Do effects plateau?

mrblu

mrblu

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Hi everyone!

Been doing my very best to make sure I get a holistic understanding of this drug and what should expect longer term

I know that in general, general consensus is to titrate slowly - slow and steady wins the race, and to maintain the lowest dose that is resulting in weight loss in combination with lifestyle changes

Something I have not seemed to get a good idea on potentially because most seem to be eager to titrate up is whether or not the positive effects even plateau

I know that side effects generally do over times your body adjusts, but does the same happen with the general weight loss?

Thanks in advance, looking forward to hearing everyone's experience!
 
Weight loss plateaus for most people eventually. Some here who are in maintenance play around with dosages and timing to make sure they don’t lose more than they’d like. Here are some search terms to try:

Retatrutide maintenance

Triumph study

Weight loss slow*

Search here or on Google (see my signature). There are quite a few threads that discuss this. Good luck on your journey! 🙂

EDIT: Changed GLP-1 references because I did not read carefully before. Thanks @BNLFL !
 
HouseCat said:


Weight loss plateaus for most people eventually. Some here who are in maintenance play around with dosages and timing to make sure they don’t lose more than they’d like. Here are some search terms to try:

Tirzepatide maintenance

SURMOUNT study

Weight loss slow*

Search here or on Google (see my signature). There are quite a few threads that discuss this. Good luck on your journey! 🙂

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He's on Reta Kat, not Tirz.

mrblu said:


Hi everyone!

Been doing my very best to make sure I get a holistic understanding of this drug and what should expect longer term

I know that in general, general consensus is to titrate slowly - slow and steady wins the race, and to maintain the lowest dose that is resulting in weight loss in combination with lifestyle changes

Something I have not seemed to get a good idea on potentially because most seem to be eager to titrate up is whether or not the positive effects even plateau

I know that side effects generally do over times your body adjusts, but does the same happen with the general weight loss?

Thanks in advance, looking forward to hearing everyone's experience!

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Here's my thoughts in a quick thought. Not sure about your "titrate slowly" statement. Some do start on what I call baby doses of .05mg, then go to 1mg. If you look at Lilly's Triumph Study they start at 2mg, then 4mg, 6mg. 9mg and finally 12mg. I don't recommend jumping up really really like I've seen do, but I'm no Dr. They recommended 4 weeks on each dose. This is what I did with some minor tweaks. I'm stopping after 4 weeks of 9mg and will be messing with maintenance doses. Anyways, I averaged 2.2lbs a week for a 55lb total loss. Side effects do go away, at least they did in my case. Only side that a bunch get is shitty sleep, and I sure have it. I didn't get it till late in the 6mg shots. The slow vs recommended titrate works different for everyone. I believe most who've been on it for a long time, started at the trail dose.
 
The way I thought about titration was based on personal results and anecdotal information from the forum and elsewhere.

Being there are non-responders, super responders, and everything in between, and that the maintenance dosage could be as high as the last dose.

There would be an advantage to using the least amount necessary to achieve your goal as long as you were losing consistently.

On Tirz I have seen people hit goal at less than 5mg and some take as much as 30mg +

I think the question of plateau is very individual, but I can say personally I have been on 15mg for 17 months and my weight has only fluctuated by a few pounds either up or down.

Arguably a plateau.

But I have also increased calories and become more liberal with the foods I eat.
 
BNLFL said:


He's on Reta Kat, not Tirz.

Here's my thoughts in a quick thought. Not sure about your "titrate slowly" statement. Some do start on what I call baby doses of .05mg, then go to 1mg. If you look at Lilly's Triumph Study they start at 2mg, then 4mg, 6mg. 9mg and finally 12mg. I don't recommend jumping up really really like I've seen do, but I'm no Dr. They recommended 4 weeks on each dose. This is what I did with some minor tweaks. I'm stopping after 4 weeks of 9mg and will be messing with maintenance doses. Anyways, I averaged 2.2lbs a week for a 55lb total loss. Side effects do go away, at least they did in my case. Only side that a bunch get is shitty sleep, and I sure have it. I didn't get it till late in the 6mg shots. The slow vs recommended titrate works different for everyone. I believe most who've been on it for a long time, started at the trail dose.

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Yeah, targeting ~1mg increase every 4 weeks

In general, I'm wondering if our bodies become resistant to reta over time, either via drug tolerance or just because losing weight at a lower weight is more difficult

Should I expect to just completely stopping weight loss? Again, this obviously assumes I am pairing lifestyle changes with it

Hopefully this all makes sense?
 
mrblu said:


Yeah, targeting ~1mg increase every 4 weeks

In general, I'm wondering if our bodies become resistant to reta over time, either via drug tolerance or just because losing weight at a lower weight is more difficult

Should I expect to just completely stopping weight loss? Again, this obviously assumes I am pairing lifestyle changes with it

Hopefully this all makes sense?

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You shouldn't be targeting a certain increase at a certain timeframe. What if 1mg helps you lose weight for 3 months? Why would you increase it? What if at 1mg theres 0 effect in 3 weeks then why would you wait 4 weeks?

See how your body responds and titrate accordingly. Also dont make that mistake of lofty expectations like you see online. Not everyone could or should lose XX amounts of weight weekly or monthly. Some people lose a lot of waterweight the first few weeks and expect that weight loss to be consistent for months and they keep titrating trying to get that same effect.
 
mrblu said:


…Should I expect to just completely stopping weight loss? Again, this obviously assumes I am pairing lifestyle changes with it

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Practically, yes, you’ll reach an equilibrium range. A clear point to understand is just because you stop losing weight doesn’t mean the drug stopped working. The vast majority maintain their weight loss by simply maintaining their dose.
 
