Dialing back RT while lifting

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lastresort

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I am looking if anyone had negative effects of reducing retatrutide doses.

I am currently using RT 15mg and 700mg/week T propionate weekly, and while it helped me break through the 240lb plateau, I am also wondering if the high RT dose is blunting muscle synthesis. I have read different anecdotes and the mechanisms of RT, and it came down to three information:

1. Chronic GCG receptor activation downregulatrs mTOR activation, which reduces muslce synthesis and therefore essentially catabolic.

2. However, retatrutide also prioritizes lipid oxidation over amino acid oxidation, therefore not as muscle wasting.

3. Anabolics prevent muscle catabolism pathways, increase nitrogen retention and muscle synthesis.

The question is whether it's still necessary for me to use 15mg retatrutide. I have started at 2mg in March, and steadily increased to 4mg, 6mg, 8mg, 12mg and 14mg. Granted, I have not had time (and unfortunately, money due to several unexpected expenses) to do DEXA scan, but increaseing reta doses didn't particulalry accelerate my weight reduction.

At the same time, some people wrote that adding reta to anabolics made it much much easier to cut, but muscle growth was noticeably less.

Would it make sense to try dialing back retatrutide dose and see what happens?

EDIT: my average food intake is protein 200-240g, carbohyrate 170-200g, and fat <40g.
 
I'm at 12mg a week and also thinking I need to cut back. I am undereating my cut macros. Thinking about 6mg a week for my December lean bulk. I going to have to force down some carbs and 2 more meals of chicken/beef/pork a day to hit the macros I want.

This is a typical day for me, which is not enough, aiming for 2,114 kcal | 224.5g P | 73g F | 181g C (123g Net C)

Daily Total: August 12

Calories: ~1491 kcal

Protein: ~144g

Net Carbohydrates: ~59g

Fats: ~72g

Itemized Breakdown

Nurri 30g Protein Shake: 150 kcal | 30g protein | 2g net carbs | 1.5g fat

12.0 oz Simply Nature 85/15 Ground Beef (3 patties): 720 kcal | 63g protein | 0g net carbs | 51g fat

2 Aunt Millie’s Live Carb Smart Buns: 100 kcal | 12g protein | 6g net carbs | 3g fat

4 tbsp G Hughes Maple Brown BBQ Sauce: 20 kcal | 0g protein | 4g net carbs | 0g fat

1 Medium Banana (118g): 105 kcal | 1.3g protein | 24g net carbs | 0.4g fat

1/2 cup Meijer Cottage Cheese: 80 kcal | 12g protein | 6g net carbs | 1g fat

1 container Friendly Farms Super Zero Greek Yogurt (Mixed Berry): 90 kcal | 15g protein | 7g net carbs | 0g fat

Fried Onions (1/4 cup estimate): 100 kcal | 1g protein | 8g net carbs | 7g fat

1 Medium Apple: 95 kcal | 0.5g protein | 19g net carbs | 0.3g fat

1/2 cup Mixed Berries: 40 kcal | 0.5g protein | 7g net carbs | 0.2g fat
 
Such1943 said:
I'm at 12mg a week and also thinking I need to cut back. I am undereating my cut macros. Thinking about 6mg a week for my December lean bulk. I going to have to force down some carbs and 2 more meals of chicken/beef/pork a day to hit the macros I want.

This is a typical day for me, which is not enough, aiming for 2,114 kcal | 224.5g P | 73g F | 181g C (123g Net C)

Daily Total: August 12

Calories: ~1491 kcal

Protein: ~144g

Net Carbohydrates: ~59g

Fats: ~72g

Itemized Breakdown

Nurri 30g Protein Shake: 150 kcal | 30g protein | 2g net carbs | 1.5g fat

12.0 oz Simply Nature 85/15 Ground Beef (3 patties): 720 kcal | 63g protein | 0g net carbs | 51g fat

2 Aunt Millie’s Live Carb Smart Buns: 100 kcal | 12g protein | 6g net carbs | 3g fat

4 tbsp G Hughes Maple Brown BBQ Sauce: 20 kcal | 0g protein | 4g net carbs | 0g fat

1 Medium Banana (118g): 105 kcal | 1.3g protein | 24g net carbs | 0.4g fat

1/2 cup Meijer Cottage Cheese: 80 kcal | 12g protein | 6g net carbs | 1g fat

1 container Friendly Farms Super Zero Greek Yogurt (Mixed Berry): 90 kcal | 15g protein | 7g net carbs | 0g fat

Fried Onions (1/4 cup estimate): 100 kcal | 1g protein | 8g net carbs | 7g fat

1 Medium Apple: 95 kcal | 0.5g protein | 19g net carbs | 0.3g fat

1/2 cup Mixed Berries: 40 kcal | 0.5g protein | 7g net carbs | 0.2g fat
Oh you are pretty cutting hard huh.

I pretty much forewent with meat because the cooking smell alone makes me full.
 
I’m getting stronger while cutting but I am on 225mg Test Cyp TRT, 5.5ius gh, 4mg Reta. I train like an animal and eat based on purpose not hunger.

If you eat the Reta won’t hinder getting bigger but Reta can definitely make it harder to eat which could hinder you depending on that a lower dose may be necessary.

You simply are not eating enough to bulk based on the macros you stated.
 
Are you still cutting or bulking? What's your caloric intake at? 700mg is quite a lot, so you should be fine on muscle preservation if you are still cutting. But even so, you will have a hard time building a lot of muscle while cutting. You can build it, but it'll be slow. I don't think the reta is going to hinder it other than making it harder to eat enough. I would drop the dose until you can easily maintain just a slight deficit. Then if you are hitting the weights hard enough, you will slowly recomp. If you are bulking, it's simple. Drop the reta and eat more. It could also be a problem with your training.

My advise for hypertrophy training is to take every working set to total failure. Then on your last set (I do 3 sets per exercise) of each exercise, after you hit failure, knock out partial reps until you cant move the weight more than a couple inches. Every muscle group should be worked two times a week for a total of at least 10-12 sets total for the week (and don't skip legs!). If you take everything to failure, no need to track progressive overload or overthink anything. It should blow you up pretty quickly, especially on 700mg of test.
 
Speaking of training to failure, is it really possible to overtrain?? Everyone says something different and I m like "idk whats right anymore" lol
 
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