Weighing a dose increase against a higher body weight

[woundcarping]

rettta said:

cloratheshadow said:

I've gone 2-3 weeks without the scale moving, and my appetite is definitely back. My titration pace has been quicker than what's advised, though I came across the idea that a larger amount of weight to shed often means a bigger dose is required. After dropping 60 lbs on my own and 20 lbs using Tirz, I still have 75 lbs left to go. On top of that, I'm stacking a small amount of Reta — currently 5mg Tirz alongside 1 mg Reta. Is it a bad idea to keep titrating upward? It's only week 7 for me, but the effect just isn't there the way it was during month 1.

At such a small reta dose, the glucagon agonism probably isn't hitting hard enough. I'm on 8 mgs myself, yet I'm thinking about adding triz or sema because hunger is still an issue. Reta hasn't done much for my appetite, though fat loss continues at a slow pace. One option might be to alternate your triz and reta stack.

From what I can gather, GCGR effects scale with the dose. My thinking—past and present—has been to push Reta upward as fast as side effects permit; if not for the GCGR component, there'd be little point over Tirz... that is, if the aim is shedding the big'n label.

 

[rettta]

woundcarping said:

rettta said:

cloratheshadow said:

I've gone 2-3 weeks without the scale moving, and my appetite is definitely back. My titration pace has been quicker than what's advised, though I came across the idea that a larger amount of weight to shed often means a bigger dose is required. After dropping 60 lbs on my own and 20 lbs using Tirz, I still have 75 lbs left to go. On top of that, I'm stacking a small amount of Reta — currently 5mg Tirz alongside 1 mg Reta. Is it a bad idea to keep titrating upward? It's only week 7 for me, but the effect just isn't there the way it was during month 1.

At such a small reta dose, the glucagon agonism probably isn't hitting hard enough. I'm on 8 mgs myself, yet I'm thinking about adding triz or sema because hunger is still an issue. Reta hasn't done much for my appetite, though fat loss continues at a slow pace. One option might be to alternate your triz and reta stack.

From what I can gather, GCGR effects scale with the dose. My thinking—past and present—has been to push Reta upward as fast as side effects permit; if not for the GCGR component, there'd be little point over Tirz... that is, if the aim is shedding the big'n label.

100% with you on that — same reasoning on my end. I'm clearly not a physician, just an anonymous person on the internet, but my impression is that the reta is likely doing nothing for that poster, or is simply going to waste.

 

[BNLFL]

cloratheshadow said:

woundcarping said:

In trial data, the percentage of weight lost goes up as the dose goes up, but the extra benefit shrinks at larger doses and is usually capped by side effects, assuming a cap exists.

If you are a big’un, receptors are not something worth worrying about.

Big un cracks me up can't help myself, I'm basically a dog — motivated by food

A Married with Children Al Bundy situation, except what he meant was large TaTa's.

 

[FarmgirlRebel]

cloratheshadow said:

5byfive said:

Overall, I'd say the 5:1 Tirz:Reta ratio seems fairly reasonable. A stall lasting a couple weeks is bound to occur, so I wouldn't recommend making a change just because of that. Since you're on a low dose, increasing it makes sense, but first I'd ask: is your diet fully dialed in? Are you consuming a solid amount of protein and sufficient calories? Ideally, aim for 1g per lb of protein and a deficit of around 500-700 at most. If you're hungry and you aren't doing this, or you're unsure whether you are, it's likely a diet problem rather than a medication problem. If a diet tweak can resolve it, that's always the preferable route; if not, then I'd suggest bumping it.

My nutrition is locked in pretty tightly. I keep carbs low, stick to Whole Foods, avoid any liquid calories, and land near 1700 calories daily (maintenance for me sits at 2300), with plenty of lean protein. I’m still dropping a little, but holding a calorie deficit has become genuinely tough. It seems like the Tirz stops working entirely within a couple of days, and then the food noise and hunger come rushing back.

I'm not familiar enough with your situation to give real guidance.

