Three months in and every injection now leaves me badly bloated — any idea why?

[Kitty Paws]

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

 

[Redz]

What's your injection dose?

 

[RetCurious]

Kitty Paws said:

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

To help figure this out, I'd want to know more — starting with how your dose has been increased over time.

Something similar happened to me roughly 7 days back. I assumed I'd finally stalled out when I bumped up to 6mg of reta. In the end, it was just a bug. By the way, GasX turned out to be a huge help with both the bloating and the cramping.

 

[Kitty Paws]

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

To help figure this out, I'd want to know more — starting with how your dose has been increased over time.

Something similar happened to me roughly 7 days back. I assumed I'd finally stalled out when I bumped up to 6mg of reta. In the end, it was just a bug. By the way, GasX turned out to be a huge help with both the bloating and the cramping.

I've been taking 2 mg only.

 

[RetCurious]

Kitty Paws said:

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

To help figure this out, I'd want to know more — starting with how your dose has been increased over time.

Something similar happened to me roughly 7 days back. I assumed I'd finally stalled out when I bumped up to 6mg of reta. In the end, it was just a bug. By the way, GasX turned out to be a huge help with both the bloating and the cramping.

I've been taking 2 mg only.

2 mg — how long has that been your dose?

 

[lessthanhalf]

Have you ever dealt with IBS, or is your digestive system on the sensitive side in general? Or has your gut always behaved normally and only started acting up now that you're on GLP's? How much weight do you need to drop? What was your starting weight, what's your goal, how old are you, how tall? Are you dropping weight right now? How fast? How many days have these symptoms been going on — if it's only a few, it could be a passing thing from a bug or something you ate, but if it's been longer, that points more toward reta or what you're eating.

Developing gut issues at this stage is most likely a reta side effect, though it's worth not ruling out other explanations. The clearest alternative is that your diet has shifted since starting reta — more or less fiber, for instance. Still, the most probable scenario is that reta and/or your new way of eating have altered your gut microbiome, which is now producing extra gas, leading to bloating and either cramping pain or diarrhoea because your intestinal muscles are unhappy.

There's no way to predict which dietary tweaks would help. Beyond sticking to small meals with modest fat content, adding fiber could either improve things or backfire. Psyllium husk is relatively low-risk and may actually firm up diarrhoea, but your gut might ferment it as well and end up more bloated. You could experiment with cutting out high fodmap foods to see whether that makes a difference — whether or not you have ibs or fodmap sensitivity normally, right now something in your gut is fermenting and driving the bloating and other symptoms, so reducing fermentable foods may ease things. Another approach: lower your reta dose, or skip the next shot entirely for a while and watch whether things improve as that dose clears. If you feel better after 2, 3, or 4 days without your usual weekly dose, that's decent evidence reta was the culprit — so resume at a smaller dose and titrate up extra slowly afterward. You might also try a broad multispecies probiotic or foods that support healthy gut bacteria. Looking much further ahead, if gut symptoms keep you from tolerating effective reta doses, tirz could suit you better, since it tends to cause somewhat fewer gut issues than reta.

Having lived with ulcerative colitis and IBS-d, I've spent far too long dealing with this garbage. One tricky part is that guts can react either slowly or quickly to changes — if your gut bugs have been thrown off, it might take a day, a week, or 2 for them to settle once you remove whatever upset them. So lining up symptom timing with food intake and drug side effects gets complicated, sometimes fast and sometimes with a long lag, which can make it nearly impossible to figure out what's happening. That's why it's usually smartest to change just one variable at a time — otherwise you won't know which thing helped or hurt.

 

[Kitty Paws]

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

To help figure this out, I'd want to know more — starting with how your dose has been increased over time.

Something similar happened to me roughly 7 days back. I assumed I'd finally stalled out when I bumped up to 6mg of reta. In the end, it was just a bug. By the way, GasX turned out to be a huge help with both the bloating and the cramping.

I've been taking 2 mg only.

2 mg — how long has that been your dose?

