Up 0.5kg at week 6 — what changed?

[deleted.user.26]

ultima thule said:

It's week 6 on Reta for me now, and so far so good....but like every Friday morning I stepped on the scale today and boom! Surprise! I began at 1mg per week. By the 3rd week I was up to 2 mg. Results were simply perfect — 1.5kg/3.3lbs a week coming off on average. But today the scale showed 0.5kg/1.1lbs more than the week before. So I tried to work out whether anything in my routine had changed over the last week. First up is Epithalon, which I began a week ago at 0.5mg/day, and second, my daily protein is now a touch higher (around 30g). Can't see either of those driving a gain within the last week. Nothing else has shifted from the way it was. Gym 5 days a week, 2 meals a day, plenty of protein and little carb or fat, sleeping well, around 7h...I'm a little confused, since Monday is my shot day and I'd planned to move up to 3mg now, but I've since read plenty about that 4mg Reta figure being some kind of magic threshold, and I'm tempted to jump straight there. And btw, food noise, fullness while eating, cravings — all of that still works properly. And zero side efects on 2mg so far. So first of all, I'm puzzled about where that gain in week 6 on Reta came from, and what dose you'd suggest I move to now. Or should I hold at 2mg a while longer and watch?

My advice would be: don't use dose changes to chase what the scale says. Wait a minimum of 2 weeks. If nothing changes by that point and you still aren't seeing a downward trend, then increase. Hitting a plateau doesn't automatically mean your body is finished. Worth keeping in mind: an extra 30g of protein works out to 150+ calories daily, and that varies by source. I don't think that alone would tank you, but it's plausible it could trigger a pause while your system adjusts. The number of variables is huge, and plenty of them we never measure or even consider. That's one more argument against chasing scale numbers with dosing. Another thing to consider: is this the same Reta vial you began with 6 weeks ago? I used one vial on my wombat for 8 weeks, and once I mixed a new one, it was obvious the old vial had lost effectiveness (the appetite difference and the plateau breaking were massive). It was night and day. What I've seen from testing indicates degradation after a month is genuine. My "test" backed that up.

 

[deleted.user.26]

px1984 said:

I'd really recommend stepping on the scale each morning and logging it in an app—my own scales can swing by 0.5kg within a single day. That way you won't get caught weighing in one week at a freak low, then the next week landing on a day when you're well hydrated and full. After that, it's all about watching the trends.

I also step on three times and check that the readings are roughly consistent.

I'm with you on that! I step on the scale daily, but I don't let the number carry any weight. The point is simply to spot a clean direction in the weekly averages. Morning-to-morning swings of 5lb have shown up for me. The human body is a bizarre machine. Weighing under the same conditions and at the same hour helps too (post-bathroom, pre-food, and so on). Even after removing those variables, day-to-day jumps get wild. The weekly and monthly direction, though, evens out and tells the truth.

Take a look at my chart. 10 weeks at 1mg. That 12-day stretch where nothing moved worried me, particularly the morning the spike appeared, but I resolved to let two weeks pass before reacting. A fresh low came on each of the last two days and I'm dropping again. My stall lined up with old Reta plus week 3 of intense full-body training, yet the fat loss has now caught up with the extra water my muscles hold from DOMS and ought to keep trending down overall from here. If a stall reaches a minimum of 2 weeks, I'll increase the dose...or reduce calories. What people overlook is that BMR calorie requirements fall alongside weight loss - so you have to identify genuine plateaus and respond with science - not simply titrate upward every time. Hopefully this is useful and makes things clearer. Best of luck and most importantly - keep going!

 

[ultima thule]

Appreciate everyone chiming in with what you've been through. It helps me get a better sense of what might be going on. Tomorrow I'll step on the gym's scale, the one that measures body fat, muscle, fat mass and so on, and that should show me what really went on across the week. My Reta injection falls on Monday, so I've got a couple of days to figure out whether to titrate, and if so, by how much.

 

[Cannonball72]

ultima thule said:

Appreciate everyone chiming in with what you've been through. It helps me get a better sense of what might be going on. Tomorrow I'll step on the gym's scale, the one that measures body fat, muscle, fat mass and so on, and that should show me what really went on across the week. My Reta injection falls on Monday, so I've got a couple of days to figure out whether to titrate, and if so, by how much.

Try not to over-analyze what the scale shows. Mine reports BF, muscle mass, skeletal muscle, protein, water, and so on and so forth.

