Second week of Reta and feeling no change

[GortBong]

58m and I started Reta at .5mg 2 weeks ago. I started low since I’m prone to gi issues with new supplements. I didn’t feel anything in terms of appetite suppression or otherwise. The second week I bumped to 1mg and I don’t feel any different. I have started eating clean and focusing on protein and I’m forcing myself to not snack.

My thoughts are to bump up to 2mg for my next dose.

Thoughts?

 

[DunningKruger]

If you're still compelled to snack, I would try 2mg next week, as it's the starting dose in the trials. Plus, by then, your serum levels will have stabilized close to a steady state, meaning the medication’s concentration will be relatively consistent each week.

Once steady state is achieved, you may not need to increase according to standard protocols unless you stop seeing losses for a couple of weeks, or you have ravenous hunger.

I personally never needed to go higher than 3mg, and spent almost the entirety of my 12 week journey to goal at 2mg. The end of the journey was slower with more food noise, but was still consistent with smaller losses. It's been making it really easy to titrate off while increasing calories.

 

[Cannonball72]

Shift to two, but split the dose into 2x/wk (1mg per shot). this will minimize any GI issues.

Also, check your math to make sure your decimal is in the right place. My first recon, I was off by a decimal, way under-dosed.

I was ok with it because my plan was to titrate up slowly and check for adverse reactions first, but I did not intend to do 1/10 of the planned starting dose.

I’m at 3mg/wk now, very happy here for now.

 

[anhydrous]

If I were in your shoes after 2 weeks I would try 1mg every 3.5 days or 2mg once a week.

 

[ronin365]

A few things about Reta. One, it's a peptide, and it's all about signaling. I have heard that gut issues and inflammation can dampen Reta's signaling. For me, I was still pretty responsive to Reta despite inflammation and gut issues once I found the initial sweet spot dosing-wise. I did titrate aggressively. Started at 2mg and settled at 4mg in less than a month.

Some people are super responders and it doesn't take much Reta to get them going. Others it takes a little more. My wife is a super responder. 1 mg was borderline too strong for her and it took a few weeks for the worst of the side effects to settle out. She's been on Reta about two months and she just got bumped up to 1.5mg and is still losing 1 pound a week.

You are more likely to start feeling something around 3-4mg, but that's my guess. If you are concerned about side effects. Don't rush to feel anything. Bump up .5mg every week or every other week until you feel the suppression or see the scale weight change. For most people anything above 3-4mg will give you full activation of Reta on the receptors. Something I did if I had concerns about sides was to inject half the dose on dose day and the second half the day after. That seemed to work fine for me. The only real side effect I deal with these days is feeling that cold burning sensation from time to time like I have flu and a sunburn at the same time. Its mild compared to months ago and feels more like a chill.

One other thought here, and this is my perspective, others may not agree. Don't worry too much about appetite suppression unless you actually have a hard time resisting food. Reta's advantage over the other GLP-1s its ability to boost energy expenditure and burn fat. It's known that its appetite suppression can kick in hard at first and then fade a bit. So you see some people stacking another GLP-1 to get more appetite suppression. Though I think stacking other GLP-1's is likely to blunt Reta's glucagon advantage.

To me, it doesn't bother me that the appetite suppression is not as strong, because its superpower is burning fat, while minimizing muscle loss--assuming you eat enough protein and workout. Most of the time I don't think about food. But if I need to eat more, I can. It's important not to tank your thyroid by eating too little.

Even though I don't have the strong suppression I originally had when I first started, I am still losing weight, and I can still walk away from food even if I really want it. Hope that helps.

 

[CharlieBrown]

58m and I started Reta at .5mg 2 weeks ago. I started low since I’m prone to gi issues with new supplements. I didn’t feel anything in terms of appetite suppression or otherwise. The second week I bumped to 1mg and I don’t feel any different. I have started eating clean and focusing on protein and I’m forcing myself to not snack.

My thoughts are to bump up to 2mg for my next dose.

Thoughts?

Don't be too worried. We all react differently.

I am on 8mg every 6th day; started in January at .5mg like you.

I have no appetite suppression. I read that many people do not have any.

And as far as food noise goes; it's a split between Reta and willpower.

I just look in the mirror and don't even consider junk/snack food.

I eat every 2.5hrs small portions of extremely healthy lean proteins, carbs and veggies.

I have lost 15lbs of body and gained muscle mass.

I did double my TRT dose and workout everyday to avoid muscle loss.

 

[GortBong]

If you're still compelled to snack, I would try 2mg next week, as it's the starting dose in the trials. Plus, by then, your serum levels will have stabilized close to a steady state, meaning the medication’s concentration will be relatively consistent each week.

Once steady state is achieved, you may not need to increase according to standard protocols unless you stop seeing losses for a couple of weeks, or you have ravenous hunger.

I personally never needed to go higher than 3mg, and spent almost the entirety of my 12 week journey to goal at 2mg. The end of the journey was slower with more food noise, but was still consistent with smaller losses. It's been making it really easy to titrate off while increasing calories.

This is super helpful, thanks. I’m guessing I should feel something shortly after 2mg, agree?

Also, is it best to eventually go from 1mg 2x week to 2mg 1x week??

 

[Vash_]

58m and I started Reta at .5mg 2 weeks ago. I started low since I’m prone to gi issues with new supplements. I didn’t feel anything in terms of appetite suppression or otherwise. The second week I bumped to 1mg and I don’t feel any different. I have started eating clean and focusing on protein and I’m forcing myself to not snack.

My thoughts are to bump up to 2mg for my next dose.

Thoughts?

