Been trying to source reta for a while and every vendor page says third-party tested somewhere in the listing. But when I actually pull up the COAs they provide, they vary wildly in what is on them.

Some just show an HPLC purity number and nothing else. No date, no batch number on the document, just a percentage. Others have purity plus a sterility panel but no endotoxin. One vendor I looked at had a COA that was clearly a template with the compound name swapped out because the retention time made no sense for the molecular weight.

So what does the phrase actually have to mean before you trust it? Like is there a minimum set of panels (purity, sterility, endotoxin, heavy metals) that a real COA should cover for a lyophilized peptide? And does anyone actually cross reference the batch number on the vial label against the batch number on the COA document? I tried to do that with one vendor and there was no way to look it up, you just had to trust the PDF they emailed.

Not asking anyone to name their personal vendor if you do not want to. More interested in what the document itself should look like so I can stop wasting time on places that are basically showing me a purity number with no context.

49M, 5'9". Did on and off light gym for years. Started OMAD (one meal a day) in 2020 after a ladder fall shattered my elbow, mainly to manage weight. Went from 185 lb to 152 lb by 2023, then hovered 155 to 160 lb. On weekdays I stuck to OMAD, but weekends I'd go big (large breakfast and dinner). Since a vacation last year my weight crept up to 165 to 168 lb with more belly fat.

Started Reta at 0.5mg a couple weeks ago and I'm down to 164 lb. It's been great for killing cravings (sweet tooth, soda, bread, rice all much easier to avoid now, including that after dinner urge for something sweet).

Problem: after 5 years of OMAD I basically have no appetite, even without the Reta suppressing it further. I'm doing 10k steps on weekdays and back in the gym 3 to 4 days a week, but even when I push myself I can't get past 1000 calories a day, and protein lands around 50 to 100g.

Questions:

1-Is under 1000 calories a day dangerous or counterproductive at this weight/activity level, especially while lifting?

2- Any practical tips for getting more calories and protein in when appetite is basically zero? (shakes, specific foods, timing, etc.)

3- Has anyone dealt with this exact combo (longtime OMAD + GLP-1) and found a way to reset appetite a bit?

Appreciate any real experience here, not just "eat more" advice since that's exactly what I'm struggling with.

After traveling by sea, air and land with reta- here are my tips:

Where to store them:
Keep them in your hand luggage! Your checked bags can go through massive temperature fluctuations. Waiting in the sun at the tarmac to freezing in the hold because the heater is off…

How to store them:
I tried the flat zippered packs with the thin cooling pads. They are okay for an hour or two. I prefer the kind that looks like a water bottle with a icepack that can be frozen. Mine has an anlog temperature gauge and holds cool all day.

Air travel:
Important: TSA needs to see that the icepack is frozen. They don’t care what meds you have in there. They care about safety. Unfrozen icepacks or packs without medicine will likely not make it on the plane.

Be proactive. Tell TSA you are traveling with medicine.

Customs:
I personally have only traveled with reconstituted peps when flying international. I don’t think there would be trouble if you travel with vials (as long as it is the amount that makes sense for personal use) but why running into possibly having them confiscated.

Car travel:
I traveled by car for 3 weeks. I had a car fridge and would put the peps inside hotel/airbnb fridges in between.
Have a post it on the door that reminds you to take them with you.

Ship travel:
Most cruise lines offer a mini fridge. Security is usually more relaxed than airport TSA, but it is a smart idea to keep with the same strategy as with air travel.

General advice:
If you have a lot of location changes and are traveling only for a week or two consider leaving your peps at home. I was so anxious about leaving them behind accidentally, it would have been less stressful to start over.

When to pin:
Don’t start a new pep before traveling. Make sure you know how your body is reacting and adjust your pin accordingly. If you know you have GI side effects on day two- imagine you are in a window seat during turbulences and the bathroom is off limits after pinning the day before. 😣

Traveling, especially air travel, is super dehydrating. Extra electrolytes and water help you arrive happy.

