Reta is making me unable to eat

[Valyra]

Well, I never thought I’d complain about this, especially as someone with food addiction and binge eating disorder, but I’m on week 4 and I literally can’t even smell food anymore. It makes me feel so sick. I used to think about food 24/7, but now, on 2mg (started February 4th), I get nauseous just thinking about it.

We had Greek food yesterday, and after eating a bit of meat and tzatziki, I ended up throwing it all up. The only things I can really eat right now are rice cakes and foods that aren’t rich, which means I’m not getting enough protein and even meat, something I loved, disgusts me now? I went from eating around 2000 kcal on average(before Reta), to 1400 during the first two weeks of reta, and now I’m at maybe 500 kcal at best. I guess I’m a very high responder, to say the least lol.

I haven’t been able to weigh myself yet because our scale ran out of batteries. I started at 78 kg, so I’m really curious where I am now. My face has visibly slimmed down, my collarbones are very prominent, and I can feel my ribs without pressing again. Normally I’d be super happy about that, but it’s so hard to get enough protein in. I don’t want to end up skinny-fat or feel sore whenever I work out.

Do you think I should go back to a lower dose? I did 1 mg the first two weeks every 6 days, then went up to 2 mg and switched to pinning every 5 days instead of 6.

 

[ambot88]

you went too hard, too fast. Dial it down bit - even the 2 every 7 days would be okay but every 5 days for your first week is too much. Drink some protein shakes so you're at least getting something in and make sure you stay hydrated.

 

[Valyra]

you went too hard, too fast. Dial it down bit - even the 2 every 7 days would be okay but every 5 days for your first week is too much. Drink some protein shakes so you're at least getting something in and make sure you stay hydrated.

Makes sense, yea. I thought maybe my body was just getting used to it and I had to push through.

Drinking is also incredibly hard right now, even hydrating throughout the day makes me feel so bad. I guess I'll let 7 days pass and go back down to 1.5mg

 

[Winnifer]

The dose reaches its peak at 4 weeks so it’s best to stay on the same dose for 4 weeks before moving up. Stay on 1mg for a month and then asses if you need to go up anymore, 1mg might just be enough for you 😊

 

[80s.diver]

Makes sense, yea. I thought maybe my body was just getting used to it and I had to push through.

Drinking is also incredibly hard right now, even hydrating throughout the day makes me feel so bad. I guess I'll let 7 days pass and go back down to 1.5mg

Maybe go down to 0.5mg, every 3 days. That will allow it to slowly increase in your system and each injection won't be as large of a spike in levels.

 

[bogardbilla]

You also might be overreacting psychologically. Be patient, relax, and wait a couple of days - things might as well get back to the new normal.

 

[trojanpeptide]

I was like this Valyra, and then I wasn't lol. I started back in Sep 2025 and used 0.5, then 1.0 for about a month, etc. I got to the point that I started getting hungry near day 7, so I decided to split the dose using 1.5 on Mon and 2.0 on Thur. I don't understand this business about every 5 days though. I would back it up to every 6 days injection or split your dose accordingly.

 

[woundcarping]

Do you think I should go back to a lower dose? I did 1 mg the first two weeks every 6 days, then went up to 2 mg and switched to pinning every 5 days instead of 6.

2mg/5 days is equivalent to 2.4mg/6 days or 2.8mg/week. That’s not a high dose for sure, but that’s a proportionally large jump from 1mg/6 days.

Obviously you’re responding strongly… I assume this is your first GLP? Why did you increase your dose and decrease your frequency?

If I overshoot my dose, my appetite is overly flat, eating is work and volume is impractical. The fix is to lower the dose. I’ve not experienced any food aversion symptoms.

 

[Valyra]

You also might be overreacting psychologically. Be patient, relax, and wait a couple of days - things might as well get back to the new normal.

Hm, maybe? It honestly wouldn't make too much sense. I struggled with my food addiction for years and suffered a lot through every diet I did, which had me losing weight again in the end.

I was like this Valyra, and then I wasn't lol. I started back in Sep 2025 and used 0.5, then 1.0 for about a month, etc. I got to the point that I started getting hungry near day 7, so I decided to split the dose using 1.5 on Mon and 2.0 on Thur. I don't understand this business about every 5 days though. I would back it up to every 6 days injection or split your dose accordingly.