Whenever my weight shifts, those readings shift too.

Step back and review the entire timeline of data.

 

[Smiter]

ultima thule said:

Appreciate everyone chiming in with what you've been through. It helps me get a better sense of what might be going on. Tomorrow I'll step on the gym's scale, the one that measures body fat, muscle, fat mass and so on, and that should show me what really went on across the week. My Reta injection falls on Monday, so I've got a couple of days to figure out whether to titrate, and if so, by how much.

So now you're one of us on Team Daily Trackers — and there's no leaving once you join. Fine, we've figured out who the adversary is: DOMS. Against DOMS, we've got the right tools on hand. The thing we're up against is fluid weight caused by inflammation from lactic acid. No mercy will be given. Keep going as planned, don't raise your dose without cause. And if you're unsure, pick the smallest dose available.

P.S: Keep in mind — what's the greatest thing in life? You smash your plateaus, watch them get pushed back, and listen to your fat cells wail.

 

[lil ghost]

Cannonball72 said:

ultima thule said:

Appreciate everyone chiming in with what you've been through. It helps me get a better sense of what might be going on. Tomorrow I'll step on the gym's scale, the one that measures body fat, muscle, fat mass and so on, and that should show me what really went on across the week. My Reta injection falls on Monday, so I've got a couple of days to figure out whether to titrate, and if so, by how much.

Try not to over-analyze what the scale shows. Mine reports BF, muscle mass, skeletal muscle, protein, water, and so on and so forth.

Whenever my weight shifts, those readings shift too.

Step back and review the entire timeline of data.

That's exactly the reason I stick to weekly weigh-ins instead of daily ones. Whenever the number goes up, I overthink it and end up beating myself up. Checking once a week keeps my stress down, though everyone has their own approach.

 

[Airborne Daddy]

lessthanhalf said:

Day-to-day and week-to-week shifts in fluid balance are completely normal, and what you're seeing fits that pattern. The scale can move by a kilo or 2 in either direction. When calorie intake and exercise haven't meaningfully changed, there's no basis to expect energy balance to shift, so fat or non-fat mass should change at the same rate—meaning fluid balance is the variable left over. The timing also lines up: early weight loss often includes extra fluid as glycogen stores drop, and later this tends to level off somewhat.

Track weight long enough and you'll hit stretches that look like a plateau, or even a small increase. At 1 point my scales showed no changes for 6 weeks, yet averaged across time the rate of weight loss hadn't really shifted. At 6 weeks, it's too soon for changes in energy expenditure from lowered mass or low calorie adaptation to be significant factors.

My take is that this comes down to fluid balance and hydration too... on a day when I pee 9 times and have 2 bowel movements, I weigh almost 3lbs less than on a day with 4 pees and 1 bowel movement.

 

[Bioexplorer]

When someone first tries this exciting new medication, wanting to log every detail makes complete sense to me. Still, what makes Reta great for certain people is that it simply delivers results regardless of whether calories, macros, workouts and so on are being monitored. The tracking side of dieting always bothered me, so I really appreciate seeing the scale typically dip slightly each week without me doing anything. Should it creep upward for a couple of weeks, that doesn't rattle me — I just continue following the titration schedule. Weight gets noted 1 time per week, while the rest of the metrics I leave alone. Those will sort themselves out.

That said, if a clear jump in hunger or serving size shows up, I'm prepared to raise the dose sooner; on the flip side, when it seems to be working just as well, I'll hold off on escalating. Among all the Peptides people tinker with, the GLP-1 agonists stand out because their effects arrive quickly and are easy to notice. In any of these trials, I can't picture being unable to tell whether you received the placebo.

 

[ultima thule]

Bioexplorer said:

When someone first tries this exciting new medication, wanting to log every detail makes complete sense to me. Still, what makes Reta great for certain people is that it simply delivers results regardless of whether calories, macros, workouts and so on are being monitored. The tracking side of dieting always bothered me, so I really appreciate seeing the scale typically dip slightly each week without me doing anything. Should it creep upward for a couple of weeks, that doesn't rattle me — I just continue following the titration schedule. Weight gets noted 1 time per week, while the rest of the metrics I leave alone. Those will sort themselves out.

