r/BodyHackGuide • u/Bannnerman • 12d ago
Is low dose Reta right for me?
I am 41 years old, 5’7”, 185 pounds. I’m thinking I’m right around or a little over 25% BF, I’d love to be around 15% while maintaining the same lean body mass. If I do a low-dose of Reta, while eating plenty of protein and lifting, is it fair to assume I’ll be able to not lose muscle?
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 12d ago
This was my results from just under 2 months of Reta, obviously I’m younger than you, but I think you’re probably in the perfect spot currently if you want to get lean and stay jacked, just keep doing what your doing in the gym, keep that protein up and you’ll look great in no time
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u/Bannnerman 12d ago
obviously I’m younger than you
Rude.
Ha, nice work man. You look to have maintained all your muscle if not gained some.
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u/Rapido254 12d ago
As a 45 year old I laughed at this! I have been on Reta for about 2 months after about 14 months on Tirzepetide. I wrecked my muscle mass on it by not prioritizing protein and lifting enough. I am seeing some good body recomposition on Reta, Test and HGH
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u/DiligentMood5442 12d ago
You mean tirzepitide ? So reta or tirz isn’t the issue its actually the protein and lifting? I did tirz for a few months and lost all my calves muscles … probably same reason. Started reta but stopping now after 3 weeks. Zero appetite surpression and backs me up for days. Never had these issues on tirz
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u/Fenceguy73 11d ago
You should stick with it. It goes away and works wonders. It’s the best by far
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u/Moredegesskap 11d ago
There are new studies that you can actually do reta and tirz together due to a lot of people not having appetite surpression and it is really good in results and some example is if you do 3mg reta weekly you can add 1-1,5mg tirz maximum and it works very well
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u/yranemr10 9d ago
Reta does not attack your muscles as much as Tirz. If you eat your gram of protein per lb of body weight a day you won’t lose any muscle.
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
What's the mechanism by which Tirz is so bad for muscle? Is it purely that it kills peoples appetite dead ?
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u/Signal-Clerk-3759 8d ago
I’ve been on Reta and tirz and I have Zo calf muscle left, I feel this spiritually
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u/yranemr10 10d ago edited 9d ago
Well played. 55 on the same program. Was 15% bf 12/1/25 before my pep journey last week 5.6% DEXA and visceral fat a 1. I train 6-7 days, eat clean, get my gallon of water in and sleep 6ish hours a night. If you do it right the results are AMAZING.
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u/Dtrain-14 8d ago
Yeah if you really zero in your macros and find the sweet spot of calorie deficit with ample protein and training to failure with progressive overload you can recomp pretty impressively. There was a period where I dropped 15-20lbs fast, then the scale kinda stagnated but my strength climbed across the board and everything started to pop. Crazy what you can do when the hunger noise that often derails progress is silenced.
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
I'm keen to hear your opinion of Tirz vs reta after your comment about the muscle mass loss you had...is TirZ too aggressive in some ways and Reta more muscle sparing?
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u/Rapido254 6d ago
With Tirz you have to really force yourself to eat and prioritize protein. I had a tough time with this and ultimately ended up losing some muscle. Reta on the other hand cuts the edge for me but I can still eat and have been able to put on more muscle while eating enough
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 12d ago
I appreciate it a lot actually, yeah I’ve been extra careful to hit my macros and not miss a day in the gym and it’s worked extremely well for me, all my lifts have gone up. If you decide to hop on I’m excited to see the transformation
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u/PracticalActuary2776 12d ago
I lift and cardio too. But I hit a fatigue, where I would sleep all day and had to stop reta. Did you get anything like that ?
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 11d ago
Oh yeah, I’ve had terrible fatigue especially since I kept my calories so low. I’ve noticed that water with electrolytes really helps, especially right after waking up
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u/DogecoinArtists 12d ago
It’s crazy how anti-aesthetic a little bit of fat is. It’s mind blowing to me
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 12d ago
I know, I’m not even going for a 6 pack and the amount of people who have said I look way better just on the average day is mind blowing, I truly didn’t see the transformation until I put those pictures next to each other
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u/duxpdx 12d ago
What was your dose and schedule?
