80lbs lost on Tirz in 1yr. Ready to make the jump to Reta.

[RT0123]

Greetings all. Really great to be here, I am learning a lot from you all. Had a great 1st year on Tirz. Currently at max dosage and am starting to notice a drop in efficacy.

Here to learn about Reta and making the transition. I’ve been using an affordable US compounding company but am ready to take the leap into the world of Reta.

Thanks for sharing your experience and insight with me. It is appreciated.

 

[catwitch]

Welcome aboard! You’ve come to the right place. Everyone here helped me tremendously. Be a sponge. Read everything you can, use the search function liberally, and ask questions. Good luck!

 

[FartfulCodger]

I tried the switch and it didn't work for me. I switched back. But everyone is different, so I'd say go for it, especially since Reta offers some additional health benefits that Tirz does not.

What spoiled it for me:
1) Lack of appetite suppression on Reta. Calorie restriction was the cornerstone of my weight loss on Tirz. On Reta I was hungry. Supposedly Reta's appetite suppression kicks in after a few weeks.
2) Allodynia. This is an unpleasant side effect where your skin feels extra sensitive, like you have a constant sunburn. Not everyone gets it, so maybe it's not a concern for you. Some people say this side effect can be mitigated through hydration and magnesium. Others say that Guaifensin (Mucinex) and/or antihistamines help. I may make another run at Reta in the near future as part of a maintenance strategy, but I'm happy on Tirz for now.

 

[Grogu]

Greetings all. Really great to be here, I am learning a lot from you all. Had a great 1st year on Tirz. Currently at max dosage and am starting to notice a drop in efficacy.

Here to learn about Reta and making the transition. I’ve been using an affordable US compounding company but am ready to take the leap into the world of Reta.

Thanks for sharing your experience and insight with me. It is appreciated.

Welcome. There is so much great information here, you're sure to find your way. I think the first month I read hundreds of threads.

Not that I'm trying to discourage you from reta, but since you're only at a year on tirzepatide, I'm wondering if you've thought about titrating above the max dose? There are plenty of folks in the forum that are well above the current clinical guidance. I pinned 20mg this morning and I think that there are many others above the max dose.

Also, you might want to share a little more of your details if you feel comfortable, like how much weight you've lost and how much more you have to go as people could provide more substantive responses.

 

[Flash-BCR]

I started a couple of months ago on tirz and it works as planned. I am also laying in a pile of reta for future proofing, but also may do a dual usage deal with both. Good luck!

 

[RT0123]

Welcome. There is so much great information here, you're sure to find your way. I think the first month I read hundreds of threads.

Not that I'm trying to discourage you from reta, but since you're only at a year on tirzepatide, I'm wondering if you've thought about titrating above the max dose? There are plenty of folks in the forum that are well above the current clinical guidance. I pinned 20mg this morning and I think that there are many others above the max dose.

Also, you might want to share a little more of your details if you feel comfortable, like how much weight you've lost and how much more you have to go as people could provide more substantive responses.

Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful response. I have not considered moving up from my current 15mg Tirz. dosage. I have a 2 month supply left and may try this on my next injection day. I am still losing weight but have been noticing an increase in hunger/food noise.

My highest weight was unfortunately 480lbs. Honestly, it’s saddening writing this and realizing how bad I let things get. I am a 6’2” male, retired football player. Still have good muscle mass which has been helpful with training and exercise. I’m weighing in at 399lbs as of this morning. I’d like to lose 150 more lbs.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

 

[Flash-BCR]

Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful response. I have not considered moving up from my current 15mg Tirz. dosage. I have a 2 month supply left and may try this on my next injection day. I am still losing weight but have been noticing an increase in hunger/food noise.