That said, for me personally, consuming 1700 calories daily would be far too much to drop meaningful pounds each week, no matter how clean the food is. My own approach has been aiming at 1200 calories per day with a lot of protein, and I haven't stalled yet. I'll be honest, though: on 5mg Tirz, my food noise has pretty much vanished, so some days I fall short of that 1200 calorie goal.

Lately I started adding 1mg of Reta in the middle of the week, since my plan is to raise Reta for maintenance and bring Tirz down to a microdose.

Down 65lbs, 61 yr old female, on Tirz since Dec 1st.

 

[cloratheshadow]

FarmgirlRebel said:

cloratheshadow said:

5byfive said:

Overall, I'd say the 5:1 Tirz:Reta ratio seems fairly reasonable. A stall lasting a couple weeks is bound to occur, so I wouldn't recommend making a change just because of that. Since you're on a low dose, increasing it makes sense, but first I'd ask: is your diet fully dialed in? Are you consuming a solid amount of protein and sufficient calories? Ideally, aim for 1g per lb of protein and a deficit of around 500-700 at most. If you're hungry and you aren't doing this, or you're unsure whether you are, it's likely a diet problem rather than a medication problem. If a diet tweak can resolve it, that's always the preferable route; if not, then I'd suggest bumping it.

My nutrition is locked in pretty tightly. I keep carbs low, stick to Whole Foods, avoid any liquid calories, and land near 1700 calories daily (maintenance for me sits at 2300), with plenty of lean protein. I’m still dropping a little, but holding a calorie deficit has become genuinely tough. It seems like the Tirz stops working entirely within a couple of days, and then the food noise and hunger come rushing back.

I'm not familiar enough with your situation to give real guidance.

That said, for me personally, consuming 1700 calories daily would be far too much to drop meaningful pounds each week, no matter how clean the food is. My own approach has been aiming at 1200 calories per day with a lot of protein, and I haven't stalled yet. I'll be honest, though: on 5mg Tirz, my food noise has pretty much vanished, so some days I fall short of that 1200 calorie goal.

Lately I started adding 1mg of Reta in the middle of the week, since my plan is to raise Reta for maintenance and bring Tirz down to a microdose.

Down 65lbs, 61 yr old female, on Tirz since Dec 1st.

At 260 lbs, 1200 calories is way too little for someone my size. I'd rather not sacrifice muscle if there's a way to avoid it. Eating only 1200 daily would put me at a deficit above 1000 calories for my body Still, nice work on dropping that weight, man!!

 

[Neptide]

cloratheshadow said:

I've gone 2-3 weeks without the scale moving, and my appetite is definitely back. My titration pace has been quicker than what's advised, though I came across the idea that a larger amount of weight to shed often means a bigger dose is required. After dropping 60 lbs on my own and 20 lbs using Tirz, I still have 75 lbs left to go. On top of that, I'm stacking a small amount of Reta — currently 5mg Tirz alongside 1 mg Reta. Is it a bad idea to keep titrating upward? It's only week 7 for me, but the effect just isn't there the way it was during month 1.

At week 7, you're still in the early stages of this process. I had to keep in mind that Glp-1s aren't miracle drugs—they function more as tools that help with lifestyle adjustments. Once I moved up to 7.5 at week 9, I saw additional weight loss.

 

[lessthanhalf]

With 60+75 lbs still to shed, it's very likely that at some point you'll have to move up to the standard max doses of 15mg tirz, or the equivalent if you're stacking with reta — and maybe beyond that if your goal still isn't reached. None of that means you should hurry to get there. The chief argument against raising doses is side effects, and I haven't seen you mention any. Plus, being hungry is a solid sign that your current dose isn't producing much gastrointestinal trouble, so bumping it up carries a low risk of side effects. Expecting huge weight loss while staying on low doses usually doesn't pan out.

One more factor: you've already dropped 60 lbs, and that changes both how the medication may act on you and your energy expenditure. Losing that much lowers energy expenditure noticeably and ramps up hunger, so your present doses might only be holding you at this new lower weight rather than letting you continue losing. To even guess at how big this effect is, I'd need age, height, activity levels, and how long you've been losing. But if your current calorie deficit was calculated from your starting weight, those numbers may no longer hold. For me, energy expenditure fell by half going from 145kg to 75kg, and weight loss went from 6kg per month to 0 kg per month on the exact same calorie intake.