That said, if a clear jump in hunger or serving size shows up, I'm prepared to raise the dose sooner; on the flip side, when it seems to be working just as well, I'll hold off on escalating. Among all the Peptides people tinker with, the GLP-1 agonists stand out because their effects arrive quickly and are easy to notice. In any of these trials, I can't picture being unable to tell whether you received the placebo.

Fair enough — but I should mention that while I'm a beginner with Reta and peptides in general, I do have some background in dropping weight. About 4 years back a shoulder injury forced me out of the gym, and I put on a serious amount of fat. Once I hit the point where tying my laces became a struggle, I figured it was time to act. I went keto first, later shifting to low carb, while keeping a calorie deficit. Over 16 months that added up to 42kg/92.5lbs lost...then I changed jobs, and the new one involves zero activity. My old job had me averaging 20k steps; these days it's more like 4-5k. So in January I went back to the gym (the shoulder is far better now/Glow is helping as well). Even though I stuck with the diet, I put back on roughly 15 kg, and that's the weight I want gone — hence Reta. I realize weight loss takes time, and honestly the slower it comes off, the healthier it is. Still, back on keto the scale moved down steadily, and I can't recall ever gaining weight along the way. That's the reason I started this discussion — today's number bothered me somewhat. Plus I've been reading about the supposedly magical effect at 4mg Reta and how glucagon really kicks in at that point...so a titration is coming for me regardless, but I'm torn between moving up to 4mg now, giving 2mg another week or two, or passing through 3mg first...

 

[Bioexplorer]

Nice work, Ultima — dropping that much before starting GLP-1s is impressive. With Reta in the mix, the process should be smoother this time around.

My plan is to stay at 2mg for another 2 weeks, then move to 3mg for 4 weeks. The idea that 4mg is some required threshold for glucagon agonism doesn't convince me, and I expect I'll end up at that dose regardless.

Glad to hear Glow is helping your shoulder. BPC-157 did nothing for my shoulder pain across a couple months, so Glow or Klow is something I've been thinking about trying.

 

[ultima thule]

Bioexplorer said:

Nice work, Ultima — dropping that much before starting GLP-1s is impressive. With Reta in the mix, the process should be smoother this time around.

My plan is to stay at 2mg for another 2 weeks, then move to 3mg for 4 weeks. The idea that 4mg is some required threshold for glucagon agonism doesn't convince me, and I expect I'll end up at that dose regardless.

Glad to hear Glow is helping your shoulder. BPC-157 did nothing for my shoulder pain across a couple months, so Glow or Klow is something I've been thinking about trying.

If it were up to me, Klow would be the end goal. Glow plus Kpv is what it amounts to. Glow has done well by me and the progress I have seen makes me wish I had gone with Klow instead. Since it seems like it might do a lot for my skin problems, I will buy Kpv on its own and simply work it into the stack. Getting Klow from the start would have spared me this extra trouble...

 

[Sir Chuck]

I recall years ago, in college health and gym classes, they'd pull out calipers to check a person's belly fat and body mass percentages. No idea whether that practice still exists. My approach was simply the old, highly "scientific" routine: pinch my gut, jiggle it a bit, then feel my shoulder to check whether bone is all that's left after the muscle loss I hadn't factored in.

 

[Imfrijole]

ultima thule said:

It's week 6 on Reta for me now, and so far so good....but like every Friday morning I stepped on the scale today and boom! Surprise! I began at 1mg per week. By the 3rd week I was up to 2 mg. Results were simply perfect — 1.5kg/3.3lbs a week coming off on average. But today the scale showed 0.5kg/1.1lbs more than the week before. So I tried to work out whether anything in my routine had changed over the last week. First up is Epithalon, which I began a week ago at 0.5mg/day, and second, my daily protein is now a touch higher (around 30g). Can't see either of those driving a gain within the last week. Nothing else has shifted from the way it was. Gym 5 days a week, 2 meals a day, plenty of protein and little carb or fat, sleeping well, around 7h...I'm a little confused, since Monday is my shot day and I'd planned to move up to 3mg now, but I've since read plenty about that 4mg Reta figure being some kind of magic threshold, and I'm tempted to jump straight there. And btw, food noise, fullness while eating, cravings — all of that still works properly. And zero side efects on 2mg so far. So first of all, I'm puzzled about where that gain in week 6 on Reta came from, and what dose you'd suggest I move to now. Or should I hold at 2mg a while longer and watch?