Reta for 3 months plus a couple of weeks now. During month 1 I was at 1 mg, and after that it's been 2 mg, with 2-3 lb coming off each week.

lessthanhalf said:

Have you ever dealt with IBS, or is your digestive system on the sensitive side in general? Or has your gut always behaved normally and only started acting up now that you're on GLP's? How much weight do you need to drop? What was your starting weight, what's your goal, how old are you, how tall? Are you dropping weight right now? How fast? How many days have these symptoms been going on — if it's only a few, it could be a passing thing from a bug or something you ate, but if it's been longer, that points more toward reta or what you're eating.

Developing gut issues at this stage is most likely a reta side effect, though it's worth not ruling out other explanations. The clearest alternative is that your diet has shifted since starting reta — more or less fiber, for instance. Still, the most probable scenario is that reta and/or your new way of eating have altered your gut microbiome, which is now producing extra gas, leading to bloating and either cramping pain or diarrhoea because your intestinal muscles are unhappy.

There's no way to predict which dietary tweaks would help. Beyond sticking to small meals with modest fat content, adding fiber could either improve things or backfire. Psyllium husk is relatively low-risk and may actually firm up diarrhoea, but your gut might ferment it as well and end up more bloated. You could experiment with cutting out high fodmap foods to see whether that makes a difference — whether or not you have ibs or fodmap sensitivity normally, right now something in your gut is fermenting and driving the bloating and other symptoms, so reducing fermentable foods may ease things. Another approach: lower your reta dose, or skip the next shot entirely for a while and watch whether things improve as that dose clears. If you feel better after 2, 3, or 4 days without your usual weekly dose, that's decent evidence reta was the culprit — so resume at a smaller dose and titrate up extra slowly afterward. You might also try a broad multispecies probiotic or foods that support healthy gut bacteria. Looking much further ahead, if gut symptoms keep you from tolerating effective reta doses, tirz could suit you better, since it tends to cause somewhat fewer gut issues than reta.

Having lived with ulcerative colitis and IBS-d, I've spent far too long dealing with this garbage. One tricky part is that guts can react either slowly or quickly to changes — if your gut bugs have been thrown off, it might take a day, a week, or 2 for them to settle once you remove whatever upset them. So lining up symptom timing with food intake and drug side effects gets complicated, sometimes fast and sometimes with a long lag, which can make it nearly impossible to figure out what's happening. That's why it's usually smartest to change just one variable at a time — otherwise you won't know which thing helped or hurt.

Stomach issues were never a big thing for me, though I did have h pylori at one point and got it treated. My gut has otherwise behaved normally. I'm only about 15 lb away from what would count as skinny, and I only needed to drop 50 lbs. Still, I'm wondering whether taking in too much fiber is setting this off, since yesterday I began using fiber gummies because my fiber intake is too low. The last time something like this happened was after eating way too many black beans—for 2 days I couldn't even sip water without sprinting to the bathroom. I don't think I've ever felt stomach cramps this severe; the bloating is so intense it seems like my stomach might burst, and it's quite painful lol. If it gets any worse I may head to the ER. Really hoping it isn't pancreatitis. No vomiting or fever so far, and I haven't touched alcohol in roughly a decade.

 

[lessthanhalf]

GLP medications can indeed trigger pancreatitis, though it happens in only a small number of cases (roughly a few per thousand each year). Whether you need emergency care really comes down to how intense the problem or pain is — if you're feeling truly terrible or throwing up repeatedly. Barring clearer signs like fever or dehydration, cramping gut pain usually traces back to intestinal muscles contracting. Pancreatitis tends to show up more as severe upper abdominal or back pain along with vomiting, and cramping isn't typical of it. Still, if the pain is severe or you're vomiting a lot, playing it safe is probably wiser than waiting. Gallstones causing biliary colic is another possibility, and that's not uncommon alongside weight loss either — it could explain pain, though I don't see it producing bloating, so it seems less likely.

Based on what you described, there's solid reason to suspect the added fiber is fermenting in your gut, which would account for both the bloating and the pain. About all you can do is keep your fluid intake high, use oral rehydration solution if diarrhoea or vomiting is significant, and let time resolve it — usually not long, anywhere from hours if you're fortunate up to a few days. Even if fermentable foods don't normally bother you, reta may well have altered how your body reacts to them, so something you once handled without issue could now trigger symptoms. That means being more cautious going forward with fiber and other fermentable foods — fodmaps. More fiber isn't automatically better.

