RETA vs TIRZE vs SEMA: what actually differs in practice

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emsjustin

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Hey all,

If you’ve taken tirze and later moved over to reta, what genuine differences did you notice in your own experience?

I’m asking about what you actually felt in practice, not the theoretical side... I get the impression that in a lot of places, tirze/sema gets described as though it were reta.
 
I spent almost 1 month on Tirz alone, then made the switch to Reta. While on Tirz I dropped 10lb, and on Reta I've dropped 43lb up to now, with probably about another ~40lb left to lose.

What I notice… Reta brings more food noise. For me that's completely fine, though it is a change. Originally, food noise rather than hunger was what troubled me.

A lot of the differences that hold more interest for me come from the science-based theory rather than from feels.
 
After 9 weeks of tirz, I dropped more than 24kg. I've now spent a little over 1 week on reta, and at dinner I'm clearly more hungry — though that doesn't matter since nothing is blocking my goals at the moment. Another thing I've picked up on: my bowel movements have become a bit less frequent than they were on tirz.
 
One plus with reta and food noise: rebound hunger tends to be less of a concern than it is for many people on tirz, right? With tirz I do get rebound hunger unless I take some kind of action, for example dosing every 5 days or keeping more of it in my system.

Tirz is what I've used for the most part. To shed the last 20 pounds, my plan right now is to switch back to reta, or a sort of ghetto reta. After that, tirz + elora once grey elora becomes available and has a bit of a track record.
 
emsjustin said:

Hey all,

If you’ve taken tirze and later moved over to reta, what genuine differences did you notice in your own experience?

I’m asking about what you actually felt in practice, not the theoretical side... I get the impression that in a lot of places, tirze/sema gets described as though it were reta.
Click to expand...
All 3 of them I've run. Semaglutide gave me nasty nausea on the first day or two after a pin, plus awful sulfur burps. A touch of anhedonia. My gym time went from 5-6x/week down to roughly 3. Alcohol lost all appeal. It was my first GLP and I dropped around 12 lbs. I started at 176.

Then, not long after starting Sema, over I went to Tirzepatide — the nausea was wearing me down and so were those burps. Genuinely revolting things. Like farting out of your mouth. Tirz cleared up both of those, but I picked up a fairly rough case of anhedonia instead, and all I wanted was to lie in bed rotting and doom scroll. That cost me about 25 pounds. Muscle went noticeably too, since I was only making it to the gym around 1/2x/week by then and the sessions were poor — dragging myself anywhere had become so hard. A glass of wine with dinner now and then was fine, no urge to throw up. Tirz had me at my thinnest, but I was miserable, so I came off it; I simply couldn't stand doing nothing any longer. Not depressed, just no real wish to do anything.

Once off Tirz I spent a stretch on nothing and got back to the gym. About 12 lbs came back, though I felt far better about myself. I've trained most of my life, so being in the gym again had me feeling stronger and more like myself than I had in a long while.

I came to Reta roughly 8 months after stopping Tirz. Very slow start, 1mg, and not much loss — but hunger was lower and holding my weight was easy on it. Food noise and sheer volume are my main battles; I can eat a lot. My diet is decent and I've always tracked, yet it's still a fight. After several months at 1 mg I went to 2mg and started losing, very gradually. Steady increases followed up to 6mg with consistent loss, until allodynia showed up. I pulled back and switched to smaller doses pinned 2x/week, which settled it. Now I'm back to 4 every 6 days and shedding small amounts as I go. Slight anhedonia and allodynia come and go, but mostly I feel decent. Gym is possible, a cocktail or two doesn't make me sick, I walk and take the dog to the park — which sounds like little, but after Tirz it's a lot.

What finally delivered real, visible loss on Reta was running weight loss “sprints”. I'll raise the dose for a few weeks, drop about 5 pounds, then ease back off and hold. The allodynia I get won't let me sit at higher doses for long. This suits me best. Started at 176, now down to 140ish. Another 10 would be nice, but it'll come with time — I've given myself to the end of the year 🤣. Throughout, my labs and overall health have improved. They were fine before, but triglycerides, cholesterol and BP have all come down. I also see a fxnl Medecine doctor and my hormone panels look great (I'm on HRT too).

It's been a long haul — about 4 years now — but I've landed on what works for me. Whether others have struggled with these GLPs the way I have, I can't say, but it feels good to have found my path and to believe I can hit my goals, feel well, and do all the things again.
 
chelsea daggerz said:

emsjustin said:

Hey all,

If you’ve taken tirze and later moved over to reta, what genuine differences did you notice in your own experience?

I’m asking about what you actually felt in practice, not the theoretical side... I get the impression that in a lot of places, tirze/sema gets described as though it were reta.
Click to expand...
All 3 of them I've run. Semaglutide gave me nasty nausea on the first day or two after a pin, plus awful sulfur burps. A touch of anhedonia. My gym time went from 5-6x/week down to roughly 3. Alcohol lost all appeal. It was my first GLP and I dropped around 12 lbs. I started at 176.

Then, not long after starting Sema, over I went to Tirzepatide — the nausea was wearing me down and so were those burps. Genuinely revolting things. Like farting out of your mouth. Tirz cleared up both of those, but I picked up a fairly rough case of anhedonia instead, and all I wanted was to lie in bed rotting and doom scroll. That cost me about 25 pounds. Muscle went noticeably too, since I was only making it to the gym around 1/2x/week by then and the sessions were poor — dragging myself anywhere had become so hard. A glass of wine with dinner now and then was fine, no urge to throw up. Tirz had me at my thinnest, but I was miserable, so I came off it; I simply couldn't stand doing nothing any longer. Not depressed, just no real wish to do anything.

Once off Tirz I spent a stretch on nothing and got back to the gym. About 12 lbs came back, though I felt far better about myself. I've trained most of my life, so being in the gym again had me feeling stronger and more like myself than I had in a long while.

I came to Reta roughly 8 months after stopping Tirz. Very slow start, 1mg, and not much loss — but hunger was lower and holding my weight was easy on it. Food noise and sheer volume are my main battles; I can eat a lot. My diet is decent and I've always tracked, yet it's still a fight. After several months at 1 mg I went to 2mg and started losing, very gradually. Steady increases followed up to 6mg with consistent loss, until allodynia showed up. I pulled back and switched to smaller doses pinned 2x/week, which settled it. Now I'm back to 4 every 6 days and shedding small amounts as I go. Slight anhedonia and allodynia come and go, but mostly I feel decent. Gym is possible, a cocktail or two doesn't make me sick, I walk and take the dog to the park — which sounds like little, but after Tirz it's a lot.

What finally delivered real, visible loss on Reta was running weight loss “sprints”. I'll raise the dose for a few weeks, drop about 5 pounds, then ease back off and hold. The allodynia I get won't let me sit at higher doses for long. This suits me best. Started at 176, now down to 140ish. Another 10 would be nice, but it'll come with time — I've given myself to the end of the year 🤣. Throughout, my labs and overall health have improved. They were fine before, but triglycerides, cholesterol and BP have all come down. I also see a fxnl Medecine doctor and my hormone panels look great (I'm on HRT too).

It's been a long haul — about 4 years now — but I've landed on what works for me. Whether others have struggled with these GLPs the way I have, I can't say, but it feels good to have found my path and to believe I can hit my goals, feel well, and do all the things again.
Click to expand...
thanks for posting this — what a fantastic write-up!
 
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