 

[hoobz]

birdwhacker said:

hoobz said:

birdwhacker said:

I get it, man — I'm right there with you on the hunger. One thing to keep in mind: adding more is always an option, but taking it back isn't.

For me, it took a full 2 weeks before the appetite suppression really kicked in. My starting point was 0.5mg reta, and I kept pushing the dose up until I reached 2mg for the week; after that I moved to 1mg every 3 days. These days I'm at 2mg every 3 days and I'm thinking about adding cagri or tirz on top.

Don't stick to a once-a-week schedule. Cut your dose in half and take it every three days. Switch back and forth between the reta and the tirz. Let it do its thing for a while, but if you still need the appetite suppression, go ahead and push the dose higher. Every so often I'll add a small 0.5-1mg touchup in between doses.

A few days back I had a podcast on featuring a doctor. His point was that weekly dosing works out better, since the gaps let the peptide clear out somewhat and the receptors get resensitized. That way, he said, you can keep using the peptide longer and get more out of lower doses. Which doctor it was, I can't recall. Still, the idea seems interesting and fairly logical to me. When you switched between once a week and every 3-4 days, did anything feel different?

Chili777 said:

cloratheshadow said:

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

The thought makes me anxious, since I've come across talk of frying your receptors and folks reaching a point where it stops working. But truthfully, it already isn't doing much for me, so... my body is clearly signaling that I should go up. I'm still dropping a very small amount, though that's coming from working out and fighting hard to stay in a calorie deficit. I'll bump it up and hope that does the trick!

At the doses that have been studied, the idea that GLP1s might cause sensor desensitization does not hold up. These drugs act throughout the body rather than targeting one specific receptor group the way a lot of peptides do, so that problem has been shown not to occur. That means you can increase your dose gradually without worry, stopping once you notice it is doing its job.

It feels like anything you hear from a podcast, a content creator, or a blog turns out to be untrue. Everyone is trying to profit off the GLP boom by chasing clicks. Every one of them has an affiliate link. I would put money on that doctor from the podcast being in the business of selling peptides and wellness supplements.

A few days ago, my stepmom sent me a video where a guy was discussing Reta and making up studies for his content. She actually left a comment asking for more information, and what did he do? He sent her a PDF of a fabricated study with made-up results, claiming that taking 0.25mg of reta for anti aging has benefits. Scattered all over it were, as you can probably guess, affiliate links.

Believe nothing unless it comes from some anonymous person on this forum who states it with total certainty.

Yeah, yeah. For me, nothing counts except solid scientific proof I've got to dig deeper into this. Sure, what seems like common sense frequently turns out to be wrong, but I found it worth noting and figured I'd check it against what people in this community have actually gone through.

 

[birdwhacker]

hoobz said:

birdwhacker said:

hoobz said:

birdwhacker said:

I get it, man — I'm right there with you on the hunger. One thing to keep in mind: adding more is always an option, but taking it back isn't.

For me, it took a full 2 weeks before the appetite suppression really kicked in. My starting point was 0.5mg reta, and I kept pushing the dose up until I reached 2mg for the week; after that I moved to 1mg every 3 days. These days I'm at 2mg every 3 days and I'm thinking about adding cagri or tirz on top.

Don't stick to a once-a-week schedule. Cut your dose in half and take it every three days. Switch back and forth between the reta and the tirz. Let it do its thing for a while, but if you still need the appetite suppression, go ahead and push the dose higher. Every so often I'll add a small 0.5-1mg touchup in between doses.

A few days back I had a podcast on featuring a doctor. His point was that weekly dosing works out better, since the gaps let the peptide clear out somewhat and the receptors get resensitized. That way, he said, you can keep using the peptide longer and get more out of lower doses. Which doctor it was, I can't recall. Still, the idea seems interesting and fairly logical to me. When you switched between once a week and every 3-4 days, did anything feel different?

