 2mg next week — that's the dose the trials started participants on. On top of that, your serum levels should be near steady state by then, which means the amount of medication in your system stays fairly even from one week to the next.

After you've hit steady state, standard protocols may not require any bump at all, unless a couple of weeks pass without losses, or your hunger becomes extreme.

For me, going above 3mg was never necessary. Across my whole 12 week run to goal, I sat at 2mg almost the entire time. Things moved more slowly toward the end, with more food noise, yet the losses kept coming, just smaller. Because of that, tapering off while eating more has been really manageable.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that clears things up a lot. My assumption is that once I hit 2mg, effects should show up not long after — does that sound right?

And down the line, would it be better to switch from 1mg taken 2x per week over to 2mg taken 1x per week??
Click to expand...

Responses vary from person to person, so your own results may differ. For me, the effects have consistently kicked in roughly 3 hours after injecting — with a single odd exception where nothing showed up until the following day. As far as I know, no research has looked into how often to dose, so my advice is to try things out and see what works in your case. From a business standpoint, the priority is keeping people compliant, and a once-weekly schedule accomplishes that.
 
That resonates with me. My own beginning was with low doses too, and Reta left me completely underwhelmed. In the past, Mounjaro was what took off a huge amount of weight for me. Toward the end, though, I moved my dose up fairly fast. These days I'm a big fan of Reta and have actually gone down to 6mg taken every 6 days.
 
The half-life comes out to roughly 6 days. Reaching the full concentration of any given dose requires 5 half-lives. Clearing it entirely from your system also requires 5 half-lives.

Have you used any glp1s previously? According to what people say, that factor can influence how much appetite suppression you get. And yes, others have a point: your current dose matches only where the trials began. Raising it until effects show up is fine. Rather than "microdosing" something to stretch it out while the effects are non-existent, it's better to blast the appropriate amount and get results.
 
In my opinion, 0.5 is pretty low (that's not necessarily a negative).. During my first month I moved up through 1/2/3/4mg - an aggressive ramp, though I wasn't concerned about side effects. From the clinical studies I reviewed, results maxed out at 12mg, but 8-10 also worked quite well, so my goal is to reach that range.
 
Mr. Blonde said:

The half-life comes out to roughly 6 days. Reaching the full concentration of any given dose requires 5 half-lives. Clearing it entirely from your system also requires 5 half-lives.

Have you used any glp1s previously? According to what people say, that factor can influence how much appetite suppression you get. And yes, others have a point: your current dose matches only where the trials began. Raising it until effects show up is fine. Rather than "microdosing" something to stretch it out while the effects are non-existent, it's better to blast the appropriate amount and get results.
Click to expand...
Worth keeping in mind that responses vary from person to person. My own experience starting at 0.5 mg has been quite positive (nowhere near “non-existent”), and it took many months before I worked up to 3 mg. Beyond that, assuming people use lower doses just to stretch a supply further isn't really sound. My reason for beginning low and increasing gradually was simple: I want to remain on the smallest dose that works for as long as I can, with the hope that eventually I can taper all the way off, or at least end up on the least possible maintenance amount. And to me, losing 1-2 lb/week is a sign the dose is doing its job.

Sure, everybody would like results quickly, but moving at a slower pace isn't reckless or pointless, and patience comes with plenty of upsides. Dropping weight rapidly can bring on a range of unwanted health problems, such as gallstones.
 
Yep. My point was that tiny doses do nothing when results are not coming. If they are coming, there is no point rushing the titration just for the sake of it.
 
GortBong said:

58m, began Reta at .5mg 2 weeks back. Because new supplements tend to give me gi trouble, I started on the low side. Appetite suppression or any other effect—nothing so far. During week 2 I went up to 1mg, and still there’s no difference. I’ve switched to clean eating, putting the focus on protein, and I’m making myself skip snacks.

For the next dose, I’m thinking about raising it to 2mg.

Any input?
Click to expand...
During week 2 I had the same impression, but my dosing went half, then one, then 1.5, and finally two, and I've stayed at two for a fortnight now since that level feels like enough for me. For the first week or so, the only thing I noticed was more hunger, then things shifted around week 3, and by week 4 I'm paying close attention to what I eat and when, plus using supplements to help with digestion, but I feel pretty locked in. I'll remain at 2 until it seems to lose effectiveness, and then increase slightly if necessary.
 
Chrissven said:

That resonates with me. My own beginning was with low doses too, and Reta left me completely underwhelmed. In the past, Mounjaro was what took off a huge amount of weight for me. Toward the end, though, I moved my dose up fairly fast. These days I'm a big fan of Reta and have actually gone down to 6mg taken every 6 days.
Click to expand...
Same situation here, down to the letter. My titration began at .25, and I moved up weekly for a period of three months. When I reached around week 4, I added .25 CAGRI, and that eliminated the food noise which had returned while on RETA. AND Now, at month 4, I'm maintaining 3mg Reta alongside .5 Cagri, and the difference is finally showing! Stick with it. I keep telling myself that metabolism problems have been with me my whole life, so they won't resolve in just a week or two. Four months, perhaps 😉
 
Back
Top