I know itchy/sensitive skin can be a side, although I wasn't aware of dry eyes.px1984 said:
Either way, it's peak allergy season for me at the moment so impossible to tell if that might be a side for me or just a way of life at this time of year
Reta 的开始 - 博客
- Thread starter UnusualLLama
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Either way, it's peak allergy season for me at the moment so impossible to tell if that might be a side for me or just a way of life at this time of year
So last night my RHR was apparently 50bpm, which is out of my typical range.
It was this point after the first pinning when I noticed the first real increase (2-days post-pinning) and now that there's more reta in my system than last week, I guess I can see it makes sense with this incrase.
That being said, could be an anomalous measurement. I ate a bit later yesterday, I definitely still felt like I had food in my stomach when I went to sleep, and late-eating always put a bump on my RHR.
In addition to this, I've noticed a decrease in my HRV over the course of the last week or so. I might try some breathwork to see if I can't improve that, otherwise continue monitoring.
It was this point after the first pinning when I noticed the first real increase (2-days post-pinning) and now that there's more reta in my system than last week, I guess I can see it makes sense with this incrase.
That being said, could be an anomalous measurement. I ate a bit later yesterday, I definitely still felt like I had food in my stomach when I went to sleep, and late-eating always put a bump on my RHR.
In addition to this, I've noticed a decrease in my HRV over the course of the last week or so. I might try some breathwork to see if I can't improve that, otherwise continue monitoring.
Yup, still at 1mg as it’s only week 2. My assumption about having more reta in the system is just down to the half life - so there’ll still be some of week one’s dose floating around in me on top of week 2’s 1mg dose.px1984 said:
It's doubtful that you will get any results from 1mg, 2mg is typically a better starting dose. However looking at your numbers, I would guess that you have visceral fat that is bothering you. Often those that regularly work out have a bit of a belly that they just can't get rid of, not body fat. Tesamorlin is a better choice for visceral fat that wraps your organs. It will also release some HGH which will help you build muscle. I use both for a super charged weight lossUnusualLLama said:
I don't agree that 2mg is a better starting dose. I think it's entirely dependent upon the person and how they react, so having a "this is the best dose to start on" set in stone is really not a great idea in my honest opinion.Lovedog100 said:
I do agree that 2mg is what the trials are using, however.
But yeah, I'm already seeing results on 1mg. So we keep going with this for now. The smart approach in my book is the lowest functional dose.
The situation is just as it ought to be. Your reta shots have not yet begun to work, The reta in your blood that touched your heart is from the first dose...your incredibly rapid beating probably lulled the Reta into a deep slumber instead of rushing. I wonder, if your RHR is 40, when you are asleep, did any necromancer try raising you and then tearfully question his manhood?
Also, did you notice any energy fluctuations after retatruding began?
Also, did you notice any energy fluctuations after retatruding began?
THIS is what I need to read up on. I am keenly interested in the Reta + Tesa combo. Initially, I thought they were redundant but the more I read, I do see people taking both. I am a total noob but, along with Tesa, it does seem reasonable to to use just 1mg of Reta. In fact, I see where people say they plan to indefinitely take 1mg of Reta for overall wellness ... Super intriguingLovedog100 said:
Ive started on 0.5mg of Reta to understand what sides i will get and what effect it has, certainly seeing the early impact on scales which is positive. Plan to scale up over a month and see how it goes, feels like its the sensible option as its not all time critical.Lovedog100 said:
Ive defo got some subcutaneous fat to lose first but Tesamorlin looks interesting as a potential next stage and generally i am concerned about how to manage weight loss with losing muscle mass.
Is stacking a Reta/Tesa an option for trying to keep weight down but preserve muscle?
我想这就是为什么我的猫每天早上都会叫醒我，确认我还活着。Smiter said:
它们能感知到这种事，比人们想象的要聪明得多。
聪明到什么程度呢？这些混蛋居然会在凌晨五点爬到窗户上，把窗帘从中间拉开，让阳光直射我的眼睛。
这一切都是为了确认我是否还活着。
聪明。
或许也很邪恶。
服用瑞达一个月后，我开始服用特沙莫林。对我来说，特沙莫林的效果显著提升。我讨厌每周五天的注射，而且它确实会影响我的睡眠。但是，两种药物联合使用，效果简直太棒了。px1984 said:
Another week down!