Chili777 said:

cloratheshadow said:

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

The thought makes me anxious, since I've come across talk of frying your receptors and folks reaching a point where it stops working. But truthfully, it already isn't doing much for me, so... my body is clearly signaling that I should go up. I'm still dropping a very small amount, though that's coming from working out and fighting hard to stay in a calorie deficit. I'll bump it up and hope that does the trick!

At the doses that have been studied, the idea that GLP1s might cause sensor desensitization does not hold up. These drugs act throughout the body rather than targeting one specific receptor group the way a lot of peptides do, so that problem has been shown not to occur. That means you can increase your dose gradually without worry, stopping once you notice it is doing its job.

It feels like anything you hear from a podcast, a content creator, or a blog turns out to be untrue. Everyone is trying to profit off the GLP boom by chasing clicks. Every one of them has an affiliate link. I would put money on that doctor from the podcast being in the business of selling peptides and wellness supplements.

A few days ago, my stepmom sent me a video where a guy was discussing Reta and making up studies for his content. She actually left a comment asking for more information, and what did he do? He sent her a PDF of a fabricated study with made-up results, claiming that taking 0.25mg of reta for anti aging has benefits. Scattered all over it were, as you can probably guess, affiliate links.

Believe nothing unless it comes from some anonymous person on this forum who states it with total certainty.

Yeah, yeah. For me, nothing counts except solid scientific proof I've got to dig deeper into this. Sure, what seems like common sense frequently turns out to be wrong, but I found it worth noting and figured I'd check it against what people in this community have actually gone through.

That's what I have the least faith in. Following hard scientific evidence landed me in the hospital for a week following my second pfizer shot. No way — I'll keep relying on circumstantial, anecdote-based evidence from overconfident forum goers.

 

[HereKittyKitty]

5byfive said:

Overall, I'd say the 5:1 Tirz:Reta ratio seems fairly reasonable. A stall lasting a couple weeks is bound to occur, so I wouldn't recommend making a change just because of that. Since you're on a low dose, increasing it makes sense, but first I'd ask: is your diet fully dialed in? Are you consuming a solid amount of protein and sufficient calories? Ideally, aim for 1g per lb of protein and a deficit of around 500-700 at most. If you're hungry and you aren't doing this, or you're unsure whether you are, it's likely a diet problem rather than a medication problem. If a diet tweak can resolve it, that's always the preferable route; if not, then I'd suggest bumping it.

Getting enough sleep is important as well.

 

[BNLFL]

HereKittyKitty said:

5byfive said:

Overall, I'd say the 5:1 Tirz:Reta ratio seems fairly reasonable. A stall lasting a couple weeks is bound to occur, so I wouldn't recommend making a change just because of that. Since you're on a low dose, increasing it makes sense, but first I'd ask: is your diet fully dialed in? Are you consuming a solid amount of protein and sufficient calories? Ideally, aim for 1g per lb of protein and a deficit of around 500-700 at most. If you're hungry and you aren't doing this, or you're unsure whether you are, it's likely a diet problem rather than a medication problem. If a diet tweak can resolve it, that's always the preferable route; if not, then I'd suggest bumping it.

Getting enough sleep is important as well.

100% correct across the board.

 

[hoobz]

birdwhacker said:

hoobz said:

birdwhacker said:

hoobz said:

birdwhacker said:

I get it, man — I'm right there with you on the hunger. One thing to keep in mind: adding more is always an option, but taking it back isn't.

For me, it took a full 2 weeks before the appetite suppression really kicked in. My starting point was 0.5mg reta, and I kept pushing the dose up until I reached 2mg for the week; after that I moved to 1mg every 3 days. These days I'm at 2mg every 3 days and I'm thinking about adding cagri or tirz on top.

Don't stick to a once-a-week schedule. Cut your dose in half and take it every three days. Switch back and forth between the reta and the tirz. Let it do its thing for a while, but if you still need the appetite suppression, go ahead and push the dose higher. Every so often I'll add a small 0.5-1mg touchup in between doses.

