My experience as a new Reta user

[Scraps]

Hi everyone. I was looking for some comparison data before starting out so thought I could give my experience for others.

For context I am a 40yo, 6 foot tall man. I used to be a martial arts instructor and I had a couple of fights so I was athletic and strong, but no one would say I had a body building physique. A few years ago after a couple of injuries I stopped training, pretty much altogether. I have a very sedentary job so it wasn't long before I started putting on weight.

Losing it naturally was slow and inconsistent, I needed to be on a massive deficit to lose consistently and it was getting me down.

After some research I decided on Reta. At my heaviest before I started I weighed 225lb at 30% bf.

I was unsure what dosage to start with but decided on 2mg. After the first injection I suffered some pretty extreme gastric distress. To be blunt, the gates of hell opened and everything ive eaten since I was 6 years old shot out of me with just about enough thrust to achieve near earth orbit. But the results came quickly. Unsurprising considering the amount of water weight I was losing the first 2 days.

Things settled down quickly though and I noticed some real changes. I know that Reta isn't the best at muting food noise, and I would have to agree. I still think about food fairly often, but most of the time I'm just not hungry. When I do eat I get full very quickly, but sometimes want to eat again soon. It's like my appetite has been blunted 50%, but my ability to eat has been blunted by 90%.

I went up to 3mg after a few weeks as that appetite suppression just wasn't there. No new side effects to mention, but pretty quickly I found I had adapted and was hungry more again.

I've been at 4mg for 5 weeks now. The first 2 weeks at 4mg I experienced the skin sensitivity. It wasn't uncomfortable, but definitely noticeable. My wife was on it too, but at 3mg the sensitivity was too much and she couldn't bear it. She's moved over to Tirz now.

I weigh myself every day. Most days see a modest loss, hardly ever does it wobble up. I am losing around 2.5lb per week on average and have come down from 225 to 193. I do feel the hunger a bit more, but don't want to keep cranking the Reta if I'm susceptible to the sides so I'm thinking about adding a little Tirz in as well to help.

To be honest I'm a little unhappy with my progress with the weight loss. I had set a goal weight of 185, but to be honest when I get there I think I will have a bit more to go to shed the last of my belly fat. My arms are much more defined, my legs never had any fat on them, but the bit in the middle is still looking a little fluffy!

My first dose was on the 1st of May, and I take it every 6 days now.

I was also a little worried about lean mass loss, but I'm now down to 23%bf so I make 22lb of the 30lb loss to be fat. Goal now isn't a weight, but a 14% bf before building back up my lean mass.

Hope that helps anyone new that's starting out and might find themselves on a similar path.

 

[BNLFL]

All's good except one thing, but this is my opinion. Weighing everyday will drive you nuts. At least it did with me. One day down, next up a lbs or two. I do once a week on the scale. I'm down 50lbs since 1/9/26 with 5lbs to goal. These last 5 are a bitch it seems. I gained 0.2lbs last week. Not life changing, but fro ma average 2.2lbs/week, a shock.

 

[notfatanymore123]

Just a piece of advice. Work out at least a little. A set of resistance bands at work. Lift 5 minutes every hour. Take a brisk walk at lunch. This will probably double your results.

 

[Scraps]

Yeah, I know the daily weighing is off putting for spme people. I'm an analyst though so only having one data point per week is too ambiguous for me! I'm aware that in a day your weight can fluctuate up to 1kg so I just bear that in mind. Like I said though, generally every day has seen at least a little loss.

 

[Scraps]

Just a piece of advice. Work out at least a little. A set of resistance bands at work. Lift 5 minutes every hour. Take a brisk walk at lunch. This will probably double your results.

Absolutely, it's definitely my biggest downfall right now. I'm already on TRT so have been using that as a crutch to help avoid lean mass loss but I should be doing more for myself. I don't have a gym membership right now but I'll get back to working out at home, even with a little bodyweight exercises.

 

[notfatanymore123]

Absolutely, it's definitely my biggest downfall right now. I'm already on TRT so have been using that as a crutch to help avoid lean mass loss but I should be doing more for myself. I don't have a gym membership right now but I'll get back to working out at home, even with a little bodyweight exercises.

Push-ups, sit-ups, squats. As many as you can do. 3 sets, 3 days a week.

 

[nkresho]

You're leaning way too much on the reta to do this for you. You really do need to meet it in the middle. 10k steps a day on a fitness tracker. Lifting heavy things 2-4x per week. These are really not negotiable. Especially at only 40. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh.

I see a formula for regain of more fat than you started with if you ever stop taking reta. Do you fully intend to remain on reta indefinitely? What's your exit strategy?

You're at a caloric deficit without stimulating muscle gain (or retention) you're absolutely losing muscle therefore reducing your resting metabolic rate. You're going to have the physique of a flabby marathon runner without the stamina.

I hate to even ask, but what are your macros like? Getting enough protein?

How are your labs looking on t? E2 in good shape? Taking an ai?

 

[HouseCat]

Yeah, I know the daily weighing is off putting for spme people. I'm an analyst though so only having one data point per week is too ambiguous for me! I'm aware that in a day your weight can fluctuate up to 1kg so I just bear that in mind. Like I said though, generally every day has seen at least a little loss.

A lot of people like daily weighing for that-it makes lots of data points so each one carries less emotion and “weight” as it were 🤣

Unfortunately I have such a dysfunctional relationship with the scale so I can’t weigh myself more than 2x a week, but it’s a shame because I’d love those data points. Also there at least one peer review paper that shows that daily weighing is one of the best predictors of maintaining one’s maintenance weight (this was pre-GLP-1s, so I’m sure best predictors now include maintenance meds.)