Basic stats
Male
Mid-40's
5'10/178cm
Weight as of this morning - 76.5.9kg/168.6536lbs (Down from 77.9kg/171.7401lbs)
Rolling 7-day average is down 0.7kg/1.54324lbs (same average as last week)
Estimated body fat - Down 0.6% (I'm using a withings scale, I know it's not super accurate, but I'm watching trends)
Average resting heart rate - 46-48 (was 44-47)
Average blood pressure - 113/71 (was 110/72)
Current dose - 1mg reta
Thoughts and observations
Not a whole lot has changed from last week in regards to my thoughts and observations other than seeing consistency in the patterns.
Weight is coming down nicely, and I know most of it is fat. My lifts in the gym have all either held steady of seen marginal improvement, although improvement could also be the result of me dropping to 3x strength sessions p/w instead of 5x, thus giving me more recovery between (which was the main goal of dropping to 3x for a while).
And the other reason I know most of it is fat is because I can visibly see the difference in certain areas of the body as well as noting vascularity more easily.
When it comes to the heart-rate stuff that's largely the same as the first week, though now I really see the pattern.
Typically, 24ish hours after pinning, I'll see the small 2-3bpm jump in my RHR which holds steadily for 3-4 days and then starts to lower back to base, same with my working-heart rate (easier to get into working zones, peaks/max zones still the same levels).
And this ties into food noise/hunger quite noticeably as well. Typically speaking, a day or two before pinning is when I'll start to become more aware of hunger and the chatter. It's not so much that it's an issue, but I feel the difference.
And with that in mind, I'm actually considering upping my dose to 1.5 or even 2mg. I recall reading somewhere that if you start to feel food noise and hunger before pinning day, it's probably an indication of needing to up your dose a little bit more.
Other than that everything is going great. No sides to speak of (no nausea, no sleep troubles, only a very slight increase in HR). I think I mentioned this in my last update but possibly the only side I can really point out would be the occasional headache induced by a lack of fluids.
I'm normally on top of my fluids and hydration, but there'll always be a day where for whatever reason you might be lacking a bit and that's something I've always been a little bit sensitive to.
But solid progress overall, we keep grinding on!
Basic stats
Male
Mid-40's
5'10/178cm
Weight as of this morning - 76.5.9kg/168.6536lbs (Down from 77.9kg/171.7401lbs)
Rolling 7-day average is down 0.7kg/1.54324lbs (same average as last week)
Estimated body fat - Down 0.6% (I'm using a withings scale, I know it's not super accurate, but I'm watching trends)
Average resting heart rate - 46-48 (was 44-47)
Average blood pressure - 113/71 (was 110/72)
Current dose - 1mg reta
Thoughts and observations
Not a whole lot has changed from last week in regards to my thoughts and observations other than seeing consistency in the patterns.
Weight is coming down nicely, and I know most of it is fat. My lifts in the gym have all either held steady of seen marginal improvement, although improvement could also be the result of me dropping to 3x strength sessions p/w instead of 5x, thus giving me more recovery between (which was the main goal of dropping to 3x for a while).
And the other reason I know most of it is fat is because I can visibly see the difference in certain areas of the body as well as noting vascularity more easily.
When it comes to the heart-rate stuff that's largely the same as the first week, though now I really see the pattern.
Typically, 24ish hours after pinning, I'll see the small 2-3bpm jump in my RHR which holds steadily for 3-4 days and then starts to lower back to base, same with my working-heart rate (easier to get into working zones, peaks/max zones still the same levels).
And this ties into food noise/hunger quite noticeably as well. Typically speaking, a day or two before pinning is when I'll start to become more aware of hunger and the chatter. It's not so much that it's an issue, but I feel the difference.
And with that in mind, I'm actually considering upping my dose to 1.5 or even 2mg. I recall reading somewhere that if you start to feel food noise and hunger before pinning day, it's probably an indication of needing to up your dose a little bit more.
Other than that everything is going great. No sides to speak of (no nausea, no sleep troubles, only a very slight increase in HR). I think I mentioned this in my last update but possibly the only side I can really point out would be the occasional headache induced by a lack of fluids.