A few days back I had a podcast on featuring a doctor. His point was that weekly dosing works out better, since the gaps let the peptide clear out somewhat and the receptors get resensitized. That way, he said, you can keep using the peptide longer and get more out of lower doses. Which doctor it was, I can't recall. Still, the idea seems interesting and fairly logical to me. When you switched between once a week and every 3-4 days, did anything feel different?

Chili777 said:

cloratheshadow said:

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

The thought makes me anxious, since I've come across talk of frying your receptors and folks reaching a point where it stops working. But truthfully, it already isn't doing much for me, so... my body is clearly signaling that I should go up. I'm still dropping a very small amount, though that's coming from working out and fighting hard to stay in a calorie deficit. I'll bump it up and hope that does the trick!

At the doses that have been studied, the idea that GLP1s might cause sensor desensitization does not hold up. These drugs act throughout the body rather than targeting one specific receptor group the way a lot of peptides do, so that problem has been shown not to occur. That means you can increase your dose gradually without worry, stopping once you notice it is doing its job.

It feels like anything you hear from a podcast, a content creator, or a blog turns out to be untrue. Everyone is trying to profit off the GLP boom by chasing clicks. Every one of them has an affiliate link. I would put money on that doctor from the podcast being in the business of selling peptides and wellness supplements.

A few days ago, my stepmom sent me a video where a guy was discussing Reta and making up studies for his content. She actually left a comment asking for more information, and what did he do? He sent her a PDF of a fabricated study with made-up results, claiming that taking 0.25mg of reta for anti aging has benefits. Scattered all over it were, as you can probably guess, affiliate links.

Believe nothing unless it comes from some anonymous person on this forum who states it with total certainty.

Yeah, yeah. For me, nothing counts except solid scientific proof I've got to dig deeper into this. Sure, what seems like common sense frequently turns out to be wrong, but I found it worth noting and figured I'd check it against what people in this community have actually gone through.

That's what I have the least faith in. Following hard scientific evidence landed me in the hospital for a week following my second pfizer shot. No way — I'll keep relying on circumstantial, anecdote-based evidence from overconfident forum goers.

It's rough that you landed in the hospital — I hope you're doing better now. In my case, that injection you brought up did the job nicely. Science appeals to me since it keeps feelings apart from data and stories apart from numbers. Sure, it isn't flawless, yet nothing better seems available. And it keeps reminding me to stay humble.

 

[TeresaHip]

cloratheshadow said:

On top of that, my stomach is still emptying at a fairly slow pace, yet my appetite is unmistakably back. I also have 1 vial of Cagri on the way, so I’ll be able to give that a try too.

Cag doesn't come up often in this community.

 

[derekd419]

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

I'm new around here, so could someone explain what "food noise" actually refers to? I've come across it a handful of times while chatting on this site

 

[deleted.user.16]

derekd419 said:

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

I'm new around here, so could someone explain what "food noise" actually refers to? I've come across it a handful of times while chatting on this site

My take is that it refers to the hunger or cravings that sit in the background between meals, when food isn't something you're trying to focus on?

 

[5byfive]

For me, it's like a steady pulse running in the back of my mind — 'what can I eat' or 'when's my next meal'. It's planning dinner while lunch is still in front of me. Hunger has nothing to do with it; it's the urge to eat purely for the sake of eating. It isn't loud so much as it never lets up, with food just perpetually sitting there in my thoughts.

 

[CathyGoesFar]

cloratheshadow said:

5byfive said:

Given that you're sticking to a solid diet, it seems like increasing the dose and/or dividing it might be appropriate now. The downside to dividing is that steadier levels in your body could make tolerance develop more easily, unlike the peaks and troughs from a once-weekly injection. This is just a theory, but it's logical. If it were me, I'd lean toward a small dose increase rather than splitting, though either approach works.

I used to split it, but I found that suppression worked better when I took it every 5 or 6 days rather than every 3! Still, I'm hoping that adding a little bit of Reta will give an extra boost

That matches what I've seen too. For me, dosing every 5 days works best. One thing to keep in mind: reta's half life runs a bit longer, so it will build to a somewhat higher steady state. Nothing major, though. In the trials, people begin at 2 mg. I simply dose it every 5 days alongside my tirz, and I figure I'll shift to 6 days once it begins replacing more of the tirz.