My highest weight was unfortunately 480lbs. Honestly, it’s saddening writing this and realizing how bad I let things get. I am a 6’2” male, retired football player. Still have good muscle mass which has been helpful with training and exercise. I’m weighing in at 399lbs as of this morning. I’d like to lose 150 more lbs.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

Nice job so far! I have let myself get away too. I have always been active and along with health concerns, it disappointing to know there are activities you really can't do right now...But dropping those 80lbs I am sure makes that light at the end of the tunnel seem closer and closer. There's a good thread on here about once you get some/all the weight off, you find yourself being more judgmental of large people you see when you are out and about...and really, its not about the people you see, its an internal guilt reaction about your own self and your previous situation that you let yourself get into....so best of luck on your next 150!.... 👍

 

[Sasquatch]

I don't know why I consider Grey not compounded. Probably because it's lyphilised, but technically, that doesn't matter. I've had a bad experience with domestic compounding. (Weak shit) So my Squatchy opinion would be to increase Tirz. Tirz is cheaper then reta. If Tirz has been working, compounded or not, just think how good it would work if it were better stuff. I'm not against reta. Many experiment with stacking tirz and reta. Good question. Glad your journey has progressed.

 

[Monte2024]

You’ll get there.

 

[Gr33dyOctopus]

I stack both tirz and reta, really controls my hunger, havent noticed any ill effects been splitting doses of each for a few months now.

 

[LongevitybroTX]

Awesome, welcome. There are so many super smart people here. I lost about 90lbs on Tirz about 2-years ago, maintained for a year, and recently use a vendor i found on this forum to get into the reta game, so now I am tapering down the tirz while I ramp up the reta.

Given the hunger queue help from tirz, I may keep taking at least a small amount of it once I get up to 4-6mg of reta. Did I need to switch and make this more complicated? Nope! Did I want to try it out anyway since reta is so cheap and looks to have even more non-weight related benefits than tirz? sure did!

 

[Dilbert4Life]

I tried the switch and it didn't work for me. I switched back. But everyone is different, so I'd say go for it, especially since Reta offers some additional health benefits that Tirz does not.

What spoiled it for me:
1) Lack of appetite suppression on Reta. Calorie restriction was the cornerstone of my weight loss on Tirz. On Reta I was hungry. Supposedly Reta's appetite suppression kicks in after a few weeks.
2) Allodynia. This is an unpleasant side effect where your skin feels extra sensitive, like you have a constant sunburn. Not everyone gets it, so maybe it's not a concern for you. Some people say this side effect can be mitigated through hydration and magnesium. Others say that Guaifensin (Mucinex) and/or antihistamines help. I may make another run at Reta in the near future as part of a maintenance strategy, but I'm happy on Tirz for now.

Did you have to start again from 2.5 mg tirz?

 

[Gwynhwyfar]

I changed 1 month ago. I was on Tirz 15mg and on a plateau since 6 months. I have left the original stuff in the fridge for another 3 months, thats why I´m titrating down Tirz and raising up Reta. On 2mg now I don´t feel much change and don´t loose anything. In the 2 years on Tirz I have lost 120 pounds. Still 50 pounds to go. I hope the higher doses on Reta will do hopefully to get to my goal.

 

[RT0123]

Congrats on your success. Very impressive. Wishing you the best of luck on your next 50lbs. I have a feeling you will start losing again as you titrate up with the Reta. Keep me updated.

 

[brah389]

Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful response. I have not considered moving up from my current 15mg Tirz. dosage. I have a 2 month supply left and may try this on my next injection day. I am still losing weight but have been noticing an increase in hunger/food noise.

My highest weight was unfortunately 480lbs. Honestly, it’s saddening writing this and realizing how bad I let things get. I am a 6’2” male, retired football player. Still have good muscle mass which has been helpful with training and exercise. I’m weighing in at 399lbs as of this morning. I’d like to lose 150 more lbs.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

Dude, I'm right there with you. Former D1 football player, huge gym rat and did 30 years in the Air Force but right after I retired I suffered a catastrophic leg injury in which over 11 months I gained 65lbs. Just started my Tirz journey 2 weeks ago and already down 10lbs but also started back in the gym. Started at 350lbs and currently 340lbs with a goal weight of 250lbs but I'm also 6'6".

