Should I increase my Reta dose?

kagami00

kagami00

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Hey, my Reta journey began in January. Back then 1mg weekly worked incredibly well and I dropped roughly 20 kilos (during the final weeks of that diet I moved up to 1,5mg taken twice a week). Now I'm doing a reverse diet, eating slightly more than before so I can build muscle again and so on.

The problem is my hunger has climbed so much that it's bothering me. Once I eat, I'm fine, but 1-2 hours later I'm already thinking about my next meal, then I get hungry again, and I feel like snacking constantly, though I try to stick to tomatoes. The food focus is insane and food is always on my mind, which is why one week ago I started 2mg twice a week, but it didn't really help..

Should I give 2,5mg 2x week (Monday and Thursday) a shot, or what would you do? Am I hoping for something completely unrealistic? During the cut it was soo easy, I simply ate whatever my nutrition plan said and had 0 issues on just 1mg per week 🙁
 
Based on what I've come across and my personal experience, reta doesn't seem to suppress food noise the way tirz does, and that's actually beneficial. It means you can still eat; you simply reach fullness faster, which keeps you from overeating. If muscle building is your goal, I'd guess you're working out (likely more than during your weight-loss phase)? Your calorie needs may have risen to cover that added energy burn (and your body is signaling that). Preparing meals ahead or at minimum mapping out your nutrition can keep you from overeating and help you choose healthy snacks.

Beyond that, when you're aiming to build muscle, weight gain is inevitable, and you genuinely require more calories to construct and sustain those muscles. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is significantly tougher. Just be sure you're fueling with the right foods. A frequent pitfall is claiming "2000 calories a day works for me," then ramping up exercise and shifting goals from mainly fat loss to muscle gain without raising calories accordingly. It comes down to simple math.
 
Mood said:

Based on what I've come across and my personal experience, reta doesn't seem to suppress food noise the way tirz does, and that's actually beneficial. It means you can still eat; you simply reach fullness faster, which keeps you from overeating. If muscle building is your goal, I'd guess you're working out (likely more than during your weight-loss phase)? Your calorie needs may have risen to cover that added energy burn (and your body is signaling that). Preparing meals ahead or at minimum mapping out your nutrition can keep you from overeating and help you choose healthy snacks.

Beyond that, when you're aiming to build muscle, weight gain is inevitable, and you genuinely require more calories to construct and sustain those muscles. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is significantly tougher. Just be sure you're fueling with the right foods. A frequent pitfall is claiming "2000 calories a day works for me," then ramping up exercise and shifting goals from mainly fat loss to muscle gain without raising calories accordingly. It comes down to simple math.
Click to expand...
Honestly, the muscle gains are already happening, and I realize I need to take in more food — things are moving along nicely and the scale is climbing gradually. My strength is going through the roof, yet my body keeps wanting food and it occupies my mind constantly. That noise is what I wanted to silence, which is why going up in dose seemed like something to consider. In this reverse diet, the food noise is way stronger than it was during the diet where I dropped 20kg.
 
kagami00 said:

Mood said:

Based on what I've come across and my personal experience, reta doesn't seem to suppress food noise the way tirz does, and that's actually beneficial. It means you can still eat; you simply reach fullness faster, which keeps you from overeating. If muscle building is your goal, I'd guess you're working out (likely more than during your weight-loss phase)? Your calorie needs may have risen to cover that added energy burn (and your body is signaling that). Preparing meals ahead or at minimum mapping out your nutrition can keep you from overeating and help you choose healthy snacks.

Beyond that, when you're aiming to build muscle, weight gain is inevitable, and you genuinely require more calories to construct and sustain those muscles. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is significantly tougher. Just be sure you're fueling with the right foods. A frequent pitfall is claiming "2000 calories a day works for me," then ramping up exercise and shifting goals from mainly fat loss to muscle gain without raising calories accordingly. It comes down to simple math.
Click to expand...
Honestly, the muscle gains are already happening, and I realize I need to take in more food — things are moving along nicely and the scale is climbing gradually. My strength is going through the roof, yet my body keeps wanting food and it occupies my mind constantly. That noise is what I wanted to silence, which is why going up in dose seemed like something to consider. In this reverse diet, the food noise is way stronger than it was during the diet where I dropped 20kg.
Click to expand...
Verify your intake against the additional activity you've taken on, to confirm you're fueling yourself sufficiently. Raising the dose is one thing to try, though as I said before, reta isn't typically recognized for turning down food noise. Another possibility: while you were heavily fixated on shedding pounds, you may have suppressed it in your own head to a greater degree than the reta did. I have no personal experience with either, but I've come across people who stack Cag or a low dose of tirz with reta to get the food noise relief those provide. That might be worth considering too.
 
