Should I raise my reta dose?
- Thread starter donzilla
- Start date
A single week doesn't give you much to go on when judging how you're responding. That said, the trials kicked off at 2 mg, so provided the sides are manageable—or you're not feeling any at all right now—my take is that bumping up to 2 mg is reasonable. Keep in mind that therapeutic levels take 4 weeks to reach, so once you go to 2 mg, plan on holding there for a month. During my own first two weeks I split 1 mg into two weekly shots, then switched to 2 mg once a week; looking back, starting straight at 2 mg per dose would have been fine too, though that's just my experience. Your own response is what ultimately decides it.
woundcarping
Explorer
Reaching steady state at any particular dose takes roughly 4 weeks. Therapeutic levels, though, are a separate matter from steady state.
I made the change from Tirz to Reta because of the GCGR signaling. To reliably get that signaling, therapeutic levels are believed to sit around 6-8mg/week, and with single weekly dosing that corresponds to an average exposure of 7.5-10mg at steady state, with troughs near 5mg and peaks near 14.5mg.
Because I had already been on Tirz, I titrated up on Reta fast using many small doses while keeping an eye on side effects. By day 16 I had reached an accumulated level of 7.5mg, and from day 18 onward I have remained above 7.5mg. I had no bad side effects; for me the switch was easy and smooth, and I am now 36 days in.
I made the change from Tirz to Reta because of the GCGR signaling. To reliably get that signaling, therapeutic levels are believed to sit around 6-8mg/week, and with single weekly dosing that corresponds to an average exposure of 7.5-10mg at steady state, with troughs near 5mg and peaks near 14.5mg.
Because I had already been on Tirz, I titrated up on Reta fast using many small doses while keeping an eye on side effects. By day 16 I had reached an accumulated level of 7.5mg, and from day 18 onward I have remained above 7.5mg. I had no bad side effects; for me the switch was easy and smooth, and I am now 36 days in.
For someone completely new to GLPs and only now beginning Reta, which seems to be the case for the OP, therapeutic levels and steady state sit fairly close to one another. The same day as my initial 1 mg dose, I could already feel it. With each passing week, what I had experienced on day one only grew stronger, so judging by how it felt, it seemed therapeutic right away. If moving from 1 mg up to 2 mg after just a week worries someone, I doubt there's a problem, though no two people respond the same.
MakeNoPeaceWithEvil
Explorer
It comes down to how well you handle it. My own start was 2, then I added .5 each 5 days. Up next for me is 4, maybe 4.5, since the side effects have stayed mild and I still eat a decent amount — I've just stopped snacking and stuffing myself...
RoadRash
Explorer
Moving straight up to 2mg right away wouldn't bother me at all, then holding at that level for several weeks to observe your response.
The GLP needs a whole 28 days before it hits its full effect, or the saturation point, at any given dose. Some effects may show up earlier, but full effect isn't reached, whether the dose is 2mg, 4 mg, or anything else. I wasn't saying there's no effect at all.
A plotter is the clearest way to picture how your dosage builds to saturation, plus where your levels sit and at what point. You can enter your current dosage, or a planned one, and see how it looks. https://glp1plotter.com/
Not_Your_Dad
Explorer
Just so you know, I get no side effects at all from Reta at 4 mg taken every 84 hours.
Should 1 mg / week be doing the job for you, my advice is to remain at that level through all four weeks prior to thinking about increasing.
Given that you've handled it without problems, moving up next week would probably be completely okay, as the Phase III starting dose is 2 mg.
Keep in mind, however, that this is a marathon, not a sprint. The body needs time to accumulate GLPs until they hit full therapeutic levels. At the very least, sticking with the lower dose means your supply lasts longer, which saves you money.
Should 1 mg / week be doing the job for you, my advice is to remain at that level through all four weeks prior to thinking about increasing.
Given that you've handled it without problems, moving up next week would probably be completely okay, as the Phase III starting dose is 2 mg.