 

[BNLFL]

Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful response. I have not considered moving up from my current 15mg Tirz. dosage. I have a 2 month supply left and may try this on my next injection day. I am still losing weight but have been noticing an increase in hunger/food noise.

My highest weight was unfortunately 480lbs. Honestly, it’s saddening writing this and realizing how bad I let things get. I am a 6’2” male, retired football player. Still have good muscle mass which has been helpful with training and exercise. I’m weighing in at 399lbs as of this morning. I’d like to lose 150 more lbs.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

No shame in weight or others here Bud. I wish you well.

 

[BigDog8084]

Dude, I'm right there with you. Former D1 football player, huge gym rat and did 30 years in the Air Force but right after I retired I suffered a catastrophic leg injury in which over 11 months I gained 65lbs. Just started my Tirz journey 2 weeks ago and already down 10lbs but also started back in the gym. Started at 350lbs and currently 340lbs with a goal weight of 250lbs but I'm also 6'6".

I think that post service weight is a really issue, ha ha, i'm prior Airforce. I started out at 24lbs, currently 221 with a goal of 165lbs. Im 5'6" so 165 is a good weight for me. Dieting (optavia), working out, and Tirz are my go to. Currently losing around 4lbs a week (closely monitored by VA and personal doctor). All my health stats are coming along. Good luck on your journey.

 

[BigDog8084]

Greetings all. Really great to be here, I am learning a lot from you all. Had a great 1st year on Tirz. Currently at max dosage and am starting to notice a drop in efficacy.

Here to learn about Reta and making the transition. I’ve been using an affordable US compounding company but am ready to take the leap into the world of Reta.

Thanks for sharing your experience and insight with me. It is appreciated.

It's an amazing feat to see such progress in 1 year. Proud of all you have accomplished. I will be making the jump to Reta very soon. Just need to get my first order in. Im about 28lbs down in 6 weeks, but adding Tirz kickstarted major drops for me each week. Looking forward to any updates you post about you progress.

 

[brah389]

I think that post service weight is a really issue, ha ha, i'm prior Airforce. I started out at 24lbs, currently 221 with a goal of 165lbs. Im 5'6" so 165 is a good weight for me. Dieting (optavia), working out, and Tirz are my go to. Currently losing around 4lbs a week (closely monitored by VA and personal doctor). All my health stats are coming along. Good luck on your journey.

You ain't kidding! Even though my life got more active after retirement, I decided that pizza and beer could be my new food pyramid, but, I did suffer a severe compound fracture just above my Rt ankle 5 months after I retired which required 5 months of couch surfing and 3 surgeries that im still recovering from. Tirz has been an absolute life saver!

Were you able to get the VA to prescribe you anything for weight loss? My VA here won't even do bloodwork for my hormones here, they want nothing to do with that but boy let me tell ya, you got 5 points over 200 on your cholesterol, they're shoving stains down your throat!

 

[BigDog8084]

You ain't kidding! Even though my life got more active after retirement, I decided that pizza and beer could be my new food pyramid, but, I did suffer a severe compound fracture just above my Rt ankle 5 months after I retired which required 5 months of couch surfing and 3 surgeries that im still recovering from. Tirz has been an absolute life saver!

Were you able to get the VA to prescribe you anything for weight loss? My VA here won't even do bloodwork for my hormones here, they want nothing to do with that but boy let me tell ya, you got 5 points over 200 on your cholesterol, they're shoving stains down your throat!

Im close on the perscription for Tirz, have to do a program called Move. I already qualify on every other front. I don't plan to use it though. I am switching to Reta in the next month. Semaglutide was easy to qualify for, but it's not the one I wanted, so I waited. Now, I found this forum and after a lot of research Reta is the way to go for me. Going to order and get it tested, and then I will hopefully be set.

 

[lessthanhalf]

Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful response. I have not considered moving up from my current 15mg Tirz. dosage. I have a 2 month supply left and may try this on my next injection day. I am still losing weight but have been noticing an increase in hunger/food noise.