 

[Redz]

Kitty Paws said:

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

To help figure this out, I'd want to know more — starting with how your dose has been increased over time.

Something similar happened to me roughly 7 days back. I assumed I'd finally stalled out when I bumped up to 6mg of reta. In the end, it was just a bug. By the way, GasX turned out to be a huge help with both the bloating and the cramping.

I've been taking 2 mg only.

2 mg — how long has that been your dose?

Reta for 3 months plus a couple of weeks now. During month 1 I was at 1 mg, and after that it's been 2 mg, with 2-3 lb coming off each week.

lessthanhalf said:

Have you ever dealt with IBS, or is your digestive system on the sensitive side in general? Or has your gut always behaved normally and only started acting up now that you're on GLP's? How much weight do you need to drop? What was your starting weight, what's your goal, how old are you, how tall? Are you dropping weight right now? How fast? How many days have these symptoms been going on — if it's only a few, it could be a passing thing from a bug or something you ate, but if it's been longer, that points more toward reta or what you're eating.

Developing gut issues at this stage is most likely a reta side effect, though it's worth not ruling out other explanations. The clearest alternative is that your diet has shifted since starting reta — more or less fiber, for instance. Still, the most probable scenario is that reta and/or your new way of eating have altered your gut microbiome, which is now producing extra gas, leading to bloating and either cramping pain or diarrhoea because your intestinal muscles are unhappy.

There's no way to predict which dietary tweaks would help. Beyond sticking to small meals with modest fat content, adding fiber could either improve things or backfire. Psyllium husk is relatively low-risk and may actually firm up diarrhoea, but your gut might ferment it as well and end up more bloated. You could experiment with cutting out high fodmap foods to see whether that makes a difference — whether or not you have ibs or fodmap sensitivity normally, right now something in your gut is fermenting and driving the bloating and other symptoms, so reducing fermentable foods may ease things. Another approach: lower your reta dose, or skip the next shot entirely for a while and watch whether things improve as that dose clears. If you feel better after 2, 3, or 4 days without your usual weekly dose, that's decent evidence reta was the culprit — so resume at a smaller dose and titrate up extra slowly afterward. You might also try a broad multispecies probiotic or foods that support healthy gut bacteria. Looking much further ahead, if gut symptoms keep you from tolerating effective reta doses, tirz could suit you better, since it tends to cause somewhat fewer gut issues than reta.

Having lived with ulcerative colitis and IBS-d, I've spent far too long dealing with this garbage. One tricky part is that guts can react either slowly or quickly to changes — if your gut bugs have been thrown off, it might take a day, a week, or 2 for them to settle once you remove whatever upset them. So lining up symptom timing with food intake and drug side effects gets complicated, sometimes fast and sometimes with a long lag, which can make it nearly impossible to figure out what's happening. That's why it's usually smartest to change just one variable at a time — otherwise you won't know which thing helped or hurt.

Stomach issues were never a big thing for me, though I did have h pylori at one point and got it treated. My gut has otherwise behaved normally. I'm only about 15 lb away from what would count as skinny, and I only needed to drop 50 lbs. Still, I'm wondering whether taking in too much fiber is setting this off, since yesterday I began using fiber gummies because my fiber intake is too low. The last time something like this happened was after eating way too many black beans—for 2 days I couldn't even sip water without sprinting to the bathroom. I don't think I've ever felt stomach cramps this severe; the bloating is so intense it seems like my stomach might burst, and it's quite painful lol. If it gets any worse I may head to the ER. Really hoping it isn't pancreatitis. No vomiting or fever so far, and I haven't touched alcohol in roughly a decade.

My guess is you've figured it out — stop taking the gummies for now

 

[Enyola]

Redz said:

Kitty Paws said:

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

RetCurious said:

Kitty Paws said:

This is month 3 for me. The first 2 and a half months went smoothly, but for the last 3 weeks I've suddenly become very bloated, and the diarrhea has been awful too. I recall this happening right at the beginning. Now it has returned, and along with the bloating come nasty stomach cramps. I'm beginning to get concerned.