Mood said:

kagami00 said:

Mood said:

Based on what I've come across and my personal experience, reta doesn't seem to suppress food noise the way tirz does, and that's actually beneficial. It means you can still eat; you simply reach fullness faster, which keeps you from overeating. If muscle building is your goal, I'd guess you're working out (likely more than during your weight-loss phase)? Your calorie needs may have risen to cover that added energy burn (and your body is signaling that). Preparing meals ahead or at minimum mapping out your nutrition can keep you from overeating and help you choose healthy snacks.

Beyond that, when you're aiming to build muscle, weight gain is inevitable, and you genuinely require more calories to construct and sustain those muscles. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is significantly tougher. Just be sure you're fueling with the right foods. A frequent pitfall is claiming "2000 calories a day works for me," then ramping up exercise and shifting goals from mainly fat loss to muscle gain without raising calories accordingly. It comes down to simple math.
Click to expand...
Honestly, the muscle gains are already happening, and I realize I need to take in more food — things are moving along nicely and the scale is climbing gradually. My strength is going through the roof, yet my body keeps wanting food and it occupies my mind constantly. That noise is what I wanted to silence, which is why going up in dose seemed like something to consider. In this reverse diet, the food noise is way stronger than it was during the diet where I dropped 20kg.
Click to expand...
Verify your intake against the additional activity you've taken on, to confirm you're fueling yourself sufficiently. Raising the dose is one thing to try, though as I said before, reta isn't typically recognized for turning down food noise. Another possibility: while you were heavily fixated on shedding pounds, you may have suppressed it in your own head to a greater degree than the reta did. I have no personal experience with either, but I've come across people who stack Cag or a low dose of tirz with reta to get the food noise relief those provide. That might be worth considering too.
Click to expand...
Hmm, so perhaps it really is worth making the switch to Tirz, or stacking them the way you suggested.. I'll have to wait for it to get here though - in the meantime maybe I'll titrate up
 
kagami00 said:

Mood said:

kagami00 said:

Mood said:

Based on what I've come across and my personal experience, reta doesn't seem to suppress food noise the way tirz does, and that's actually beneficial. It means you can still eat; you simply reach fullness faster, which keeps you from overeating. If muscle building is your goal, I'd guess you're working out (likely more than during your weight-loss phase)? Your calorie needs may have risen to cover that added energy burn (and your body is signaling that). Preparing meals ahead or at minimum mapping out your nutrition can keep you from overeating and help you choose healthy snacks.

Beyond that, when you're aiming to build muscle, weight gain is inevitable, and you genuinely require more calories to construct and sustain those muscles. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is significantly tougher. Just be sure you're fueling with the right foods. A frequent pitfall is claiming "2000 calories a day works for me," then ramping up exercise and shifting goals from mainly fat loss to muscle gain without raising calories accordingly. It comes down to simple math.
Click to expand...
Honestly, the muscle gains are already happening, and I realize I need to take in more food — things are moving along nicely and the scale is climbing gradually. My strength is going through the roof, yet my body keeps wanting food and it occupies my mind constantly. That noise is what I wanted to silence, which is why going up in dose seemed like something to consider. In this reverse diet, the food noise is way stronger than it was during the diet where I dropped 20kg.
Click to expand...
Verify your intake against the additional activity you've taken on, to confirm you're fueling yourself sufficiently. Raising the dose is one thing to try, though as I said before, reta isn't typically recognized for turning down food noise. Another possibility: while you were heavily fixated on shedding pounds, you may have suppressed it in your own head to a greater degree than the reta did. I have no personal experience with either, but I've come across people who stack Cag or a low dose of tirz with reta to get the food noise relief those provide. That might be worth considering too.
Click to expand...
Hmm, so perhaps it really is worth making the switch to Tirz, or stacking them the way you suggested.. I'll have to wait for it to get here though - in the meantime maybe I'll titrate up
Click to expand...
My wife had been using tirz and dropped a lot of weight, then made the switch to reta not long ago. According to her, on reta she feels a stronger urge to eat, or at least to eat more frequently. When we look at her data, her weight isn't moving, and even though she may be eating more often, the total amount she eats hasn't gone up. It's annoying, but one option might be splitting intake into around 6 smaller meals per day instead of 3 larger ones?

There's no one-size-fits-all answer, so go with whatever suits you. Food noise isn't really something I deal with, but once I begin a meal I will EAT. For that problem, reta has changed everything.
 