My highest weight was unfortunately 480lbs. Honestly, it’s saddening writing this and realizing how bad I let things get. I am a 6’2” male, retired football player. Still have good muscle mass which has been helpful with training and exercise. I’m weighing in at 399lbs as of this morning. I’d like to lose 150 more lbs.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

The only thing I would suggest being careful of is if it turns out reta does not work for you as well as you would like , to change back to tirz sooner rather than later. I am assuming the rate of weight loss has slowed a bit with the extra food noise? Reta does have the advantage of boosting metabolic rate a bit, but most people on this forum have found it is not as effective as tirz for food noise.

You are asking these drugs to do more than they were designed to do, tirz at best is 25% weight loss and reta at best is average of 29%, and so far you are down 17% 80/480 , but trying to get to 47% 230/480 . So unless you respond better than average, there is a good chance you might need higher than standard maximum doses or combinations of GLP drugs. My basic logic is that obesity of that degree of severity is so bad for your health, that even unknown possible adverse consequences of higher doses or combinations are very unlikely to be as risky.

I only started GLP drugs after losing most of the weight and am using them to control hunger to stop me putting the weight back on, but so far it is working to get me to 55% down from my start weight of 145kg. I added in 5mg reta to 15mg of tirz , and cannot go higher without intolerable skin sensation weirdness, and added in 0.5mg of cagri to help. I chose to add reta to tirz as it was working pretty well with very few side effects and I did not want to stuff that up by changing to reta.

Options from where you are now probably depend a fair bit on what side effects you have had so far, but either switching to reta, increasing the dose of tirz to as high as you tolerate or 25mg? , adding in low dose cagri slowly , or adding in reta to tirz. The reason I am suggesting this is my guess is at some point you are fairly likely to need higher doses or combos anyway.

 

[Spork]

The only thing I would suggest being careful of is if it turns out reta does not work for you as well as you would like , to change back to tirz sooner rather than later. I am assuming the rate of weight loss has slowed a bit with the extra food noise? Reta does have the advantage of boosting metabolic rate a bit, but most people on this forum have found it is not as effective as tirz for food noise.

You are asking these drugs to do more than they were designed to do, tirz at best is 25% weight loss and reta at best is average of 29%, and so far you are down 17% 80/480 , but trying to get to 47% 230/480 . So unless you respond better than average, there is a good chance you might need higher than standard maximum doses or combinations of GLP drugs. My basic logic is that obesity of that degree of severity is so bad for your health, that even unknown possible adverse consequences of higher doses or combinations are very unlikely to be as risky.

I only started GLP drugs after losing most of the weight and am using them to control hunger to stop me putting the weight back on, but so far it is working to get me to 55% down from my start weight of 145kg. I added in 5mg reta to 15mg of tirz , and cannot go higher without intolerable skin sensation weirdness, and added in 0.5mg of cagri to help. I chose to add reta to tirz as it was working pretty well with very few side effects and I did not want to stuff that up by changing to reta.

Options from where you are now probably depend a fair bit on what side effects you have had so far, but either switching to reta, increasing the dose of tirz to as high as you tolerate or 25mg? , adding in low dose cagri slowly , or adding in reta to tirz. The reason I am suggesting this is my guess is at some point you are fairly likely to need higher doses or combos anyway.

Curious... do you think if you stepped down your tirz dose a bit and upped the reta that you'd still have the intolerable skin sensation situation?

Like I wonder what the mechanism is that's causing your dysesthesia - is it the GLP-1, the GIP or the Glucagon?

 

[lessthanhalf]

Curious... do you think if you stepped down your tirz dose a bit and upped the reta that you'd still have the intolerable skin sensation situation?

Like I wonder what the mechanism is that's causing your dysesthesia - is it the GLP-1, the GIP or the Glucagon?

I have tried to research this, but there really is nothing in the studies.

In the low dose semaglutide trials it was rare, in the high dose, 7.2 and 16mg studies it was very common. So given it only acts on GLP-1 receptors it more or less has to be a GLP-1 effect, totally fails to explain why it is most common at normal doses with reta rather than the others.

