Tirz experience = Reta experience?

[SVT810E]

There is no "brand name" Reta yet . . .

If you’re in the trials or the new expanded access program and getting it from Lilly, Lilly would be a brand name. The drug itself doesn’t have a brand name yet though.

 

[WLBLD]

Same.

I thought I was going to die on Sema. Turns out, the doctor (actual MD, not a health spa lol) I got the RX from started me at 2.4mg. Two years later when I started researching other options I found out that apparently the doctor a) wanted me to die, b) was super ignorant or negligent, or 3) thought I was fat enough to warrant going straight to the end zone lol.

So, I could be biased thinking sema hit different, but I've had almost zero sides on Tirz or Reta, and I'd rather stick a fork in an electric socket than feel the way I felt on my very first dose Sema.

Sure you were nervous about starting others with how bad that must have been. Luckily it didn't put you off trying any altogether

 

[Just A Cat]

I am so fixated on the new name part that I can't concentrate on the side effects.

There is no "brand name" Reta yet . . .

I am stuck and just can not decide this.

Should brand reta be named Xyzolvify or Jentamub ? /lol

 

[AngieHolmes 53745]

I am so fixated on the new name part that I can't concentrate on the side effects.

I am stuck and just can not decide this.

Should brand reta be named Xyzolvify or Jentamub ? /lol

Maybe they'll have a contest! I saw some possible names Lilly was tossing out but AFAIK they haven't settled on one yet . . .

 

[bamagirl26]

Only been on brand name, Tirz and Reta. Different side effects from Reta and Tirz. Tirz sides obviously same as brand name M.

Could not tolerate Reta. Low bp normally now and Reta drove it down even further making me feel like crap.

Anyhoo. Looking for the supposedly hilarious ghk-cu topic if anyone wants to shoot me a link.

Also since I lurk trying to see if after a few years I graduated from being a newbie here.

—still a newbie

interesting - Im usually lowish BP - like 100-110/60. I wonder if reta would make that lower, never heard of that happening

 

[woundcarping]

interesting - Im usually lowish BP - like 100-110/60. I wonder if reta would make that lower, never heard of that happening

GLP1 drugs and weight loss in general typically reduce blood pressure.

 

[bamagirl26]

GLP1 drugs and weight loss in general typically reduce blood pressure.

Thanks,will keep an eye on it. I assumed the lowered bp was from significant weight loss (which is from the medicine obvi, but I didnt realize the medicine itself would lower bp).

 

[Seasonal1]

Oh man...another poster parachuting into the site from out of nowhere and lashing out...."find a community?"...the community already exists. I think your expectation is that this 'community' needs to change/bend to your vision...When I read the poster's post that you were responding to, it made a lot sense to me...

Only thing I got out of your post was, you should "take your own advice and quit coming off as arrogant and rude for no good reason"...

I added them to my ignore list.

 

[AngieHolmes 53745]

Just curious about something I keep reading that I assume is anecdotal, have no idea how real it is among users:

I often see people saying I had zero side effects on (insert Tirz or Reta) and when I added in or changed to (the other) I also had zero side effects. Yes, of course, we're all different etc, but I'm curious if zero ill effects on one is at least a semi-reliable indicator of how you may react to the other?

interesting - Im usually lowish BP - like 100-110/60. I wonder if reta would make that lower, never heard of that happening

Me neither -- but my normally low BP has bottomed out the past few weeks and it's a true bummer. Gonna skip reta this week and see if it improves.

 

[SVT810E]

interesting - Im usually lowish BP - like 100-110/60. I wonder if reta would make that lower, never heard of that happening

I’d probably steer away from reta with a BP like that. I’d anticipate that it’s likely to cause symptomatic hypotension (at the least orthostatic hypotension). But your blood pressure itself is unlikely to drop much from there as your body will crank your heart rate to prevent that from happening. I would anticipate a large heart rate increase instead.

 

[bamagirl26]

I’d probably steer away from reta with a BP like that. I’d anticipate that it’s likely to cause symptomatic hypotension (at the least orthostatic hypotension). But your blood pressure itself is unlikely to drop much from there as your body will crank your heart rate to prevent that from happening. I would anticipate a large heart rate increase instead.

interesting. I was feeling that a bit on Tirz last week where my resting HR seemed more elevated than normal around 70 (that is also usually on the lowish side 55-65). after reading the thread last night I took my BP and was 99/60. made hubs take his bc he is on HIGHEST dose of his BP med and he was 106/70. told him we will have to monitor it bc he may need his med dosage lowered with the Tirz and weight loss

 

[bamagirl26]

Me neither -- but my normally low BP has bottomed out the past few weeks and it's a true bummer. Gonna skip reta this week and see if it improves.

oh dang.. when you say bottomed out, did you feel it? what made you recognize it was low?

