Tirz or Reta for Maintenance....What's Your Approach?

Stace_wow

Stace_wow

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Hey all,

I'm wondering how people handle maintenance once the weight is off. For those who dropped pounds using Reta, do you stick with Reta to maintain? If Tirz was your tool, do you continue Tirz at a reduced dose, the same dose, or the maximum? Are GLP's part of your maintenance plan? I've seen some say they lose on Reta and maintain on Tirz, and others say the opposite.

Personally, I'm using Tirz and still in the losing phase with it, but I'm thinking about switching to Reta for maintenance because of the body recomp advantages. I'd love to hear what has worked for others. Tirz was my starting point since it was my introduction to gray and widely accepted, but Reta is what really drew me to GLPs.

HW 400

SW 286

CW 264

7.5mg
 
6 months into Reta at 6mg, and I've got roughly 10lbs left before hitting my goal. That said, my plan is to move over to Tirz once maintenance starts. The reason is that Reta has been driving my heart rate up and my HRV down, and since I figure maintenance will be something I stick with for the long haul, I'd rather not keep dealing with that. On top of it, the dose during maintenance should be far smaller, so I think the extra hunger blunting from Tirz would work in my favor.
 
Depending on what you're aiming for, there are a couple of routes this could take.

Say tirz is what got you to your goal, yet you also want help with lipids or non alcoholic fatty liver — then add reta.

If reta is what you used, move over to tirz to bring resting heart rate down and maybe sleep better.

I stack sema and reta, which makes me a bit of an oddball. When cutting, I bring in reta and titrate it upward, while my sema dose stays basically where it was.
 
Just one user's experience here. I've been maintaining for more than 12 months at this point. On Tirzepatide, I dropped 55lbs across 6 months, beginning at 1mg/week and increasing to 8mg/week. Since then I've held steady on 2.5mg/week Tirz. Roughly 12 months later, I'm still essentially at my goal weight. So for me, locking in a maintenance dose has done the job.

If Tirz works for you, my case for sticking with it is that it's a better-studied compound, easier to get, more likely to be accepted by doctors, and less expensive. For maintenance, I'll probably be on something for the rest of my life, and right now Tirz comes out ahead for me when I weigh the pros and cons.

I'm considering dropping another 10-15lbs and adding Reta to help make that happen. That'll be my first time using Reta. I've got a kit ready now and plan to begin on my next needle night, Saturday.
 
Since you're on that dose and have dropped that much weight, it's clear tirz is working well for you — that's a good sign. Whether you stick with tirz or switch to reta for the remaining weight or for upkeep probably won't change much; you appear to have plenty of room in your dosage to reach your goal while staying on tirz. The one point I consider key: according to the evidence, keeping the weight off means remaining at the dose that got you there — although some folks in this community do maintain on lower amounts. Still, since you'll be working to keep off a substantial amount, experimenting with reduced maintenance doses is reasonable, but should the weight start creeping back, don't be shocked if you need to push the dose up again.
 
I take both, and for upkeep I sit at roughly 75% of my top dose. With Tirz, I appreciate that the noise and cravings are gone.

From Reta, I get a boost in energy. My plan is to continue with both.
 
I’ve kept my weight steady with tirz for roughly 14-15 months at this point. When I reached my target weight, 15mg was the top dose I’d used, and I continue to inject it every week. Based on my hunger levels and weight over the previous week, I adjust the amount between 10-15mg. Switching off tirz isn’t something I plan to do, since I

know it works for me.
 
I didn't begin GLP medications until after the bulk of my weight had already come off; my reason for using them was to stop feeling hungry all the time. Ozempic gave me side effects I didn't enjoy even at small doses, whereas tirzepatide at 15mg worked far better, though my appetite was still substantial, so I stacked retatrutide at 5mg per week. Across slightly under 12 months my weight slid steadily from 78 kg down to 64 kg. I then tried adding 0.5 of cagrilintide to see whether it would make a difference — too early to say — but I appear to be eating when I'm hungry and my weight has more or less leveled off. I continue to be reasonably cautious about steering clear of calorie-dense foods, though I'm less convinced that's strictly necessary anymore, since my appetite now seems to self-correct for those calories whenever I do have something richer. That definitely wasn't the case back when I was obese, nor before the GLP drugs.
 
I’m roughly 7lbs from hitting my goal. I’ll keep using Reta, but the dose is still up in the air. Right now I’m at 8mg.
 
lessthanhalf said:

Since you're on that dose and have dropped that much weight, it's clear tirz is working well for you — that's a good sign. Whether you stick with tirz or switch to reta for the remaining weight or for upkeep probably won't change much; you appear to have plenty of room in your dosage to reach your goal while staying on tirz. The one point I consider key: according to the evidence, keeping the weight off means remaining at the dose that got you there — although some folks in this community do maintain on lower amounts. Still, since you'll be working to keep off a substantial amount, experimenting with reduced maintenance doses is reasonable, but should the weight start creeping back, don't be shocked if you need to push the dose up again.
Click to expand...

Is that something you're certain about? I can't think of any research that looked at how maintenance dosing should be handled. That said, it's entirely possible I overlooked something.

From SURMOUNT, the takeaway I'd point to is this: when a person continues at the same dose they used while losing weight, weight regain tends not to happen. Still, that doesn't prove those individuals had to remain at those exact doses in order to hold their weight steady. Another thing SURMOUNT tells us is that quitting leads to regain, but for everything in the middle, I'm not confident about what conclusions we can draw.
 
Stace_wow said:

Hey all,

I'm wondering how people handle maintenance once the weight is off. For those who dropped pounds using Reta, do you stick with Reta to maintain? If Tirz was your tool, do you continue Tirz at a reduced dose, the same dose, or the maximum? Are GLP's part of your maintenance plan? I've seen some say they lose on Reta and maintain on Tirz, and others say the opposite.