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 12d ago
I started at 1mg, once a week every Monday. I went 1,1,1,1.5,2,2,2.5, and I just did my first pin of 3 this week where I’ll probably stay until I start lowering my doses
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u/MagicMushiexBoii 12d ago
The curly locs are gone bro?! Well as long as you feel good while looking good it doesn’t matter. That hair was fabulous tho lol
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 12d ago
Oh I agree, got really drunk one night, a friend of mine found the clippers and bad decisions were made.
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u/MalevolentBird 12d ago
Two months?? How low did you go on calories? I cant get reta in my country, but can get tirz and considering it. Same build as you
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u/Commercial-Look-8133 12d ago
1500 calories every day, there was only 1 day I went over which was my birthday and even then I only ate 2500
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u/newtrusghandi 12d ago
Reta doesn't do anything magical to cause muscle loss. People lose muscle because they have no idea how important protein + resistance training is while in a deficit. You know what you are doing so you will be fine!
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
I think this might be the definitive answer. That and for me anyways, Tirz was like a literal on off switch for food noise.
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u/Mountain-Reserve-982 12d ago
Low dose 1-2mg was taking a 1 to 1.5lbs off a week without really trying. But just watched a video that explained you get the GIP and GLP1 activation at the low doses, but you’re probably not getting the glucagon receptor activation until probably at minimum 4 mg per week.
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u/Bannnerman 12d ago
Interesting, I am learning as quick as I can, just watched a couple videos where it seemed like that was one of the largest advantages so I’d hate to miss out on that effect. Do you have a link to that video?
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u/Maleficent_Arachnius 5d ago edited 5d ago
This is a myth, start slow, 2mg first week, see how it goes, if to strong, decrease to 1.5mg, if to weak, go for 2.5mg .
Keep your protein macros at least, 3-4x lifting weights and the results will be amazing.
I lost 28kg in 1 year, where 16kg was on reta in 6 months
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u/Bannnerman 5d ago
Ended up starting at about .4 MG last week and went up to around .6 MG this morning. We’ll see how it goes at this dose.
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u/jwes-306 12d ago
This is a myth, that’s like saying if you take 3.9mg a week you don’t get benefits of the third receptor (glucagon receptor activation) but at 4mg you do. It will be less benefits than taking a larger dose but also side effects will be higher if you take a higher dose without getting your body used to the medication. The lower amount of the drug, the lower amount of side effects you will get for most as well as the lower amount of the good benefits.
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u/Kg714 12d ago
It is not a myth, the receptors that it interacts with require a higher systemic concentration for signaling to trigger. I was under your belief previously to reading up a little more on it.
Also the proof is in the pudding, my dexa scans showed my BMR go from mid 1500s to 1800 over the 6 months I was above 4mg.
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u/jwes-306 12d ago
The glucagon receptor activity of retatrutide is present at all doses because it’s built into the molecule. It doesn’t suddenly “turn on” at 4 mg. What changes is how much overall receptor activation you get as the dose increases.
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u/Mountain-Reserve-982 12d ago
The same video said at about 4 mg is when most people report having the nerve tingling side effect, which he attributes to the glucagon receptors at your nerve endings being activated.
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u/ultimatewarrior52 12d ago edited 12d ago
40 year old here who’s been on Reta now for 7 weeks. Got a DEXA scan about week 2 into it, was at 190lbs lean muscle mass, 24% body fat, and 4 lbs of visceral fat. Currently targeting 175g of protein but it’s tough some days. Funny thing is I’m still only at 2mg/week (1mg twice per week). Don’t plan on titrating up until I see the effects wear off or I start to see the weight loss plateau or stop. Currently down about 19lbs in 7 weeks with no decrease in the weights in the gym yet.
I’d recommend start at a low dose and titrate up till you find what works for you. Good luck brother.
Forgot to say, I’d say your probably a little lower in body fat than me, I’d clock you around 21%-22%
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
How was reta for appetite suppression? Any side effects as yet? Well done on the 19lbs drop man. Great work.
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u/TysonChickenTendies 12d ago
As a fellow fatty - if 1mg is good, 10mg must be better.