I got hungry on day five again. I have friends pinning every 3 days, so I didn't think it would be a big deal to do 5 days, instead of 6. I'll probably just go back to 6 days.

2mg/5 days is equivalent to 2.4mg/6 days or 2.8mg/week. That’s not a high dose for sure, but that’s a proportionally large jump from 1mg/6 days.

Obviously you’re responding strongly… I assume this is your first GLP? Why did you increase your dose and decrease your frequency?

If I overshoot my dose, my appetite is overly flat, eating is work and volume is impractical. The fix is to lower the dose. I’ve not experienced any food aversion symptoms.

Yea, I read people started at 2mg, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. It however may be related to me being not very tall? Not sure really, but it's probably mostly that I respond very strongly.

It is my first GLP, combined with GHK-CU.

Interesting! On 1mg I'd still get hungry, but full fast, so it was easy to get in my daily dose of protein. What I didn't like about that was, that I'd get to 1400-1500kcal every day and the results didn't happen as fast as I wanted them to. Unfortunately, I have PCOS and I'm short, so it's haaard to shed weight, unless I go into a big deficit. If it wasn't for the protein, I guess I would just suffer through this lmao

 

[bogardbilla]

So is the goal to never feel hungry again? I do feel hunger on 7-8mg of Reta once per week, and I'm still losing weight.

 

[woundcarping]

I split dose, and have since my third week on Tirz because food noise came backs. I switched to Reta a couple weeks later which I also split. In theory I inject the same two days each week which is easier to plan for than rolling days.

 

[Valyra]

So is the goal to never feel hungry again? I do feel hunger on 7-8mg of Reta once per week, and I'm still losing weight.

No, haha. The goal is to not have food impact how I feel and to not think of it all day long. Which technically works.

 

[BNLFL]

I started at 2mg for 4 weeks, and even after the first one both my wife and I could feel appetite suppression, but not killer. Next rounds were 4mg, and just did our 3rd Friday, and seemed to hit me hard on the appetite deal. I guess I was literally drinking too much water, and full, just not hungry at all at dinner. Haven't cranked a ton of water today, so we'll see how it goes in a little bit. Beer was another issue, it fills me up more than it ever did before. Pretty sure you want to be on one certain mg dose for 4 weeks before jumping to the next.

 

[MFGamesta]

I would stick with a simple, weekly, protocol. Don't change dose until after 4 weeks. Seems like you could have stayed on the lower dose if you had waited. I'd reset to your original mg per week for 4 weeks and go from there.

Keep it simple.

 

[lessthanhalf]

If you have unpleasant side effects from a GLP, wait until they go away before your next dose. It really is not more complicated than that, but if that means 2 weeks for the levels to drop to a point where side effects fade then that is how long you should wait. Then try to work out using glp plotter what your blood levels were when the side effects were bad and when they went away, and after that you know exactly what levels to aim for or avoid. And you can use GLP plotter to work out doses that suit you and don't go over the levels you know will cause side effects. You can much later try to increase doses if hunger is an issue and side effects are not , but if you are very sensitive to the drug then go up in tiny amounts like 10-20% dose increases per week.
If that all sounds too complicated, just wait till the side effects fade before the next dose then drop the dose and increase extra slowly.
If you do not already know this you need to know that peak effects are 24 hours or so after a dose , then it takes a week for levels to drop to half that. And each dose increase will build up blood levels for 4 weeks until a new steady state , which is the reason for waiting 4 weeks to increase doses., This is totally different to just about every other medication so trying to work anything out without knowing this is impossible.

 

[DunningKruger]

If it was working at the lower dose, try dropping back down to see if it kills the nausea.

I started at 2mg/week, had no nausea and no appetite, and decided to drop to 1mg/week after 6 weeks. It's working. I'm still losing weight, I still have no appetite, but there's enough appetite to have one meal of meat a day. I think some of us are hyper-responders to it. Which is fantastic on the wallet! 😆

 

[Valyra]

Little update:

Went back to 1.5mg every 6 days. Nausea is mostly gone, eating is still hard and food I used to enjoy tastes bland. I feel fine, other than still struggling to drink enough, but at least I can force feed myself protein again. Also managed to weigh myself and I'm at 69.2kg today ->almost 10kg down in 24 days.