I'm normally on top of my fluids and hydration, but there'll always be a day where for whatever reason you might be lacking a bit and that's something I've always been a little bit sensitive to.
But solid progress overall, we keep grinding on!
I've been considering that as well, though to be honest, on such a small dose, I don't think upping to 1.5/2 once weekly is an issue.px1984 said:
In addition to that, I'm also curious to see if that would have more of an impact on my heart rate as well or if it would be the same, small increase, but more consistently over the course of the week.
And that's another week in the bag!
Basic stats
Male
Mid-40's
5'10/178cm
Weight as of this morning - 75.9.kg/167.3309lbs (Down from 76.5.kg/168.6536lbs)
Rolling 7-day average is down 0.8kg/1.7637lbs (tiny bit higher than last week)
Estimated body fat - Down 0.3% (I'm using a withings scale, I know it's not super accurate, but I'm watching trends - fwiw since starting withings thinks I'm down 1.4% BF total and up 1.3% muscle mass)
Average resting heart rate - 46-48 (same as last week)
Average blood pressure - 112/69 (was 113/71)
Current dose - 1mg reta previously, yesterday I upped to 2mg
Thoughts and observations
The main thing of note here is that nothing really changed from last week, everything I reported then is still true this time around. The only difference now is I decided to up my dose to 2mg instead of 1mg.
This isn't a result of "I don't think this is working" because it clearly is, I see it visibly, the numbers show it, everything tells me it is. The only reason is because in the last couple of days before pinning it gets a bit more difficult.
It will be interesting to see how much of a correlation there is between dose and heart-rate and I'll update on any sides but I think it'll be fine.
Muscle retention rant
Probably going to go on a bit here but this has been playing on my mind quite a bit over the last week or so, especially after I saw the trends from my withings scale showing consistently higher lean mass numbers and smaller fat numbers.
Taking that at face value, it means that I'm burning fat and building muscle. I definitely am burning fat, as for building muscle I'm uncertain, but what I feel more certain about is that I'm not losing muscle. And that's one of the things that I was concerned about with reta. I said it in my initial post, I want to get lean and retain as much muscle as possible, but everywhere you read reta is portrayed as some muscle eating compound that you could shoot into the Hulk to change him back into Bruce Bana.
But I don't think that's the case.
So here's a few points I've been mulling over that I want to bring up.
1. All the studies show something like 25-30% lean mass reduction on people taking Reta. But this is misleading. The knee-jerk reaction of the world seems to be that lean mass = muscle, but that's not true.
Lean mass has a lot of things to it, and when talking about muscle specifically, it's not even all muscle. There's a lot of water in it (do a heavy leg workout that you feel the next day, I can easily weigh 1kg more than I should), intra-muscular fat, all sorts of things that add up to that number. But we see lean mass on the studies, and people immediately think muscle.
2. Again, the studies. Most of the people in these studies are suffering from clinical obesity and a whole host of other chronic issues, and from what I gather, there's a lot of much older people in the studies as well.
This is important because you have not only people who are metabolically broken, but also probably not doing all of the things you can do to minimise the loss of lean mass when in a calorie deficit. And that leads me nicely onto the next point.
3. Unless you're on a good dose of TRT, juice to the gills with SARMS (or something similar), or you make a swishing sound when you move because your pinning so many peptides into you on a daily basis, then anyone on a calorie deficit is going to lose some lean mass.
Anyone. Everyone.
And that's referring to a regular diet, eating less than you're expending.
The human body is great, incredible, it does a lot of things really really well.
But it's not perfect. You can't figure out the golden ratio of calories in vs. calories out with ideal muscle stimulus and decimal correct protein amounts and think the body will flip a switch and say "I'm only going to be burning 100% fat now". It's not THAT good. If you're in a deficit and losing weight, some will be lean mass.
Sure, you can tweak and do the right things, and minimise the ratio, but you will lose lean mass. End of.
4. This is the point that stands out to me the most, and it's kinda wild that I don't see anyone talking about it now that I've thought about it for a while.
Lean mass to total body weight ratio.
Here's a very rough example to get the idea.
