zanny-kanny
GLP-1 Novice
Hello y'all!
I started the GLP1 journey last June (2024) when I started Reta. Initially I was going to stack with Tirz (influenced by Reddit - they just love to stack GLP1s over there). One shot of Tirz convinced me not to do it (promptly got a severe stomachache). I then started with Reta June 10, 2024. It was hard the first couple of weeks due to the blood sugar drops I got every day at 5pm - it wasn't hunger so much as it was a hypoglycemic 'feed me Seymour!' message which I've learned not to ignore. This was despite my very low carb diet (Atkins) which I used 30 years ago to lose 100lbs. This noise disappeared within 2-2 1/2 weeks of starting Reta and it was pretty smooth sailing.
I experienced no real side effects until I got to higher doses (above 9 mg). I should explain that I do twice weekly shots of Reta (I have since the beginning) to try to minimize the effects of extreme blood level drops. Using a GLP1 plotter has been helpful in understanding how wildly it can swing on a once weekly dose. However, twice weekly has its own drawbacks, particularly when you get to 4.5 mg and above. I didn't have a very good glp plotter at first (the one at glp1calculator.com helped me tremendously) so I ended up experiencing more and more side effects until I eventually dialed back on dosage early February 2025 just to get rid of them. By then I had lost 90 lbs (over 7 1/2 mths), so I was ok with slowing down. I returned to starting dose and titrated back up very slowly over 4 months, taking note of when certain side effects hit.
This is my list of side effects:
fatigue: happens in about 20% of users, hit me at about 1 month in (didn't realize how bad it was until I dropped from 10mg/week to 2.5/wk - it was like a curtain had lifted! - only to fall back in place in mid-March)
stomachache: only occurred at 10mg dosage (2 5mg shots/wk)
severe cold: huge hot and cold swings for the first several months, then totally cold after reaching what I now know is 10mg blood level.
nausea/queasiness: couldn't eat because most foods were totally unappealing- haven't re-reached this level yet (currently at 8 mg 2x/week)
I should mention that along with the weight loss my blood work improved. I see a rheumatologist 2-3 times a year for Autoimmune issues (BTW- I did tell him. He was mad at first, but after I lost all the weight he actually congratulated me and pumped me for more information for his other clients). He does blood draws of course, and since I wanted to see how Reta would affect things like my Sed-Rate, etc, I refrained from using other peptides/substances that might cloud the picture. It wasn't spectacular in the Dec2024 draw, but in April2025 I was very pleased to see my CRP (c-reactive protein) level was now normal, the first time in 8 years (it dropped from 31 in December to 6). My sed rate, which is usually elevated, had reverted to near normal (from 58 June2024 to 41 Dec2024 to 40 April2025). The only bad news was my ALT level (liver) - it sharply shot up from normal in the Dec2024 draw( I've read that about 10% of folks in the trial experience this effect).
The bad thing about reta is that it does make you lose muscle if you don't aggressively address the protein issue head on (I did not, I do now, albeit belatedly). It also doesn't appear to address visceral fat. I've watched other areas lose SQ over and over again, but my abdomen remains. I'm now what they call a 'skinny fat' person. I estimate I have about 30-40 lbs of this VF to deal with, so I'm in a state of flux right now. I started Tesamorelin 1 month ago to address this problem and promptly started losing weight again (after months of very small weight loss). I'm actually starting to feel my upper rib cage again, so I'm thrilled to say it is working.
Sorry for writing a book! I thought I would just lay it all out instead of my usual piece-meal information parceling like on Reddit. Not that anyone reads what you write over there- I had to keep re-explaining myself over and over again...
Looking forward to reading and posting here. I have been ghosting for several weeks looking for nuggets and have found more here than on the Red (thanks for the Hospira update!) so I finally joined. Hoping to glean (and share) knowledge from/with you all going forward.
I started the GLP1 journey last June (2024) when I started Reta. Initially I was going to stack with Tirz (influenced by Reddit - they just love to stack GLP1s over there). One shot of Tirz convinced me not to do it (promptly got a severe stomachache). I then started with Reta June 10, 2024. It was hard the first couple of weeks due to the blood sugar drops I got every day at 5pm - it wasn't hunger so much as it was a hypoglycemic 'feed me Seymour!' message which I've learned not to ignore. This was despite my very low carb diet (Atkins) which I used 30 years ago to lose 100lbs. This noise disappeared within 2-2 1/2 weeks of starting Reta and it was pretty smooth sailing.
I experienced no real side effects until I got to higher doses (above 9 mg). I should explain that I do twice weekly shots of Reta (I have since the beginning) to try to minimize the effects of extreme blood level drops. Using a GLP1 plotter has been helpful in understanding how wildly it can swing on a once weekly dose. However, twice weekly has its own drawbacks, particularly when you get to 4.5 mg and above. I didn't have a very good glp plotter at first (the one at glp1calculator.com helped me tremendously) so I ended up experiencing more and more side effects until I eventually dialed back on dosage early February 2025 just to get rid of them. By then I had lost 90 lbs (over 7 1/2 mths), so I was ok with slowing down. I returned to starting dose and titrated back up very slowly over 4 months, taking note of when certain side effects hit.
This is my list of side effects:
fatigue: happens in about 20% of users, hit me at about 1 month in (didn't realize how bad it was until I dropped from 10mg/week to 2.5/wk - it was like a curtain had lifted! - only to fall back in place in mid-March)
stomachache: only occurred at 10mg dosage (2 5mg shots/wk)
severe cold: huge hot and cold swings for the first several months, then totally cold after reaching what I now know is 10mg blood level.
nausea/queasiness: couldn't eat because most foods were totally unappealing- haven't re-reached this level yet (currently at 8 mg 2x/week)
I should mention that along with the weight loss my blood work improved. I see a rheumatologist 2-3 times a year for Autoimmune issues (BTW- I did tell him. He was mad at first, but after I lost all the weight he actually congratulated me and pumped me for more information for his other clients). He does blood draws of course, and since I wanted to see how Reta would affect things like my Sed-Rate, etc, I refrained from using other peptides/substances that might cloud the picture. It wasn't spectacular in the Dec2024 draw, but in April2025 I was very pleased to see my CRP (c-reactive protein) level was now normal, the first time in 8 years (it dropped from 31 in December to 6). My sed rate, which is usually elevated, had reverted to near normal (from 58 June2024 to 41 Dec2024 to 40 April2025). The only bad news was my ALT level (liver) - it sharply shot up from normal in the Dec2024 draw( I've read that about 10% of folks in the trial experience this effect).
The bad thing about reta is that it does make you lose muscle if you don't aggressively address the protein issue head on (I did not, I do now, albeit belatedly). It also doesn't appear to address visceral fat. I've watched other areas lose SQ over and over again, but my abdomen remains. I'm now what they call a 'skinny fat' person. I estimate I have about 30-40 lbs of this VF to deal with, so I'm in a state of flux right now. I started Tesamorelin 1 month ago to address this problem and promptly started losing weight again (after months of very small weight loss). I'm actually starting to feel my upper rib cage again, so I'm thrilled to say it is working.
Sorry for writing a book! I thought I would just lay it all out instead of my usual piece-meal information parceling like on Reddit. Not that anyone reads what you write over there- I had to keep re-explaining myself over and over again...
Looking forward to reading and posting here. I have been ghosting for several weeks looking for nuggets and have found more here than on the Red (thanks for the Hospira update!) so I finally joined. Hoping to glean (and share) knowledge from/with you all going forward.