To help figure this out, I'd want to know more — starting with how your dose has been increased over time.

Something similar happened to me roughly 7 days back. I assumed I'd finally stalled out when I bumped up to 6mg of reta. In the end, it was just a bug. By the way, GasX turned out to be a huge help with both the bloating and the cramping.

I've been taking 2 mg only.

2 mg — how long has that been your dose?

Reta for 3 months plus a couple of weeks now. During month 1 I was at 1 mg, and after that it's been 2 mg, with 2-3 lb coming off each week.

lessthanhalf said:

Have you ever dealt with IBS, or is your digestive system on the sensitive side in general? Or has your gut always behaved normally and only started acting up now that you're on GLP's? How much weight do you need to drop? What was your starting weight, what's your goal, how old are you, how tall? Are you dropping weight right now? How fast? How many days have these symptoms been going on — if it's only a few, it could be a passing thing from a bug or something you ate, but if it's been longer, that points more toward reta or what you're eating.

Developing gut issues at this stage is most likely a reta side effect, though it's worth not ruling out other explanations. The clearest alternative is that your diet has shifted since starting reta — more or less fiber, for instance. Still, the most probable scenario is that reta and/or your new way of eating have altered your gut microbiome, which is now producing extra gas, leading to bloating and either cramping pain or diarrhoea because your intestinal muscles are unhappy.

There's no way to predict which dietary tweaks would help. Beyond sticking to small meals with modest fat content, adding fiber could either improve things or backfire. Psyllium husk is relatively low-risk and may actually firm up diarrhoea, but your gut might ferment it as well and end up more bloated. You could experiment with cutting out high fodmap foods to see whether that makes a difference — whether or not you have ibs or fodmap sensitivity normally, right now something in your gut is fermenting and driving the bloating and other symptoms, so reducing fermentable foods may ease things. Another approach: lower your reta dose, or skip the next shot entirely for a while and watch whether things improve as that dose clears. If you feel better after 2, 3, or 4 days without your usual weekly dose, that's decent evidence reta was the culprit — so resume at a smaller dose and titrate up extra slowly afterward. You might also try a broad multispecies probiotic or foods that support healthy gut bacteria. Looking much further ahead, if gut symptoms keep you from tolerating effective reta doses, tirz could suit you better, since it tends to cause somewhat fewer gut issues than reta.

Having lived with ulcerative colitis and IBS-d, I've spent far too long dealing with this garbage. One tricky part is that guts can react either slowly or quickly to changes — if your gut bugs have been thrown off, it might take a day, a week, or 2 for them to settle once you remove whatever upset them. So lining up symptom timing with food intake and drug side effects gets complicated, sometimes fast and sometimes with a long lag, which can make it nearly impossible to figure out what's happening. That's why it's usually smartest to change just one variable at a time — otherwise you won't know which thing helped or hurt.

Stomach issues were never a big thing for me, though I did have h pylori at one point and got it treated. My gut has otherwise behaved normally. I'm only about 15 lb away from what would count as skinny, and I only needed to drop 50 lbs. Still, I'm wondering whether taking in too much fiber is setting this off, since yesterday I began using fiber gummies because my fiber intake is too low. The last time something like this happened was after eating way too many black beans—for 2 days I couldn't even sip water without sprinting to the bathroom. I don't think I've ever felt stomach cramps this severe; the bloating is so intense it seems like my stomach might burst, and it's quite painful lol. If it gets any worse I may head to the ER. Really hoping it isn't pancreatitis. No vomiting or fever so far, and I haven't touched alcohol in roughly a decade.

My guess is you've figured it out — stop taking the gummies for now

Should you decide to bring them back at a later point, begin with low amounts and increase gradually. The fiber jump is something your micriobiom has to get used to step by step.

A tea made from fennel, anise and caraway can ease bloating that hurts.

 

[ladyj779]

At this point, 3 months in, each injection is leaving me really bloated. Any thoughts on what's causing this?

For it, I take peppermint gels I got from Amazon alongside my morning and evening supplements, plus another digestive enzyme supp from now whenever I think I need it.

 

[BNLFL]

Could you be pregnant? 2mg over 8 weeks, and dropping 2-3lbs per week. Are you skipping meals?