You take someone that's overweight, 50% of their total weight is lean mass, the rest fat.
That person loses weight, let's say with a GLP. And when they reach their goal, scans show they lost 30% lean mass.
Shocking, right? Or is it?
That person started with a lean mass to total weight ratio of 0.5 (for every lb of weight, 0.5 of it was lean mass, the rest fat).
But at the end of the journey, because only 30% of the total weight they lost was lean mass, that means the other 70% was fat.
So now, instead of having a ratio of 0.5 it's probably more like 0.7. They've gone from half of their weight being lean mass to 70% of their weight being lean mass. Not only is that healthier, but that will visibly look a ton better, as well as feeling immensely better.
But this ratio is never highlighted, it's only the "30% lean mass/muscle gone" without giving it the proper nuance it actually needs.
So now that I've rambled way too much, my point is this. I think it's very possible to retain a very good amount of muscle (I said muscle not lean mass for a reason, read above
)on Reta with just a few simple steps.
1. Easy calorie deficit, nothing too extreme. (I understand this might not be the case for everyone, some people have a lot more weight to lose, so you do you).
2. Adequate protein amounts. 1 gram of protein per estimated lb of lean mass (important distinction, lean mass, not muscle).
3. Proper stimulus for the muscles. You don't need to smash the gym 20x per week, just a few workouts where you have 1 or 2 sets in most muscle groups getting within 1-2 reps of failure should do it (I always like to push 1 set to absolute failure on most lifts where viable, don't do this for barbell squats and other compounds etc.)
4. Decent rest and recovery. This is when all of the work you put in is turned into something more than just work. Don't neglect sleep and recovery.
And that's it, rant over. I've typed way too much for something non-work related so I'm out.
Onto the next!
Basic stats
Male
Mid-40's
5'10/178cm
Weight as of this morning - 75.9.kg/167.3309lbs (Down from 76.5.kg/168.6536lbs)
Rolling 7-day average is down 0.8kg/1.7637lbs (tiny bit higher than last week)
Estimated body fat - Down 0.3% (I'm using a withings scale, I know it's not super accurate, but I'm watching trends - fwiw since starting withings thinks I'm down 1.4% BF total and up 1.3% muscle mass)
Average resting heart rate - 46-48 (same as last week)
Average blood pressure - 112/69 (was 113/71)
Current dose - 1mg reta previously, yesterday I upped to 2mg
Thoughts and observations
The main thing of note here is that nothing really changed from last week, everything I reported then is still true this time around. The only difference now is I decided to up my dose to 2mg instead of 1mg.
This isn't a result of "I don't think this is working" because it clearly is, I see it visibly, the numbers show it, everything tells me it is. The only reason is because in the last couple of days before pinning it gets a bit more difficult.
It will be interesting to see how much of a correlation there is between dose and heart-rate and I'll update on any sides but I think it'll be fine.
Muscle retention rant
Probably going to go on a bit here but this has been playing on my mind quite a bit over the last week or so, especially after I saw the trends from my withings scale showing consistently higher lean mass numbers and smaller fat numbers.
Taking that at face value, it means that I'm burning fat and building muscle. I definitely am burning fat, as for building muscle I'm uncertain, but what I feel more certain about is that I'm not losing muscle. And that's one of the things that I was concerned about with reta. I said it in my initial post, I want to get lean and retain as much muscle as possible, but everywhere you read reta is portrayed as some muscle eating compound that you could shoot into the Hulk to change him back into Bruce Bana.
But I don't think that's the case.
So here's a few points I've been mulling over that I want to bring up.
1. All the studies show something like 25-30% lean mass reduction on people taking Reta. But this is misleading. The knee-jerk reaction of the world seems to be that lean mass = muscle, but that's not true.
Lean mass has a lot of things to it, and when talking about muscle specifically, it's not even all muscle. There's a lot of water in it (do a heavy leg workout that you feel the next day, I can easily weigh 1kg more than I should), intra-muscular fat, all sorts of things that add up to that number. But we see lean mass on the studies, and people immediately think muscle.
2. Again, the studies. Most of the people in these studies are suffering from clinical obesity and a whole host of other chronic issues, and from what I gather, there's a lot of much older people in the studies as well.