 

[woundcarping]

oh dang.. when you say bottomed out, did you feel it? what made you recognize it was low?

My most common symptom is head rushes when standing up quickly.

Mine isn’t particularly low, but head rushes are far more common over the last 8 months than ever before.

 

[Seasonal1]

interesting. I was feeling that a bit on Tirz last week where my resting HR seemed more elevated than normal around 70 (that is also usually on the lowish side 55-65). after reading the thread last night I took my BP and was 99/60. made hubs take his bc he is on HIGHEST dose of his BP med and he was 106/70. told him we will have to monitor it bc he may need his med dosage lowered with the Tirz and weight loss

I have an Amazon Omron WI/FI BP cuff and take my BP daily. It saves it to my phone and give me pretty graphs. I love numbers. I used to be elevated with a small amount of meds. Now, no meds and mostly normal. It also tracks my HR. I'm taking Reta so I wanted to track and not guess where I was. No change to that HR number.

 

[oldjarhead]

I don't think it is fair to compare my experience with Tirz and Reta, as far as side effects. I started Tirz from a compound pharmacy and went up in dose every 4 weeks. 2.2mg, 4.4mg, 6.5mg, and then 8.8mg for a few weeks. My body did not like the 8.8mg. I was very tired the next day after dose. My heartburn constant varying in intensity that was uncomfortable. I just didn't want to eat and my wife said I was grumpier than normal, Throughout it all on Tirz, I always burped all the time, some burps had some nasty stuff behind them. I made a decision to switch to Reta, mainly because of what I read and the benefits seemed to be more fitting for my goals. I started reta very slow, 1mg, and titrated up over 3 months to 3mg. I only felt a little sweaty at times at 3mg. I was able to quit Tirz all together during that time. I miss Tirz because my knees were the primary beneficiary of the inflammation reduction. Knees started hurting again on reta without Tirz.

I am stacking both Tirz and Reta currently and researching wolverine, with KPV on the way soon. My knees feel better, scale is slowly going down, less grumpy, and my wife still loves me (I think) . Life is good.

 

[spanky2026]

I don't think it is fair to compare my experience with Tirz and Reta, as far as side effects. I started Tirz from a compound pharmacy and went up in dose every 4 weeks. 2.2mg, 4.4mg, 6.5mg, and then 8.8mg for a few weeks. My body did not like the 8.8mg. I was very tired the next day after dose. My heartburn constant varying in intensity that was uncomfortable. I just didn't want to eat and my wife said I was grumpier than normal, Throughout it all on Tirz, I always burped all the time, some burps had some nasty stuff behind them. I made a decision to switch to Reta, mainly because of what I read and the benefits seemed to be more fitting for my goals. I started reta very slow, 1mg, and titrated up over 3 months to 3mg. I only felt a little sweaty at times at 3mg. I was able to quit Tirz all together during that time. I miss Tirz because my knees were the primary beneficiary of the inflammation reduction. Knees started hurting again on reta without Tirz.

I am stacking both Tirz and Reta currently and researching wolverine, with KPV on the way soon. My knees feel better, scale is slowly going down, less grumpy, and my wife still loves me (I think) . Life is good.

This is good info, thanks

 

[AngieHolmes 53745]

oh dang.. when you say bottomed out, did you feel it? what made you recognize it was low?

I have been feeling it without paying attention to it until I was at the neuro, who follows me for POTS. They always take my pressures lying down, sitting and standing. When she was having trouble getting readings via the machine, she took it manually, then took it again a few times bc of how low it was. I was asked to track it at home and had trouble going above 70s on the top number. She was continuously adjusting my meds but still I was at 75/48 with a pulse of 96.

By then I was quite symptomatic. Very uncomfortable upright. Dizzy, tunnel vision, nausea. Did not feel secure on my feet, always looking for the next surface to grab onto. So now I'm pushing electrolytes + fluids plus a couple meds.

I'm not making a lot of progress :/ so my next move is to stop the shots and see how that goes. I haven't read a lot about them lowering BP but I'm trying to go after any factor that could be contributing. Thanks for asking!

 

[SapphireGlitch60]

I am also curious about this. I had zero sides on sema, maxed that out and moved to a mid-dose of tirz and zero sides on that as well. I’ve been on tirz 15mg for 18mos and really want to switch to reta to see if I can get to goal (30 more lbs, 78 total lost so far). I’m a little worried about new sides, but more than that - I’m REALLY worried I won’t respond to it. I lost 50 on sema and 28 on tirz over 28 mos and while I realize this is a slow game and am happy to play, I don’t want to make it any slower than it already is!