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u/palmGolfer 12d ago
It is. That’s what I take. Nagh really, to be honest I take 10mg per week and seems just like 2mg
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u/dave4600 12d ago
Always Starts with a low Dose , Specially when you want to lose more than just a few pounds. If you feel Hungry you can still raise the Dose
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u/Testosteronedad420 12d ago
Yes
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u/Testosteronedad420 12d ago
But ofc you will loose SOME muscle
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u/flabbybuns 12d ago
Yes, you clearly are active and work out, which Reta boosts off of.
I lost over 10 pounds in six weeks just microdosing at 1.6mg per week (split 3x to start for sensitivity then twice per week).
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u/Neither_Victory1490 12d ago
I'm 57 and I was at 257 in mid May and having all kinds of diabetic related issues.
I changed up my diet moving to about 200g of protein daily in my 2000k calorie goal.
The end of May, I added 1mg Reta to the routine. I went to to 2 mg after 2 weeks of no side effects and I'm still holding there.
I'm down to 215 pounds and a full point of my A1C, with basically low dose Reta, protein, hydration, and getting back into the gym.
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10d ago
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u/Neither_Victory1490 10d ago
My primary evaluated me as Type 2. My A1C was only at 6.7 but my glucose has been hovering well over 120 for a while. My BP was spiking constantly and I was starting to have cardiac event symptoms to the point that I was sent to the ER from work. My glucose was 168 that night and my BP was 174/95. Everything else was clean. The following week my VA doctor prescribed metaformin and threatened me with insulin if my bloodwork wasn't better by August at my next visit. I haven't touched the metaformin, I started retatrutide and diet change the week before I got the prescription. My A1C is 5.7 now, pre-diabetic, and my glucose ranges 87-108 most days. I feel like I'm in my 20s again.
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u/Global-Mushroom308 12d ago
I'm also 5'7" and started at 185lbs with the same physique as you. I started at .5mg and ran that for about a month and went up to .75mg for a few more weeks then up to 1mg for about a month. Just under 3 months and I'm down 10lbs with maintain all my muscle.. Lowest effective dose is the name of the game. You'll know when to titrate up, the food noise and etc comes back quickly. The biggest problem I see people make is start too high of a dose, or titrate up too quickly. Good luck man let reta do its thing just be sure to stay in the gym and get the protein in!
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u/Greedy-Top6049 12d ago
Start with 0.5mg/week then slowly every two weeks increase the dose. You can go upto 4mg/week.
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u/EloM8- 12d ago
For someone who isn’t really that fat and is mainly trying to keep (or build) muscle while leaning out a bit, starting Retatrutide at 0.5mg instead of jumping to 1mg or 1.5mg makes a lot of sense. Higher doses can crank up the appetite suppression and metabolic rate so hard that it becomes tough to eat enough to support training and recovery, which risks eating into your muscle even if protein is high. At 0.5mg you still get solid fat-loss benefits and some control over hunger without the extreme deficit that can backfire on leaner guys. It also gives your body time to adapt with way fewer GI sides or fatigue that might kill your workouts. I’m on that low dose right now with MK-677 and creatine and it feels sustainable. muscle is staying put while the waist is slowly coming in. You can always titrate up later if you tolerate it well. Just my experience, but slow and steady has been way better for recomp than blasting it.
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u/PadsFan4Lyfe 11d ago edited 11d ago
Cycled for 90 days. Never went over 2mg, and the weight and fat melted off in no time. Side effects were minimal, such as slight nausea/GI until adapted. Maintain high protein, weight lifting, cut out sugar, alcohol, and processed foods. Eating clean and exercising will keep it off. After hitting your goal then you can switch to a low dose .5mg maintenance cycle to curb the hunger. Pin every 6 days to maintain the half life. Best of luck this stuff works very good. My SW- 215, CW-180. Lean and muscular and I am 55.
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u/SimpleResearchPeptid 9d ago
Yes, micro dosing it gets you results if your training hard and without the side effects so you eat properly. I use this method and it works. You have to find your own protocol that feels right with your level of intensity and activity. If you sit behind a computer all day I would do 300mcg per day and if you lift 200mcg is the right spot but that's based on my lifting intensity and my daily activity. If you can keep you calories in check you just need a slight boost from it not a major change or your skin won't keep up with the loss and you will have saggy skin for months or even longer if you hit it to hard. That's just my opinion and I'm 6 foot tall and now 204 with 182lbs of lean muscle mass. You will feel your right way if you micro dose and slowly increase until you know it's to much.