Personally, I'm using Tirz and still in the losing phase with it, but I'm thinking about switching to Reta for maintenance because of the body recomp advantages. I'd love to hear what has worked for others. Tirz was my starting point since it was my introduction to gray and widely accepted, but Reta is what really drew me to GLPs.

HW 400

SW 286

CW 264

7.5mg
Click to expand...

Huge congrats on the amazing progress you've made! 🎉

I haven't reached maintenance yet, though it's right around the corner (122lbs down, 8 to go). What I intend to do is keep my tirz dose where it is now (20mg) for a minimum of 6 months, possibly up to a year.

The part of this journey I'm most excited about is holding steady at one weight for a long stretch. I've dropped 100lbs or more multiple times before and could never keep it off. So my thinking is, why change the dosage the moment I hit goal? The tirzepatide clinical studies showed that people who remained at the same dose did not regain. Lower doses can work and are likely better, in my view, but that's a topic for another time.

When it comes to tirzepatide versus retatrutide, given that tirzepatide is working well for you, I don't see a reason to make a change. If it were me, I'd stay on tirz as long as possible and only consider stacking if progress halts.

Wishing you the best!
 
Thank you! You are right, I am loving Tirz so far, and for at least the next 6 months I wont do anything except titrate up and keep an eye on my weight, intake and exercise.
 
Reta when the goal is fat loss and so on ...

For maintenance, Tirz 110%

I WANT TO GET MY SLEEP BACK 😴😴
 
I've reached the maintenance phase as well. My weekly dose of Tirz is either 7.5mg or 10mg, and I adjust it based on how well my appetite is managed.
 
Grogu said:

lessthanhalf said:

Since you're on that dose and have dropped that much weight, it's clear tirz is working well for you — that's a good sign. Whether you stick with tirz or switch to reta for the remaining weight or for upkeep probably won't change much; you appear to have plenty of room in your dosage to reach your goal while staying on tirz. The one point I consider key: according to the evidence, keeping the weight off means remaining at the dose that got you there — although some folks in this community do maintain on lower amounts. Still, since you'll be working to keep off a substantial amount, experimenting with reduced maintenance doses is reasonable, but should the weight start creeping back, don't be shocked if you need to push the dose up again.
Click to expand...

Is that something you're certain about? I can't think of any research that looked at how maintenance dosing should be handled. That said, it's entirely possible I overlooked something.

From SURMOUNT, the takeaway I'd point to is this: when a person continues at the same dose they used while losing weight, weight regain tends not to happen. Still, that doesn't prove those individuals had to remain at those exact doses in order to hold their weight steady. Another thing SURMOUNT tells us is that quitting leads to regain, but for everything in the middle, I'm not confident about what conclusions we can draw.
Click to expand...
The surmount-maintain trials offer some hints regarding maintenance dosing. The attached image displays the proportion of participants who kept their weight loss on tirzepatide 10/15mg, tirzepatide 5mg, or placebo.
 
Watching what unfolds across years and even decades of maintenance is going to be fascinating. Keeping weight off over the long term has forever been where weight reduction efforts break down. Mounjaro has only existed on the market for 4 years, and using it widely for weight loss is even more recent. What kind of experience awaits those who remain on Triz maintenance for a decade or two.
 
Habibibi said:

Grogu said:

lessthanhalf said:

Since you're on that dose and have dropped that much weight, it's clear tirz is working well for you — that's a good sign. Whether you stick with tirz or switch to reta for the remaining weight or for upkeep probably won't change much; you appear to have plenty of room in your dosage to reach your goal while staying on tirz. The one point I consider key: according to the evidence, keeping the weight off means remaining at the dose that got you there — although some folks in this community do maintain on lower amounts. Still, since you'll be working to keep off a substantial amount, experimenting with reduced maintenance doses is reasonable, but should the weight start creeping back, don't be shocked if you need to push the dose up again.
Click to expand...

Is that something you're certain about? I can't think of any research that looked at how maintenance dosing should be handled. That said, it's entirely possible I overlooked something.

From SURMOUNT, the takeaway I'd point to is this: when a person continues at the same dose they used while losing weight, weight regain tends not to happen. Still, that doesn't prove those individuals had to remain at those exact doses in order to hold their weight steady. Another thing SURMOUNT tells us is that quitting leads to regain, but for everything in the middle, I'm not confident about what conclusions we can draw.
Click to expand...
The surmount-maintain trials offer some hints regarding maintenance dosing. The attached image displays the proportion of participants who kept their weight loss on tirzepatide 10/15mg, tirzepatide 5mg, or placebo.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, I appreciate it! That chart is quite meaningful — it shows roughly 20% to 30% still couldn't keep the weight off even while staying at their weight loss dose. That points away from tapering down as a plan.

What the chart leaves unanswered, though, is whether the 70% or 80% who did maintain (the 10mg and 15mg groups) actually required the full weight loss dose. That part remains unknown.
 
I find myself in the same situation. GLP medications have been a real help, but for someone who began at a morbidly obese weight like I did, the message that keeps coming up is that maintenance will be permanent... That's why I'm very eager to see the longer-term data that emerges on this.
 
For 2 years, my wife's maintenance has been .25 of Sema. As for me, I hold at 1.5 of Tirz, ha. Apparently I'm a GLP-1 lightweight — even 2.5mg of Tirz brings gastric side effects I can't tolerate, and I never plan to increase.

I've still got 33 lbs to shed, yet the scale keeps moving down. 27 lbs are already off, 33 remain.
 
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