 

[usmccruchy]

cloratheshadow said:

I've gone 2-3 weeks without the scale moving, and my appetite is definitely back. My titration pace has been quicker than what's advised, though I came across the idea that a larger amount of weight to shed often means a bigger dose is required. After dropping 60 lbs on my own and 20 lbs using Tirz, I still have 75 lbs left to go. On top of that, I'm stacking a small amount of Reta — currently 5mg Tirz alongside 1 mg Reta. Is it a bad idea to keep titrating upward? It's only week 7 for me, but the effect just isn't there the way it was during month 1.

based on what i've gone through.... whenever a stall shows up and those hunger signals start, i tack on 15 more minutes of cardio and raise the tirz. on top of that, i change up what i'm eating during a stall. my diet is already fairly solid. but i'll move to salmon with brown rice and broccoli for both lunch and dinner across the whole week. it starts to get pretty rough, though in my case it does the job.

 

[randompersonrandom]

birdwhacker said:

hoobz said:

birdwhacker said:

I get it, man — I'm right there with you on the hunger. One thing to keep in mind: adding more is always an option, but taking it back isn't.

For me, it took a full 2 weeks before the appetite suppression really kicked in. My starting point was 0.5mg reta, and I kept pushing the dose up until I reached 2mg for the week; after that I moved to 1mg every 3 days. These days I'm at 2mg every 3 days and I'm thinking about adding cagri or tirz on top.

Don't stick to a once-a-week schedule. Cut your dose in half and take it every three days. Switch back and forth between the reta and the tirz. Let it do its thing for a while, but if you still need the appetite suppression, go ahead and push the dose higher. Every so often I'll add a small 0.5-1mg touchup in between doses.

A few days back I had a podcast on featuring a doctor. His point was that weekly dosing works out better, since the gaps let the peptide clear out somewhat and the receptors get resensitized. That way, he said, you can keep using the peptide longer and get more out of lower doses. Which doctor it was, I can't recall. Still, the idea seems interesting and fairly logical to me. When you switched between once a week and every 3-4 days, did anything feel different?

Chili777 said:

cloratheshadow said:

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

The thought makes me anxious, since I've come across talk of frying your receptors and folks reaching a point where it stops working. But truthfully, it already isn't doing much for me, so... my body is clearly signaling that I should go up. I'm still dropping a very small amount, though that's coming from working out and fighting hard to stay in a calorie deficit. I'll bump it up and hope that does the trick!

At the doses that have been studied, the idea that GLP1s might cause sensor desensitization does not hold up. These drugs act throughout the body rather than targeting one specific receptor group the way a lot of peptides do, so that problem has been shown not to occur. That means you can increase your dose gradually without worry, stopping once you notice it is doing its job.

It feels like anything you hear from a podcast, a content creator, or a blog turns out to be untrue. Everyone is trying to profit off the GLP boom by chasing clicks. Every one of them has an affiliate link. I would put money on that doctor from the podcast being in the business of selling peptides and wellness supplements.

A few days ago, my stepmom sent me a video where a guy was discussing Reta and making up studies for his content. She actually left a comment asking for more information, and what did he do? He sent her a PDF of a fabricated study with made-up results, claiming that taking 0.25mg of reta for anti aging has benefits. Scattered all over it were, as you can probably guess, affiliate links.

Believe nothing unless it comes from some anonymous person on this forum who states it with total certainty.

That would be a PERFECT signature.

 

[derekd419]

deleted.user.16 said:

derekd419 said:

woundcarping said:

Just raise your Tirz — no need to overthink it.

The main way Tirz operates is by cutting how much you eat, since it lowers hunger and quiets food noise. There’s still a lot of room for you to go up.

I'm new around here, so could someone explain what "food noise" actually refers to? I've come across it a handful of times while chatting on this site

My take is that it refers to the hunger or cravings that sit in the background between meals, when food isn't something you're trying to focus on?

Got it, that clears things up. During my first 3-4 months on tirz I ran into this often, though at this point it has mostly gone away