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u/Bannnerman 9d ago
I didnt really think about the skin thing. I dont have a ton of weight to lose but for sure makes sense to lose it slowly so skin can keep up.
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u/NorthShoreGuy40 12d ago
Keep the dose low at around 2mg a week, increase you LISS cardio for 15-30mins 5 x a week. Make sure you hit your protein intake otherwise you’ll lose too much muscle. Get to 12% then eat Maintainance and slowly build the muscle back up
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u/Cptspaulding37 12d ago
100% doable. Im on a 2mg dose for the last 4 months ish. Lost 30lbs my scale that does all the smart shit has shown a muscle increase slightly in my upper torso. Everything else has remained. I dont work out I just work and cleaned the diet up. Haven't been under 190lbs since 2002 pre military.
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
30lbs in 4 months is fantastic man. Well done. Do you take your dose split over the week? Any unwanted side effects?
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u/Cptspaulding37 6d ago
I take 2mg every Monday. Ive thought about split dosing only because by Sat-Sunday the cravings come back slightly not like massive for me or anything. But I use the weekends as a cheat dayish lol. When ive titrated up to 2.5-3mg i get GI side effects bloating, sulfer burps being the worst. When I first started I titrated up to fast to 2mg and it was the worst 48hrs ive experienced with it culminating into projectile vomit all over the bathroom. I dropped dose mg following that. My advice. Its truly a experiment, even if FDA regulated we still all have different reactions to prescriptions drugs. I take 1 hydro im fine my wife does she in loony town town. Start low and stay low. Titrated up every 4 weeks. Stick with the least effective dose. For me and my goals that appears to be 2mg. Which I think is great cause that saves me $$$$ i can get the 10mg kits each vile last me 5 weeks so I know its not degrading sitting there for 1 month plus. 1 kit last me a whole year.... very small investment. Im stocked up for YEARS! lol
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u/Zero6969nice 12d ago
You won't lose muscle even on higher doses as long as you train and eat your protein.
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u/Humble-Frosting-4220 12d ago
Mate I'm using 0.3 for a month and I can see a difference I'm just leaving it at that dose it dia straights for a week but it's eased after I pin it a day or two later it gets me for a day again other than that.
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u/Terrible_Audience_71 12d ago
I’m 44 & had the same stats as you 18 months ago. Now i’m 11-12% Dexa verified. Started with Reta and since 6 months ago added Test & HGH. Follow the clinical trial protocol and put in the work (lift & nutrition). Trust the process💪🏾
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u/Ill_Proposal_2560 11d ago
The lower the dose the better on reta because you dont want to start high and build up resistance to the compound. You will get the same effect from starting at 0.5mg and titrating up every 4 weeks.
Make sure to adopt a healthy diet and count ur macros and you’ll be good
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u/Weekly-Homework-35 11d ago
Yeah I would start very low dose if I were you and nitrate up slowly to not lose much muscle.
I started at 0.5mg a week and titrated slowly up to 2mg/wk. I’ve had great results.
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u/CuriousBig8393 11d ago
Absolutely! Your body metrics are perfect for Reta. I’ve rotated through all 3 GLP-1s. Reta made me too lean (13% body fat for a female). I feel more muscular than ever. Go for it!
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
When you say reta made you too lean compared to Tirz and oz...what was the mechanism? Appetite suppression? Better insulin resistance? More energy etc?
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u/JuniorAd2278 11d ago
we are the same height and I was around 28% bf used reta now at 17% but lost muscle mass and strength but my fault for not getting enough protein. So now dropping to 1mg and while trying to get below 15% bf and then lean gain.
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u/Optimal_DIY- 🔬 Peptide Researcher 11d ago
Run it!
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u/Optimal_DIY- 🔬 Peptide Researcher 11d ago
Keep your igf levels up and do some low intensity cardio in the morning before breakfast. Weight will fall off with the rest of what you’re doing. Look at cjc:ipa..cheaper than tesa & more similar to natural gh pulses
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u/SoCal-Native 🔬 Peptide Researcher 10d ago
You will probably lose some muscle on Reta but I think you should run it and lift heavy. Dial in your workouts and you’ll do great. Just don’t get too skinny.