This is important because you have not only people who are metabolically broken, but also probably not doing all of the things you can do to minimise the loss of lean mass when in a calorie deficit. And that leads me nicely onto the next point.
3. Unless you're on a good dose of TRT, juice to the gills with SARMS (or something similar), or you make a swishing sound when you move because your pinning so many peptides into you on a daily basis, then anyone on a calorie deficit is going to lose some lean mass.
Anyone. Everyone.
And that's referring to a regular diet, eating less than you're expending.
The human body is great, incredible, it does a lot of things really really well.
But it's not perfect. You can't figure out the golden ratio of calories in vs. calories out with ideal muscle stimulus and decimal correct protein amounts and think the body will flip a switch and say "I'm only going to be burning 100% fat now". It's not THAT good. If you're in a deficit and losing weight, some will be lean mass.
Sure, you can tweak and do the right things, and minimise the ratio, but you will lose lean mass. End of.
4. This is the point that stands out to me the most, and it's kinda wild that I don't see anyone talking about it now that I've thought about it for a while.
Lean mass to total body weight ratio.
Here's a very rough example to get the idea.
You take someone that's overweight, 50% of their total weight is lean mass, the rest fat.
That person loses weight, let's say with a GLP. And when they reach their goal, scans show they lost 30% lean mass.
Shocking, right? Or is it?
That person started with a lean mass to total weight ratio of 0.5 (for every lb of weight, 0.5 of it was lean mass, the rest fat).
But at the end of the journey, because only 30% of the total weight they lost was lean mass, that means the other 70% was fat.
So now, instead of having a ratio of 0.5 it's probably more like 0.7. They've gone from half of their weight being lean mass to 70% of their weight being lean mass. Not only is that healthier, but that will visibly look a ton better, as well as feeling immensely better.
But this ratio is never highlighted, it's only the "30% lean mass/muscle gone" without giving it the proper nuance it actually needs.
So now that I've rambled way too much, my point is this. I think it's very possible to retain a very good amount of muscle (I said muscle not lean mass for a reason, read above
)on Reta with just a few simple steps.1. Easy calorie deficit, nothing too extreme. (I understand this might not be the case for everyone, some people have a lot more weight to lose, so you do you).
2. Adequate protein amounts. 1 gram of protein per estimated lb of lean mass (important distinction, lean mass, not muscle).
3. Proper stimulus for the muscles. You don't need to smash the gym 20x per week, just a few workouts where you have 1 or 2 sets in most muscle groups getting within 1-2 reps of failure should do it (I always like to push 1 set to absolute failure on most lifts where viable, don't do this for barbell squats and other compounds etc.)
4. Decent rest and recovery. This is when all of the work you put in is turned into something more than just work. Don't neglect sleep and recovery.
And that's it, rant over. I've typed way too much for something non-work related so I'm out.
Onto the next!
Side note - anyone find themselves drinking less coffee on reta? Maybe less caffeine in general? Because I'm definitely drinking less than I used to, which, for someone living in Sweden, is almost a hangable offence.
Yes! I used to drink coffee throughout the day, even a cup in the evening. Now I get my morning cup but usually I don't even finish it. I also liked an occasional java monster but I have zero desire for those either.UnusualLLama said:
Feels like it’s most cravings, hardly drinking cups of tea when I was doing 5/6 a day and probs had one in two weeks. Also cravings for alcohol dampened a bit and choc/snacks gone completely.UnusualLLama said:
Gonna keep this update fairly short because I've been buried in work for way too long now.
Upped to 2mg last week, still no sides, no other notable differences other than a slight increase in weight lost (even though I've had exactly the same number of calories) and no food noise in the last day or two before pinning.
All other metrics are the same, no increase in HR, resting or active, so the difference between 1mg and 2mg (for me) had no impact on that.
Side note; upper abs are starting to peek through in favorable light conditions!
Upped to 2mg last week, still no sides, no other notable differences other than a slight increase in weight lost (even though I've had exactly the same number of calories) and no food noise in the last day or two before pinning.
All other metrics are the same, no increase in HR, resting or active, so the difference between 1mg and 2mg (for me) had no impact on that.
Side note; upper abs are starting to peek through in favorable light conditions!
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