It's well documented that dropping pounds leads to increased appetite — your system pushing back.

Stay the course. Maybe look into cag or tirz for managing food noise
 
finesse said:

It's well documented that dropping pounds leads to increased appetite — your system pushing back.

Stay the course. Maybe look into cag or tirz for managing food noise
Click to expand...
Is it worth trying 2,5mg per injection to see what happens? And is there some dose or quantity at which I ought to stop?
 
It's honestly hilarious — only 10 minutes have passed since I ate, yet my mind is already wandering back to food, and the longer I wait, the stronger that pull becomes D: That's the issue I'm dealing with.. Although my stomach does feel somewhat full, that's what I'm noticing right now
 
kagami00 said:

finesse said:

It's well documented that dropping pounds leads to increased appetite — your system pushing back.

Stay the course. Maybe look into cag or tirz for managing food noise
Click to expand...
Is it worth trying 2,5mg per injection to see what happens? And is there some dose or quantity at which I ought to stop?
Click to expand...
Reading around here, the theme seems to be that splitting a dose gives weaker effects than taking it all at once each week. What made you go with splitting? Might be worth trying just using 1 weekly shot first before you push the number up, to see how that lands.

As I understand it, the trial doses used for Reta run 2mg, 4mg, 6mg and upward. Which means 1mg was never really a "starting" dose. Worth a look as well?

Fingers crossed for you <3
 
Stace_wow said:

kagami00 said:

finesse said:

It's well documented that dropping pounds leads to increased appetite — your system pushing back.

Stay the course. Maybe look into cag or tirz for managing food noise
Click to expand...
Is it worth trying 2,5mg per injection to see what happens? And is there some dose or quantity at which I ought to stop?
Click to expand...
Reading around here, the theme seems to be that splitting a dose gives weaker effects than taking it all at once each week. What made you go with splitting? Might be worth trying just using 1 weekly shot first before you push the number up, to see how that lands.

As I understand it, the trial doses used for Reta run 2mg, 4mg, 6mg and upward. Which means 1mg was never really a "starting" dose. Worth a look as well?

Fingers crossed for you <3
Click to expand...
I've come across the idea that dividing the dose may reduce side effects, which is the reason I chose that method. It would be really helpful to find out what the best approach is at this point.
 
I followed the same path you did. In the beginning, I began with a low amount and divided my dose to keep side effects to a minimum. Splitting the dose also seemed weaker to me, so one week I tested taking the whole amount at once — after that, I stopped splitting entirely. (Tirzepatide is what I use.)

Were it up to me, I'd wrap up this week the way I've always done it, then at my next dose go with the complete 4mg and stay there for a week. How long you've been on 3mg per week isn't clear to me, but speaking for myself, I need what 1 weekly dose gives.
 
Right now I'm taking 8.5mg of triz.

I've only just begun reta, at 2mg.

To keep food cravings in check, I plan to use 4mg reta together with 7.5mg triz.
 
I've now taken 5 injections of Reta at 4mg, which works out to 5 weeks. No other dose gave me as much weight loss as 4mg did, but things flattened out during the past week. The scale didn't budge downward — actually, I put on roughly 1/2 lb. Almost every day I've been out surfing, plus I've been doing a lot of walking. My guess is that the added exercise is what caused the plateau. Last night I administered shot number 5. For the time being, I intend to stay at this dose. If this week passes without any weight coming off, would you suggest moving up in dose, or should I give it more time?

So far, 8% of my body weight has come off.
 
kagami00 said:

finesse said:

It's well documented that dropping pounds leads to increased appetite — your system pushing back.

Stay the course. Maybe look into cag or tirz for managing food noise
Click to expand...
Is it worth trying 2,5mg per injection to see what happens? And is there some dose or quantity at which I ought to stop?
Click to expand...
Did you mean 2.5mg rather than 2,5 with a comma?
 
finesse said:

Right now I'm taking 8.5mg of triz.

I've only just begun reta, at 2mg.

To keep food cravings in check, I plan to use 4mg reta together with 7.5mg triz.
Click to expand...
With both in the mix, are you actually dropping more pounds? Or does stacking them mainly serve to silence food noise?
 
The added hunger makes sense given how much weight came off — 20 kg is substantial. That's typically what's behind GLP medications appearing to lose effectiveness over time, or what gets labeled as tolerance.

Raising the dose until hunger is properly managed is a reasonable move; few people can stay very hungry for extended periods without eventually overeating and putting the weight back on. And if the goal is to add some weight, presumably mostly muscle, there's probably a middle reta dose that supports that without hunger running away.
 
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