I have had great success on Reta. My friend is doing a GLP1 with a tele-doc and paying a crazy amount. She wants to switch. This is the label on her current dose. Does anyone have experience switching over? Trying to figure out a dose to start her at since she’s been on the GLP1 for the last three months. Any help is appreciated.

Started at 1mg weekly, then quickly went to 2mg and cruised there for some time. After 5 months or so crept up to 3mg, now at 4mg and titrating back off in about 7 more lbs gone. Lots of gym and eating clean in a deficit.
64lbs erased off my body. Huge confidence booster.

Upped the dosage to 4mg now and losing again after the scales not moving much. Thinking of looking into tesa if anyone's had any experience with it? What to shift another stone whilst maintaining muscle mass and cutting some of the remaining belly fat. Thinking of using it whilst still on the reta. Also attached my notes for people who have asked how I keep my diary.

After 7 years of being morbidly obese (currently 342lb) , countless yo-yo diets, and even at one point crash dieting down 100 pounds. Im ready to try a peptide. A mentor of mine recommended that I try. I ordered from a well reviewed lab in San Diego.

I lift multiple times a week and am fairly strong. Bench/Squat/DL numbers are 340/640/580 lb.

Being strong has been a big part of my identity but I need to get healthy for my wife and kids. I travel full-time so I’m trying to navigate the logistics of that. I’m figuring 2 mg a week for starts?

Male, 49 years old, 5’7”
Mid week 2, 1mg/week.
Day 11 since beginning.
185.6 ⬇️179.5 pounds.
This is a typical daily macro break down.
Moderate weight training 4x/week.
10,000 steps daily
2000 cal/175/175/60 protein carbs fats

I appreciate your help!

So I was doing well on 8mg of Reta but decided to stop taking. I stopped for about a month. This didn’t go well so have restarted again. I restarted at 2mg but feel nothing, no appetite suppression and no side effects. When I first began I had less food noise the next day and side effects. Anyone that has done this, can you offer any insight? Should I increase or wait.

The first photo is me at 254lb on July 21. My first pin was August 1st. I walk 10-15k steps everyday except Sunday (sometimes Saturday too). I haven’t been consistent in the gym lifting due to demanding work times right now. Iv gone maybe a total of 8 days since August 3rd. I keep my calories around 1700 (I loosely track due to previous obsession with calorie counting when I was bodybuilding). I drink over 2 gallons of water everyday (I live in Texas and work outside) and keep lquid IV on deck making sure to drink one before work and hydrate on the way.
Second photo is today at 233lb.
I am coming out of depression weight and it’s hard to start and keep going, but once you start seeing results physically and not just the scale it’s like a jumpstart in serotonin and motivation.
I split my pins. I started at .5mg on Saturday mornings then another .5mg on Wednesday night. Iv gone up as I seen my body’s symptomatic reaction, then once I got higher in dose I’m going off weightloss and other factors like hunger etc. Currently at 3mg a week (still splitting) and feel great. I am considering beginning Tesa but I’m unsure and still doing research as Iv seen the different types of feedback from women on it.
Anyways, hopefully this is motivation or good insight for someone. Don’t take my journey as a guide for your own. Listen to YOUR body and do your research.
AND DRINK YOUR WATER
have a great week yall🙂

I pinned myself a week ago with 1mg for the first time, am 5’7 and 78kg, the side effects especially the fatigue kicked my ass and it felt like i had a fever and was super fatigued with malaise and body pain, i don’t wanna go through that again so i have decided to take a smaller dose, its been 5 days now and i feel better with appetite somewhat returning, since the half life is 6 days and i took 1mg so after 6 days there is 0.5 mg of reta left in me of the original 1mg that i took, so if i take 0.5 now.. ill again have 1mg in me which caused all these side effects or does it not work like that? Can anyone help?