 

[lessthanhalf]

You're leaning way too much on the reta to do this for you. You really do need to meet it in the middle. 10k steps a day on a fitness tracker. Lifting heavy things 2-4x per week. These are really not negotiable. Especially at only 40. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh.

I see a formula for regain of more fat than you started with if you ever stop taking reta. Do you fully intend to remain on reta indefinitely? What's your exit strategy?

You're at a caloric deficit without stimulating muscle gain (or retention) you're absolutely losing muscle therefore reducing your resting metabolic rate. You're going to have the physique of a flabby marathon runner without the stamina.

I hate to even ask, but what are your macros like? Getting enough protein?

How are your labs looking on t? E2 in good shape? Taking an ai?

I very strongly disagree with this way of looking at things, if you are talking about weight/fat loss. None of it is wrong as such, except it is advice for how to do it without the reta, not with reta, or only using reta at lower doses that work less well and treating the whole thing like a diet and exercise program. And there is nothing wrong with better diets and more exercise, but as a long term strategy to lose weight , there is, it does not work, or at least not long term in all but a small percentage. The above approach is more designed to optimise strength and physique than weight loss.

In the real world , not everyone has the time , energy or motivation to do ideal amounts of exercise, and many find it quite difficult to do any, especially those with severe obesity. So while it is good for health , it is not an absolutely needed part of losing weight with GLP drugs. And you are much better off using the GLP drugs to lose weight even without the exercise, than not doing either. Often starting exercise after losing weight is easier and carries lower risks of injury than doing it while obese.

And it is the same with diet, GLP drugs reduce appetite, it is the main way they work, so even if no special effort is made you should end up with a calorie deficit and weight loss. Increased protein intake is a good idea 1.5g/kg/body weight to reduce muscle loss with weight loss. GLP drugs also shift food choices to healthier ones without conscious effort. Better diet is a good idea, but not absolutely required for the drugs to work.

The ideal outcome is better diet and exercise and weight loss, all of them sustainable in the long term. But using these drugs to lose weight and ending up with "the physique of a flabby marathon runner without the stamina", even if unfit and with a non ideal diet, is still going to improve overall health, and dramatically reduce the odds of a large number of serious long term health problems.

In terms of exit strategies, I am not entirely sure there is a lot of benefit to be gained from using these drugs as a short term treatment, it basically removes their single biggest advantage over diet and exercise for weight loss, that unlike diet and exercise, it is easy to keep taking them, and so it is easy to keep the weight off long term as a result, so long as you do not stop them. If you do stop them , most people will regain most of the weight. In more severe obesity it is a no brainer, stay on them forever, you will be thinner, have higher quality of life and be protected from a lot of serious long term health problems. In less severe obesity or overweight persons it is less critical, but only because the health risks are less dramatic, but the underlying process is no different, the only treatment that I know of short of surgery that reliably produces and maintains weight loss long term is GLP therapy continued indefinitely. I suspect that in the not too distant future a very substantial percentage of the population will be on them , just like statins or blood pressure medications, especially if cheap enough and preferably in tablet form.

 

[Scraps]

A lot of people like daily weighing for that-it makes lots of data points so each one carries less emotion and “weight” as it were 🤣

Unfortunately I have such a dysfunctional relationship with the scale so I can’t weigh myself more than 2x a week, but it’s a shame because I’d love those data points. Also there at least one peer review paper that shows that daily weighing is one of the best predictors of maintaining one’s maintenance weight (this was pre-GLP-1s, so I’m sure best predictors now include maintenance meds.)

Yeah I can understand that for some people. For me though I want to see trends as quickly as possible. By tracking daily I can relate weight movement to the amount of water I've drunk, how much exercise I've done, the type of foods that I've eaten.

The data on it's own can lose value, but when layered with the context of the previous days activity it fills out the picture. At least for me!

 

[Scraps]

You're leaning way too much on the reta to do this for you. You really do need to meet it in the middle. 10k steps a day on a fitness tracker. Lifting heavy things 2-4x per week. These are really not negotiable. Especially at only 40. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh.

I see a formula for regain of more fat than you started with if you ever stop taking reta. Do you fully intend to remain on reta indefinitely? What's your exit strategy?

You're at a caloric deficit without stimulating muscle gain (or retention) you're absolutely losing muscle therefore reducing your resting metabolic rate. You're going to have the physique of a flabby marathon runner without the stamina.

I hate to even ask, but what are your macros like? Getting enough protein?

How are your labs looking on t? E2 in good shape? Taking an ai?

Hi mate, thank you for the response and I don't find it harsh at all. I was aware that I was writing out a wall of text so I was perhaps a little too brief in some parts so I can understand it might have made your eyes roll in despair!

There is a limit to daily activity that I can accomplish. I sit at a desk for an emergency service for 12/13 hours per day and work day/night shifts. So on days I'm working I just dont have the capacity to get in 10k steps. I had thought about an under desk bike but not sure they are really worth it.

I don't think true recompositions are possible. My plan is to get my weight down with the caloric deficit before pulling back on the reta to reduce the deficit/ allow a surplus to build muscle.

As per the calculations above I'm losing 3x the weight from fat as from everything else, and that "lean mass" loss will include water and glycogen from when I started.

Protein is on point, its the focus of what calories I take it. I hit at least 1g/kit per day but if I do ever feel like a snack it's going to be some chicken, maybe an egg or two or even a protein shake.

The TRT is through a clinic and labs are done every 3 months now I'm settled in to it (1 year in). All my markers were fine except E2 which was a bit high. I think this was driven by the excess adiposity. Currently on a 0.5mg per week dose of Anastrozole but will be hoping to ditch that with the reduction in body fat.

Thanks again for your response, it truly is appreciated.