My own journey has been quite similar. While on 2mg, I saw my weight fall for 2 weeks in a row, and then it started climbing. After that I moved up to 3mg and stayed there for 4 weeks. Some pounds came off, but by week 2 things had more or less plateaued, with my weight bouncing around. When I finally increased to 4, the downward trend returned. I realize a lot of folks recommend jumping right to 4, but for me, doing 3 first was absolutely the right call. Even during the stall I could tell it was doing something, and my eating habits aren't always the greatest. This isn't a sprint, so there's no need to hurry.

At 4, side effects have shown up. They're not too severe, but I get heartburn if I eat anything at 9pm or any greasy food at all. Lunch is genuinely difficult to get down, yet I'm still hungry by dinner. Going from 3 to 4 was a good decision, I believe. Had I skipped 3 and gone straight from 2 to 4, the side effects might have hit me harder.

 

[ultima thule]

Imfrijole said:

ultima thule said:

It's week 6 on Reta for me now, and so far so good....but like every Friday morning I stepped on the scale today and boom! Surprise! I began at 1mg per week. By the 3rd week I was up to 2 mg. Results were simply perfect — 1.5kg/3.3lbs a week coming off on average. But today the scale showed 0.5kg/1.1lbs more than the week before. So I tried to work out whether anything in my routine had changed over the last week. First up is Epithalon, which I began a week ago at 0.5mg/day, and second, my daily protein is now a touch higher (around 30g). Can't see either of those driving a gain within the last week. Nothing else has shifted from the way it was. Gym 5 days a week, 2 meals a day, plenty of protein and little carb or fat, sleeping well, around 7h...I'm a little confused, since Monday is my shot day and I'd planned to move up to 3mg now, but I've since read plenty about that 4mg Reta figure being some kind of magic threshold, and I'm tempted to jump straight there. And btw, food noise, fullness while eating, cravings — all of that still works properly. And zero side efects on 2mg so far. So first of all, I'm puzzled about where that gain in week 6 on Reta came from, and what dose you'd suggest I move to now. Or should I hold at 2mg a while longer and watch?

My own journey has been quite similar. While on 2mg, I saw my weight fall for 2 weeks in a row, and then it started climbing. After that I moved up to 3mg and stayed there for 4 weeks. Some pounds came off, but by week 2 things had more or less plateaued, with my weight bouncing around. When I finally increased to 4, the downward trend returned. I realize a lot of folks recommend jumping right to 4, but for me, doing 3 first was absolutely the right call. Even during the stall I could tell it was doing something, and my eating habits aren't always the greatest. This isn't a sprint, so there's no need to hurry.

At 4, side effects have shown up. They're not too severe, but I get heartburn if I eat anything at 9pm or any greasy food at all. Lunch is genuinely difficult to get down, yet I'm still hungry by dinner. Going from 3 to 4 was a good decision, I believe. Had I skipped 3 and gone straight from 2 to 4, the side effects might have hit me harder.

Heart burn has been a major issue for me from childhood onward, yet ever since I began a low carb diet it has vanished entirely.

 

[px1984]

Sir Chuck said:

I recall years ago, in college health and gym classes, they'd pull out calipers to check a person's belly fat and body mass percentages. No idea whether that practice still exists. My approach was simply the old, highly "scientific" routine: pinch my gut, jiggle it a bit, then feel my shoulder to check whether bone is all that's left after the muscle loss I hadn't factored in.

Sure, it still goes on — this week a colleague told me her trainer pulled out the old calipers during her assessment. Hard to believe given how easy it is to find bioelectrical impedance devices these days.

 

[ultima thule]

Alright everyone, I hopped on the scale at the gym and got yet another shock. The numbers on the left are from last Sunday, and the ones on the right are from today. Overall it seems I dropped some fat while putting on some muscle, and that happened in just 6 days! The weigh-in yesterday (the one that started this thread) happened in the morning before I used the bathroom, so like some of you pointed out, it could be water and other stuff in my system pushing the total up a bit. Essentially across those 6 days, I ended up down 0.9kg... When I got home I weighed myself on the home scale and it read 0.4kg higher than the gym scale, so it is not exactly accurate... regardless, it is one more sign of how great Reta is. Sure, I backed it up with a strict diet, tough workouts and averaging 7h of sleep a night... but even so this compound lets you shed fat and build muscle at the same time! And by the way, don't read too much into my height being slightly different on the scale printouts, I probably just stood a little differently when I weighed in. Anyway I'm 177cm, as far as I recall