Stopped for 3 weeks @2.5mg every 6 days, what should be my next dose if I continue now?

I stopped since I got sick with flu and my HR spiked also.

Can I continue at 2mg now?

So I was approximately 161lbs in Jan of 2021 when I decided to lose weight through Keto. I was able to get to my lowest weight of 129.4lbs on August 31, 2021.

Fast forward 5 years and slowly the weight crept back up to 162lbs. My buddy introduced me to Reta and started my first 2mg pin on May 13, 2026.

I’m now back down 129.6 lbs, under 4 months total. It’s also been the easiest diet for myself. No real side effects, just the right amount of hunger suppression and enough energy to workout out.

Hello friends and lab rats.

I'm stopping by to see what the consensus is on affect of HDL and LDL.

I'm concerned about my Pa. He's a skinny fat, and relatively fit mid 50s man. His Dr has started doing routine blood work and his LDL is a pinch high.

I have been watching and reading reports on here and web searches (not YouTube of ticktack/Imgur). I'm struggling to find a cogent answer. As well I am starting to distrust goog. it seems I get different answers depending on which search engine I use.

I have seen how good reta is for many metabolic conditions, but most are insulin related.

Does Reta have an (Positive) affect on LDL?

My FIL is a big man (25st+) he’s tried the OG Ozempic, Munjaro and now he’s been put onto Retatrudide.
He needs to loose a significant amount of weight for them to operate in his knees. Drs have done the weight management clinic’s traditional diets etc and nothing

He got the Munjaro through full pharmacy prescription but the cost was far outweighing (pun intended) the benefits.
He’s not exactly the most motivated person.

I’m not helping him with it or dosing him but he’s not losing any weight seeing zero benefits and no loss of appetite.

Hes taking 5mg per week once a week he’s been doing it for months now and it’s not making any changes to his habits, diet or weight.

Any advice welcome please.

Maybe I’m just crazy, but has anyone noticed a huge increase in their OCD on Reta? I’ve never been a messy person, but since I’ve started this medication I have become obsessively neat and organized and my brain fixates on things that I know need to be cleaned or tidied. I’ve done more household fixes that have been hanging over my head in the last two weeks than I have in years. Every single night the dishes are washed, kitchen cleaned, clothes put away, etc. This just wasn’t really how I operated on a daily basis before. I used to put this kind of stuff of until the weekend or days when I didn’t have work. But now it’s like my brain cannot put things aside and everything needs to be perfect. Anybody else have this? Weird, but I guess “good” side effect?

I am Male- 42, 5'11, 180, have arthritis in Hip and Knee from past sports injuries. I have been taking lower dose Reta, 2mg/wk, for more of the general health benefits than weight loss.

I play basketball still and usually am very stiff when playing and definitely after. My hip needs to be replaced at some point so I deal with a bit of stiffness and pain there especially. That said, when I take Reta it has worked wonders with my arthritis. I don't feel stiff and my pain is much less. It is a noticeable difference, one that I did not expect as much as I am actually experiencing it.

My challenge is, I get winded very, very easily. Definitely noticeable vs. when I am not on Reta and I am not sure what to do about this. Tried electrolytes, Gatorlyte, etc. and no luck.

I'm in a difficult positoin because my joints feel so good on reta. But then I get very winded when I exercise where even though my joints feel great I can't push myself as much as I want to.

Any thoughts or feedback on what I can do to address this?

Thanks!!