Keep in mind, however, that this is a marathon, not a sprint. The body needs time to accumulate GLPs until they hit full therapeutic levels. At the very least, sticking with the lower dose means your supply lasts longer, which saves you money.
lessthanhalf
Explorer
Where you're starting from and your goals probably shape this a fair amount. For someone with a lot of excess weight, a slower ramp can be sensible, since rapid large-scale loss brings added dangers like gallstones and fainting.
Going up more often than every 4 weeks raises your odds of nasty side effects, and because this drug clears so slowly, those effects may need a week or longer to fade. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation are the usual suspects. A week of vomiting is the worrying one, since in a bad case it can put you in hospital on a drip. Also worth knowing: side effects tend to peak around month 2 to 4, once you've started at mid range doses and are climbing. That said, side effects vary from person to person.
Before speeding up your increases, you really should grasp how the drug behaves in the body, and check glp plotter to see what various doses do to blood levels. Understand too that a given dose needs 4 weeks to reach its maximum blood level, which is exactly why the advice is to raise doses only every 4 weeks.
The only somewhat safer shortcut is smaller, more frequent doses, every second or 3rd day, so that if you push past your tolerance and get unpleasant side effects, levels won't need a full week to fall back to where they were before that dose. Even with this approach and glp plotter checks, going faster than the standard schedule makes unpleasant side effects much more likely.
At just 1mg, adding another 1mg 3 to 4 days later carries less risk than taking 2mg a week afterward. Then you watch what happens with side effects versus hunger suppression. Once you land on a dose that works for you, you can convert to a weekly amount, which is just the total of the smaller doses across a week.
Going up more often than every 4 weeks raises your odds of nasty side effects, and because this drug clears so slowly, those effects may need a week or longer to fade. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation are the usual suspects. A week of vomiting is the worrying one, since in a bad case it can put you in hospital on a drip. Also worth knowing: side effects tend to peak around month 2 to 4, once you've started at mid range doses and are climbing. That said, side effects vary from person to person.
Before speeding up your increases, you really should grasp how the drug behaves in the body, and check glp plotter to see what various doses do to blood levels. Understand too that a given dose needs 4 weeks to reach its maximum blood level, which is exactly why the advice is to raise doses only every 4 weeks.
The only somewhat safer shortcut is smaller, more frequent doses, every second or 3rd day, so that if you push past your tolerance and get unpleasant side effects, levels won't need a full week to fall back to where they were before that dose. Even with this approach and glp plotter checks, going faster than the standard schedule makes unpleasant side effects much more likely.
At just 1mg, adding another 1mg 3 to 4 days later carries less risk than taking 2mg a week afterward. Then you watch what happens with side effects versus hunger suppression. Once you land on a dose that works for you, you can convert to a weekly amount, which is just the total of the smaller doses across a week.
techiemichael
Explorer
What about when you use pre-filled pens? I’ve heard that potency drops since the solution comes already mixed, so folks often begin at a higher amount? But if you reconstitute it yourself with bac water, then you ought to start lower?
lessthanhalf
Explorer
Before you start working with GLP peptides, you really ought to read up more. How the dose gets into you doesn't change what the dose is; what does matter is knowing the right amount to take, how to combine the peptide with bac water, and how to confirm you actually administer the amount you planned. Mistakes happen very easily here, and dosing errors are the number 1 danger with diy GLP's. Nothing is there to protect you from yourself. Read extensively and follow along with tutorials.
After mixing, every peptide solution will lose some potency over time, yet in the fridge this is usually negligible, no more than 1-2% across a few months for the majority of them. Pharma-made peptides in prefilled pens are formulated with great care so they break down extremely slowly and stay usable for years, although most still require fridge storage to keep degradation to a minimum. When you mix your own peptides in vials with bac water, the formulation is less exact, so ideally they should be used within a month and stored in the fridge, though I personally am comfortable using them for as long as 3 months, since a few percent of degradation, which may or may not occur, makes no meaningful difference to the dose.