what happens for me is that the first 4 days after injecting reta give me the full effect, and I really do feel it—things like less hunger or an overall better mood. but by day 5 it begins to fade, and food noise gradually returns. days 6 get tougher, and day 7 is the worst, to the point where I wonder whether reta is doing anything at all....
Switching reta dosing from every 7 days to every 5 days?
- Thread starter casprow
- Start date
DragonOfTheSea
Explorer
Your idea doesn’t have any inherent issues.
Could you share more details about your time on it so far, including your current dose and how you’ve moved up in dosage?
Also keep in mind, moving from a 7-day schedule to a 5-day one means you’re essentially increasing your weekly dose by about 29%.
I've been using it for close to 4 weeks. On the dose question, I'm currently at 2mg, and that's the same amount I began reta with. As I mentioned earlier, there are some improvements I can see here and there, but I'm considering bumping it up to 4mg.
5byfive
Explorer
The usual reason people stay on a weekly schedule is that it may make tolerance less likely to develop. That idea is theoretical, though it does have a certain logic. As mentioned earlier, switching to every 5 days amounts to raising the dose, so perhaps I should try a higher dose first. Everything here is theory and all of us are essentially lab rats, Reta especially, so the practical route may be to test one approach and then the other to find out which suits me better.
CharlieBrown
Explorer
From the very start, I went with a 6-day schedule.
That said, you have a point — by day 5, I can already tell the effect is fading.
DragonOfTheSea
Explorer
Alright. You've got room to bump the dose up if that's what you need.
There are a couple of directions you could take- it mostly comes down to whether you want to move up quickly right away, or keep the dose as small as you can while it still works.
If you go the faster route, you could either move to 2mg twice a week(4mg/7days), or perhaps 3mg every 5 days(3.86mg/7days).
If you'd rather keep it working at the lowest amount possible, I'd consider something closer to 1.25-1.5mg twice a week and see how things feel.
DragonOfTheSea
Explorer
That’s exactly the approach I took, so I’m not going to tell you otherwise
From the start I’ve been splitting my doses, except for the very first shot.. Same goes for my wife- Keeping side effects in check, particularly in her case, is what makes this work for her. I’ve had no complaints about the results or the appetite control.
you sound really knowledgeable.. could you maybe give me a hand with something related to my running hobby,DragonOfTheSea said:
That’s exactly the approach I took, so I’m not going to tell you otherwise
From the start I’ve been splitting my doses, except for the very first shot.. Same goes for my wife- Keeping side effects in check, particularly in her case, is what makes this work for her. I’ve had no complaints about the results or the appetite control.
I hit the gym at least 4-5 times weekly plus 3-4 runs, mostly long runs covering 10-30 km, along with some intervals, and right now I'm on 1800 cals with 180g protein, 60 fat, and the rest from carbs. usually that lands around 80-120g... I'm 80kg, already carry a decent amount of muscle and I'm lean (4 pack visible)
what I'm after is lower bodyfat so my body and face look better. which route works better - the aggressive deficit I'm running now, or a 200-500 calorie deficit (a normal calorie deficit) to reach that goal
BNLFL
Explorer
Reta's half life is around 6 days, so that's worth remembering. By day 6 I start noticing a shift, and then day 7 is when I pin.
DragonOfTheSea
Explorer
casprow said:
you sound really knowledgeable.. could you maybe give me a hand with something related to my running hobby,DragonOfTheSea said:
That’s exactly the approach I took, so I’m not going to tell you otherwise
From the start I’ve been splitting my doses, except for the very first shot.. Same goes for my wife- Keeping side effects in check, particularly in her case, is what makes this work for her. I’ve had no complaints about the results or the appetite control.
I hit the gym at least 4-5 times weekly plus 3-4 runs, mostly long runs covering 10-30 km, along with some intervals, and right now I'm on 1800 cals with 180g protein, 60 fat, and the rest from carbs. usually that lands around 80-120g... I'm 80kg, already carry a decent amount of muscle and I'm lean (4 pack visible)
what I'm after is lower bodyfat so my body and face look better. which route works better - the aggressive deficit I'm running now, or a 200-500 calorie deficit (a normal calorie deficit) to reach that goal
The macros look fine. It’s a plus that you’ve already got a moderate amount of carbs in the mix (Reta responds well to moderate carbs). That said, you might aim closer to the 120g mark rather than staying around 80g for carbs, and if you’re trimming calories to make room, consider taking a few grams off fats. If not, I’d simply continue as you are and judge things as you go — you’re only about 4 weeks in, so there’s lots of assessment still ahead, and pay attention to your body.
lessthanhalf
Explorer
At such a small dose and such a brief period of use, it's too soon to draw many conclusions. It would be useful to know your age, starting weight, goal weight, and height. When someone has a substantial amount of weight to shed, raising the dose is logical and will likely resolve the issue of the medication's effect fading before the next shot; side effects play a role here too, and if they're troublesome, splitting the dose into 2 weekly injections or moving to a 5-day interval are both possibilities. A lot hinges on whether your starting BMI is 30 or 40: at the upper end, you'll probably end up needing the full doses regardless, so stepping up gradually toward that target is reasonable, no matter whether you inject on day 7, day 5, or every 3 1/2 days. With less weight to lose, high doses may never be necessary, but your current amount clearly isn't holding hunger in check, so it has to go up, either through more frequent injections that total a larger weekly amount, or through larger single weekly doses.
No evidence supports tolerance developing to the weight-loss action of GLP drugs. Tolerance does appear for certain early effects, such as delayed gastric emptying and gastrointestinal side effects, across the first 2 to 6 months.
Days 2, 3, and 4 are the same for me — food is a non-issue — but once day 5, 6, and 7 roll around, eating becomes progressively harder to resist. Since you're still at an early stage, jumping straight to twice the exposure would probably backfire. There are a couple of routes I'd consider workable. My first suggestions to test would be 1.6mg taken every 5 days, or going all the way and dividing it into 1.1mg every 3.5 days.
Giraffeshots
Explorer
I moved my dosing to a 5-day cycle. On days 6 and 7, I found it wasn't doing much for me.
Right now I'm taking 8mg every 5 days
Right now I'm taking 8mg every 5 days
maven8518
Explorer
9 weeks in. Dose right now is 3mg. Next pin is Sunday, going up to 4. From Sunday dinner until Thursday morning, food doesn't interest me at all. Come Saturday, it feels like I've taken nothing — that's my cheat day. Just 1 meal. Started at 225, now around 196. Protein is never enough, and I'm training hard 5 days each week. My 7-day step totals need to go up. I'll try 4mg to see how it lands, but odds are I'll shift to a 5-day schedule.
MFGamesta
Explorer
Honestly, just go with it. Take pleasure in the day or 2 of eating.
Wait a few months, and rely on your scale rather than how you feel. Don't give in to the temptation to chase that high!