I have tried increasing doses of tirz and reta and even very small dose increases of either make it worse, so on second daily doses from 4.5mg of tirz to 5mg or for reta from 1.4mg to 1.6 is noticeable. I have not seriously tried dropping tirz/reta ratio, once or twice i tried and the skin sensations were worse.

 

[Spork]

I have tried to research this, but there really is nothing in the studies.

In the low dose semaglutide trials it was rare, in the high dose, 7.2 and 16mg studies it was very common. So given it only acts on GLP-1 receptors it more or less has to be a GLP-1 effect, totally fails to explain why it is most common at normal doses with reta rather than the others.

I have tried increasing doses of tirz and reta and even very small dose increases of either make it worse, so on second daily doses from 4.5mg of tirz to 5mg or for reta from 1.4mg to 1.6 is noticeable. I have not seriously tried dropping tirz/reta ratio, once or twice i tried and the skin sensations were worse.

Aw man, that stinks!

It's a shame that I don't think even the pharma companies that plowed the money into researching these drugs fully understand how they work entirely.

I do wish I were one of the people who was a super-responder, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. I had a BMI of 45+ when I started tirzepatide, so you know the struggle there.

I'm looking at adding retatrutide into the mix to see how much more I can push things, but I appreciate your story because I'll definitely do this with extra caution thanks to your story.

 

[RT0123]

The only thing I would suggest being careful of is if it turns out reta does not work for you as well as you would like , to change back to tirz sooner rather than later. I am assuming the rate of weight loss has slowed a bit with the extra food noise? Reta does have the advantage of boosting metabolic rate a bit, but most people on this forum have found it is not as effective as tirz for food noise.

You are asking these drugs to do more than they were designed to do, tirz at best is 25% weight loss and reta at best is average of 29%, and so far you are down 17% 80/480 , but trying to get to 47% 230/480 . So unless you respond better than average, there is a good chance you might need higher than standard maximum doses or combinations of GLP drugs. My basic logic is that obesity of that degree of severity is so bad for your health, that even unknown possible adverse consequences of higher doses or combinations are very unlikely to be as risky.

I only started GLP drugs after losing most of the weight and am using them to control hunger to stop me putting the weight back on, but so far it is working to get me to 55% down from my start weight of 145kg. I added in 5mg reta to 15mg of tirz , and cannot go higher without intolerable skin sensation weirdness, and added in 0.5mg of cagri to help. I chose to add reta to tirz as it was working pretty well with very few side effects and I did not want to stuff that up by changing to reta.

Options from where you are now probably depend a fair bit on what side effects you have had so far, but either switching to reta, increasing the dose of tirz to as high as you tolerate or 25mg? , adding in low dose cagri slowly , or adding in reta to tirz. The reason I am suggesting this is my guess is at some point you are fairly likely to need higher doses or combos anyway.

Yes and no. Yes food noise has increased however I am still losing weight. Goal weight is 250lbs. After the great insight I’ve received from many here, I am going to add 2mg Reta to current Tirz schedule. I’ve had no side effects or adverse symptoms. Just noticing the food noise a bit more after being on it a year & lifting much heavier after the initial 80lb loss. I have a feeling this can be attributing to my recent hunger increase. I’ve upped my protein intake and had -3lb loss for the week. Appreciate your insight! Good luck to you!

 

[Spork]

I have tried to research this, but there really is nothing in the studies.

In the low dose semaglutide trials it was rare, in the high dose, 7.2 and 16mg studies it was very common. So given it only acts on GLP-1 receptors it more or less has to be a GLP-1 effect, totally fails to explain why it is most common at normal doses with reta rather than the others.

I have tried increasing doses of tirz and reta and even very small dose increases of either make it worse, so on second daily doses from 4.5mg of tirz to 5mg or for reta from 1.4mg to 1.6 is noticeable. I have not seriously tried dropping tirz/reta ratio, once or twice i tried and the skin sensations were worse.

I have seen more than a few people claim that Claritin (marketed/branded as Claratyne in Australia) can actually address the skin sensation problem. Have you ever tried something like that?