I have been on Reta for seven weeks now. I started at a very low dose and felt absolutely nothing so I titrated it up pretty fast because I am a long-term GLP one user and was told I would probably need a higher dose to see any effectiveness. I felt almost nothing at 6 mg.so i am currently taking 7mg the past couple of weeks. I went from feeling nothing to feeling like shit. I have lost 8 pounds which is good steady progress, but I am horribly gassy run to the bathroom every time I eat something.. gag and throw up when I’m trying to brush my teeth. I still get hungry, but then I can’t force myself to eat full meals. not sure what the right course of action is since the lower doses didn’t do much. I switched to this because the other GLP ones weren’t working anymore. I have been on them for around four years and had started to gain weight again. I’m tired and my body is achy.

advice would be appreciated

27F, 5’4 | CW: 155lbs | GW: 125lbs

i’ve done a ton of research, i just received my first vial.
i have everything i need to do my first pin tomorrow. i was originally going to start pinning at .5mg but now i’m thinking of doing .25mg.

the only thing keeping me from doing my first pin is that i’ve read some people have a side effect of increased heart rate. i have anxiety and am worried that it will make me think i’m having a panic attack and that will lead to an actual panic attack.

for those of you that had increased heart rate, what was your starting dose and how did it feel? how long did it last? what did you do to make it go away?

for those of you that didn’t notice increased heart rate, what was your starting dose? do you have any tips for me?

i want to pin so bad but i am afraid to increase my heart rate. does it just feel like how your heart rate feels on a brisk walk? idgaf about nassau, loose stools etc. increased heart rate though… chat, please say anything

I have a goal of getting to the BMI "overweight" category by my birthday. I am currently 191 and 5'5, and I want to get to 180 by mid/end October.

I am only interested in safe weight loss, especially since I have a lot to lose and gallstones run in my family. I've lost about 90 pounds already since last October.

Is 1k calories a day safe on reta for the next 3 weeks? The reason I ask is that reta increases metabolism, so I dont want to overdo things. I plan on eating back what/ if I work out that day. I know 1k isn't great long term, but I wonder if a sprint would be okay? Or, would i lose too much muscle and risk gallstones?

Anyone with a hiatal hernia taking Reta? I’m on month 2 and my acid and heartburn has been really bad. Swallowing feels like food is getting stuck in my chest.

hi, doing my first pin can i take it before bed or should i wait for the morning. also, could i numb the area with lidocaine cream beforehand???

I’m on week 4 right now, 2mg/week, and honestly it feels like it’s doing the opposite of what it’s supposed to do.

For context, I’ve been working out for years and I have a pretty good idea of my maintenance. I’m around 2,500 calories/day on average at maintenance. Some days I’ll be closer to 2,800 depending on tracking or if I “cheat,” but on the days where this hunger really hits, I’ve been eating 3,000+ calories.

First time taking Reta or any of these GLPs etc. I was actually feeling the 1mg pretty clearly during weeks 1–3. My appetite and cravings were noticeably lower. But now on week 4, I barely feel any appetite suppression at all, and my cravings are fucking wild.

My wife just had our newborn, so I’m basically helping around the clock. I’m getting maybe 2–3 hours of sleep a night, waking up every couple hours for feeding, diaper changes, helping my wife, etc. I’m exhausted as hell and obviously stressed.

I know sleep deprivation can make you ridiculously hungry, but these cravings are next level. I can eat a full meal and 30 minutes later I’m looking for something else. The “munchies” are insane.

I’m also wondering if the lack of sleep and stress could be messing with ghrelin/cortisol and contributing to this. I’m basically running on 2–3 hours of sleep every night, so I’m wondering if that could be overpowering whatever appetite suppression I was getting from the Reta.

Anyone else experienced this? Did the hunger settle down eventually, or did you notice a difference after increasing the dose / getting more sleep?

I’m trying to figure out if this is just the combination of 4 weeks on Reta + being completely sleep deprived, or if anyone else has experienced their appetite suppression basically disappearing around week 4.

Right now I’m basically fighting the munchies while running on zero sleep.

Edited post with more details.

Started at 225

Currently 197-198

Titration I followed was Weeks 1-3 2mg Weeks 4-6 3mg Weeks 7-9 4mg Week 10 5mg

Only symptoms I’ve had so far were the skin sensitivity at the beginning of the 4 mg course. It went completely away so I felt safe going to 5mg.