It takes about 4 weeks to build up in your system and you started at a quarter the starting dose from the trials.

Might wanna give it some more time.

 

[Dos-Dox]

Some of this advice is more on aggressive side, IMO. Reta has a 6-7 day half life, so you don’t get to steady state serum levels until 4 weeks. There’s nothing wrong with starting low and going slow, especially if you are prone to GI upsets. Lots of people start at 2 mg because that’s where the trials started but I think it’s wise to start at 0.5 mg like you did. I also hold any dose for at least 4 weeks before escalating and only escalate after consecutive weeks of no loss. I guess I’m just more patient than most. But I aim for -1-2 lbs/week loss and, while it’s boring, it’s consistent and mitigates a lot of issues (like side effects, loose skin, too many questions about “what are you doing to lose weight?!?!”). I’ve had zero side effects except for the mild skin tingling.

 

[Calm Logic]

Is your weight going up? Down? Same?

Based on the reta trial data, most people were relatively fine starting at 2 mg (starting dose for all arms of phase 3). Some were started at 4 mg (in the phase 2 trial), which was a rough ride in comparison:

Dose Group Nausea (%) Diarrhea (%) Constipation (%) Vomiting (%) Source (PMID) Placebo ~2% ~9% ~1% ~1% 37366315 0.5 mg ~9% ~10% ~4% ~2% 37414058 1 mg ~14% ~9% ~7% ~3% 37366315 2 mg (Standard) ~18% ~18% ~11% ~3% TRIUMPH-1 4 mg (Fast Start) ~45% ~30% ~16% ~15-20% 37366315

OTOH, it's still possible Eli Lilly will lower the starting dose for reta to slightly below 2 mg. (After the phase 3 trials for orfo, Eli Lilly lowered the starting dose of orfo by 20% to facilitate FDA approval.)

 

[anhydrous]

This is super helpful, thanks. I’m guessing I should feel something shortly after 2mg, agree?

Also, is it best to eventually go from 1mg 2x week to 2mg 1x week??

Everyone's different and your mileage may vary. I have always felt the onset around 3 hours post injection except for one strange occurrence when I didn't feel it until the next day. I'm not aware of any studies testing frequency, so I'd say that you should experiment and find out what is best for you. What is best for profit is compliance and once a week delivers that.

 

[Chrissven]

I know the feeling. I also started small doses and was totally disappointed with Reta. Mounjaro made me lose extreme weight back then. But I increased pretty quickly at the end. I am now enthusiastic about Reta and have even reduced the dose to 6mg every 6 days.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Half-life is approximately 6 days. It takes 5 half-lives to reach full concentration of whatever dose you are on. It also takes 5 half-lives to completely exit your body.

Have you tried any glp1s before? People say that can make a difference in appetite suppression. Also, other people are correct in that your dose is just now at what trials started at. It's ok to bump it up until you feel the effects. Better to blast the appropriate amount and get results instead of "microdosing" something so it lasts longer but the effects are non-existent.

 

[wellhellothere]

0.5 is quite low IMO (not a bad thing).. I progressed 1/2/3/4mg my first month - which is quite aggressive but I wasn't worried about the side effects. Clinical studies I looked at peaked results at 12mg but 8-10 was also quite effective so I'm trying to get there.

 

[Dos-Dox]

Better to blast the appropriate amount and get results instead of "microdosing" something so it lasts longer but the effects are non-existent.

Just a reminder that everyone is different. I’ve had very good results (far from “non-existent”) starting at 0.5 mg and have just now gotten to 3 mg after many months. Also, it’s not necessarily an accurate assumption to say that people take smaller doses to make something last longer. I personally chose to start low and go slow because I’d like to stay at the lowest effective dose for as long as possible in hopes that some day I’ll be able to back it all the way back down to nothing or have the smallest possible maintenance dose going forward. Again, to me a 1-2 lb/week weight loss indicates an effective dose.

Everyone wants fast results, but it’s not irresponsible or ineffective to go slower and there are many benefits to being patient. Rapid weight loss can cause a lot of unintended health issues, like gallstones.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Yep. Was implying smaller doses are useless if you aren't getting results. If you are then there is no reason to hastily titrate up for the fun of it.

 

[TxUt777]

58m and I started Reta at .5mg 2 weeks ago. I started low since I’m prone to gi issues with new supplements. I didn’t feel anything in terms of appetite suppression or otherwise. The second week I bumped to 1mg and I don’t feel any different. I have started eating clean and focusing on protein and I’m forcing myself to not snack.

My thoughts are to bump up to 2mg for my next dose.

Thoughts?

I felt that way week 2 but I titrated from half to one to 1.5 then to two and I've held at two for two weeks because I can feel it enough. I didn't see anything but increased hunger the first week or so then week 3 it started to change, then week 4 I'm very conscious what I'm eating and when and taking supplements to aid digestion, but I feel petty dialed in. I'll stay at 2 until I feel like it stops working as well then add a little more if I need to.

 

[SoCalGirl]

I know the feeling. I also started small doses and was totally disappointed with Reta. Mounjaro made me lose extreme weight back then. But I increased pretty quickly at the end. I am now enthusiastic about Reta and have even reduced the dose to 6mg every 6 days.

EXACTLY the same for me. I titrated from .25 and did that every week for three months. Around the 4th week, I started .25 CAGRI, which stopped the food noise that was back with RETA. AND Now, month 4, I am holding at 3mg Reta, .5 Cagri, and I am seeing the difference! Hang in there. I remind myself I've been lifelong with metabolism issues, it will not clear up for me in a week or two. Four months, maybe