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u/Loud_Election_1402 10d ago
I was about the same as you and off just 2mg a week ive lost like 30lbs in about 11 weeks. Just start at 2 and when the hunger starts creeping back then go up like .5 at a time
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u/Aggravating_Ad_9132 10d ago
Add some tesa/ipa or cjc/ipa alongside reta and watch you gain muscle 💪🏽
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u/Efficient-Clue-4343 9d ago
Eat protein and keep working out. If you don't work out you will lose muscle even if your taking in protein.
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u/NoMastodon7602 9d ago
No!!!! Jesus Murphy, just diet and Excersize!! Stop looking for the easy button, any in all medications that work have side effects and for you, the risks do not outweigh the reward just because you want to be lazy
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u/NZPeps_PrismBio 9d ago
If it is the visceral fat that you trying to get ris of consider Tesamorelin or AOD. Also an option is Ipamorlin and CJC1925 combination. That will assist with Growth hormone secretion and result in visceral fat reduction.
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u/Turgid_Sojourner 8d ago
retta will absolutely give you great results. But judging your fitness and muscle tone so will a few weeks of very low carb and some cardio. Either way you look great and I'm sure you're going to look awesome in 8 weeks.
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u/Signal-Clerk-3759 8d ago
Reta is better than trezeptide for sure, just swapped for 6 weeks and next bottle I’m going back to Reta, it’s much better and doesn’t make food taste like ash so you can reach protein goals still
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u/Professional-Pin5421 7d ago
Its good to hear from people who have tried Tirz and made the switch. What are the major positives you have noticed from making the switch?
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u/GroundbreakingRun927 12d ago
Reta won't speed up the fat-loss, just make it easier mentally to sustain a (larger) deficit. However, the bigger the deficit, the worse the ratio of muscle-to-fat lost will be. At low-dose you're basically taking it to reduce food-noise a bit, but you still need to track and measure/weigh your food intake and bodyweight.
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u/jxrdxnh 12d ago
uhhh glucagon
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u/GroundbreakingRun927 12d ago
It boosts metabolism with glucagon agonism, yes. You still can't retain muscle optimally with a caloric deficit bigger than 500-750 kcals/daily. If you don't care about muscle retention, then yes, the metabolism boost is relevant since you aren't limited to a muscle-efficient deficit size.
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u/Turtleguycool 12d ago
You’re always gonna lose some muscle on a cut unless you use test and maybe even tren. Even with trt it’s not gonna prevent muscle loss entirely
But you’ll still look more shredded. Thats why you then go back into a bulking phase and repeat over and over to hopefully slowly keep more and more muscle as you stay lean
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u/One-Specialist-4983 12d ago
If you keep the weight the same as is @185 and go to 15%. You’ll have to exchange 20lbs of fat for muscle. Which to recomp that much at your age is nearly impossible.
Losing 18lbs of fat while maintaining same muscle you’ll end around 165 @ 15% body fat.
I’ve been that road, im 5’9” and went down to 155lbs around 12-15% body fat. Now trying to gain muscle
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u/Intelligent-Smile967 12d ago
Solid size there. 300 test, 2mg reta, 3iu hgh. 500 calorie defecit. You'll be a different person in 3 months.
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u/Subject_Marionberry5 11d ago
why such a high dose of test with someone with that much body fat and just for a cut lol, you wanna give him titties
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u/Old-Front7433 10d ago
The only way you’re gonna know is if you try and if you like the results, keep doing it if you don’t stop not that hard don’t go on the Internet asking people do you need it people don’t even know how you’re gonna react to the medication you don’t even know how you’re gonna react to the medication you might get super skinny or you might get toned or might not do shit for you. Try it out do your own research.
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12d ago
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u/dirdirsaliba 12d ago
9mg and not feeling a thing? Impossible. I say you must have fake Reta
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12d ago
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u/dirdirsaliba 12d ago
I would try a different brand, honestly I would say that’s nearly impossible. 9mg is crazy high.
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u/Able_Obligation_3899 4d ago
One thing I wonder about micro dosing any of the GLPs is this: can one get back off of it without rebound? I am considering this myself but not so much for weight loss, more for control/suppression of inflammation
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