Trying to figure out how to make the transition. I was planning on quitting tirz cold turkey and going to 2mg reta, but I’m worried it won’t work and I’ll gain a bunch of weight back.

 

[SVT810E]

I am also curious about this. I had zero sides on sema, maxed that out and moved to a mid-dose of tirz and zero sides on that as well. I’ve been on tirz 15mg for 18mos and really want to switch to reta to see if I can get to goal (30 more lbs, 78 total lost so far). I’m a little worried about new sides, but more than that - I’m REALLY worried I won’t respond to it. I lost 50 on sema and 28 on tirz over 28 mos and while I realize this is a slow game and am happy to play, I don’t want to make it any slower than it already is!

Trying to figure out how to make the transition. I was planning on quitting tirz cold turkey and going to 2mg reta, but I’m worried it won’t work and I’ll gain a bunch of weight back.

There really is no clunkier way to make that transition than cold turkeying 15mg of tirz and jumping in at the starting dose of reta. It will feel about as effective as switching to 2.5mg of tirz. You’re talking about spending months at doses where you will be struggling and very likely gaining weight until you can get into the 9-12mg range, and even then a lot of people who make this transition seem to still struggle with the feel even if it does break their plateau.

I’ve never used tirz but I see the most success in people approaching this transition by gradual titrating down on their tirz dose as they increase their reta dose. Try to keep the combined total at 100% of a full dose. That generally seems to be the most pain and setback free way to tackle this.

 

[woundcarping]

I am also curious about this. I had zero sides on sema, maxed that out and moved to a mid-dose of tirz and zero sides on that as well. I’ve been on tirz 15mg for 18mos and really want to switch to reta to see if I can get to goal (30 more lbs, 78 total lost so far). I’m a little worried about new sides, but more than that - I’m REALLY worried I won’t respond to it. I lost 50 on sema and 28 on tirz over 28 mos and while I realize this is a slow game and am happy to play, I don’t want to make it any slower than it already is!

Trying to figure out how to make the transition. I was planning on quitting tirz cold turkey and going to 2mg reta, but I’m worried it won’t work and I’ll gain a bunch of weight back.

I went from 5mg of Tirz to 16mg of Reta in under 14 weeks with negligible adverse sides. I've gone as high as 20mg/week. I started the bridge on 1/10 and am down 73lb since then, 83lb overall. I still have ~20lb to go.

My methodology was to take numerous small doses watching for sides as I moved up. The idea behind small doses was if I overshot my tolerance, I wouldn't have to wait long for the sides to wane.

Here's an older post with more details:

Everyone has their own thoughts, here's my observations/experiences:

What was your Tirz dose?

I started Zep 12/12/25, I moved to compounded Tirz and was at 2.5mg 2x weekly until 1/10 when I moved to Reta. I took 7mg of Reta in total across 6 doses my first week. I've had 6 doses of Tirz since I started the bridge, totaling 14mg. I've had a total of 34 doses of Reta totaling 143mg. That averages 11.6mg/week with a chunk of that being getting my blood levels up using numerous small doses so I wouldn't overshoot and run into sides I had to wait out.

I moved to Reta for the GCGR signaling to boost BMR and presumptively spare lean mass better than Tirz.

GCGR signaling is dose dependent. Titrating Reta based on appetite/food noise is incorrect for reta, correct for Sema, Tirz, or Cagri. I titrated based on aversion to sides with the goal to get to or above 8mg/week levels for meaningful GCGR signaling.

I take Tirz PRN mainly to control food noise more so than hunger... my long term issue has been noise/brain side more than hunger/stomach side. I'll still take a bump if I expect the probability for trouble (like the 2.5mg dose in early March since I was traveling to either side of the country and back in 8 days).

Down 33lb since 1/10/25, 272lb to 239lb, practically all fat according to DEXA scans.

Had no meaningfully adverse sides.

Split dose, 2x weekly.

16mg/week with split dosing keeping my peaks only 15% higher than 12mg/once weekly (7mg 2x weekly has the same peaks).

RHR average hit a valley low of 58bpm on Tirz and is currently averaging 69-70bpm. This is inside my comfort level.

I don't expect 16mg to be magical over 12mg, but I do expect it to move my equilibrium point down ~10lb. That doesn't sound like much, but arguably that would be the hardest 10lb to lose. I chose to escalate my dose based on my sides and metrics including labs, fitness tracking, and sleep. I chose to do it now while I'm still resilient to the added stress vs later when systemic stress fatigue could be presenting.

Writing this post, I realized I failed to get labs on Lipase and Amylase to check my pancreas directly. My other labs suggest I'm doing fine, but gallstones/pancreatitis is my most likely hiccup. I'll get those labs drawn in the morning and report back if there's anything noteworthy.