Mochizuki0124 said:


You shouldn't be targeting a certain increase at a certain timeframe. What if 1mg helps you lose weight for 3 months? Why would you increase it? What if at 1mg theres 0 effect in 3 weeks then why would you wait 4 weeks?

See how your body responds and titrate accordingly. Also dont make that mistake of lofty expectations like you see online. Not everyone could or should lose XX amounts of weight weekly or monthly. Some people lose a lot of waterweight the first few weeks and expect that weight loss to be consistent for months and they keep titrating trying to get that same effect.

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Should have asterisked that statement as the fastest I will go if weightlossless stalls, absolutely
 
woundcarping said:


Practically, yes, you’ll reach an equilibrium range. A clear point to understand is just because you stop losing weight doesn’t mean the drug stopped working. The vast majority maintain their weight loss by simply maintaining their dose.

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Great to know! So there doesn't seem to be a clear drug resistance, just that our body's stasis point moves

I am hoping I don't have to titrate up all that much, but I am very early in my journey right now at about 1 mg/wk and have been feeling great
 
mrblu said:


Great to know! So there doesn't seem to be a clear drug resistance, just that our body's stasis point moves

I am hoping I don't have to titrate up all that much, but I am very early in my journey right now at about 1 mg/wk and have been feeling great

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As long as my sides aren’t objectionable, I don’t particularly care about my dose. I wanted to lose ~35% of my starting weight so the idea of small doses never really materialized for me.

My sides aren’t a problem but I’ve stopped increasing my dose for now. 3-4 months and it looks like I’ll be at my final target weight.
 
Seems that way. Just upped from 8mg to 10mg today hoping to restart the engine. However, I will come off for a winter bulk around November so hoping I’ll sensitize by March and be able to start back up at a lower dose next year.
 
i had a great start to reta, eventually titrated upto 6mg over 6 months with nice slow weight loss, then it stopped, i stayed at 6 for 3 months and my weight stayed the same, i did notice more food and alcohol noise, upped to 8mg and the slow loss has started again, i wont go higher than 8, once i plateau again, ill come off for a few weeks and either go back on tirz or try elora
 
In my case it was still doing it's thing at 9mg and I was losing around 2lbs/week. As woundcarping said, moving up in doses never phased me at all. I really didn't have any side effects except sleep in the last 3-4 months. I did stall briefly a couple times after 6 weeks on two different doses that were working well. I just went to the next increase. I've meet my goal and then some and will start playing with maintenance doses. Like others here, I'll stay on Reta as long as possible.
 
woundcarping said:


As long as my sides aren’t objectionable, I don’t particularly care about my dose. I wanted to lose ~35% of my starting weight so the idea of small doses never really materialized for me.

My sides aren’t a problem but I’ve stopped increasing my dose for now. 3-4 months and it looks like I’ll be at my final target weight.

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Awesome to hear, I haven't really experienced any sides yet myself other than not wanting to go to sleep

Fingers crossed the pattern holds, congrats on almost making it to the finish line!
 
pughster25 said:


i had a great start to reta, eventually titrated upto 6mg over 6 months with nice slow weight loss, then it stopped, i stayed at 6 for 3 months and my weight stayed the same, i did notice more food and alcohol noise, upped to 8mg and the slow loss has started again, i wont go higher than 8, once i plateau again, ill come off for a few weeks and either go back on tirz or try elora

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Pete369 said:


Seems that way. Just upped from 8mg to 10mg today hoping to restart the engine. However, I will come off for a winter bulk around November so hoping I’ll sensitize by March and be able to start back up at a lower dose next year.

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Have you all used reta to change lifestyle much? So far diet has improved for me significantly with little struggle which is awesome. Currently building out a home gym as well to get the furnace burning from the other end as well and hold onto that muscle
 
BNLFL said:


In my case it was still doing it's thing at 9mg and I was losing around 2lbs/week. As woundcarping said, moving up in doses never phased me at all. I really didn't have any side effects except sleep in the last 3-4 months. I did stall briefly a couple times after 6 weeks on two different doses that were working well. I just went to the next increase. I've meet my goal and then some and will start playing with maintenance doses. Like others here, I'll stay on Reta as long as possible.

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I don't want to get ahead of myself... but this stuff really does seem like a miracle drug... I've just barely started and already have ~2 years supply at a middle of the road dose per the studies 😅
 
The weight loss effects of GLP drugs do not seem to show any evidence of tolerance, even after 5 years. Gastrointestinal side effects do seem to fade slowly over months.

Once you get to a final dose and stop increasing doses eventually weight loss will stop, assuming you have a lot of weight to lose and do not get to your target first. It takes about a year after no major dose increases for this to happen. At this point the drug is still working perfectly and doing an important job of stopping you from putting the weight back on, even if it feels like it is not working anymore, as weight loss stops and you might be more hungry. Hopefully assuming you were not very overweight and responded well to the drugs you are at or near your target weight when this happens. If not you might need to consider higher doses or combinations.

In a lot of ways how this situation is handled is the most important part, losing weight in general is not the most difficult bit, keeping it off long term is, and is where nearly all standard diet and exercise approaches end up failing over the longer term. Glp drugs amazingly do not have this problem, so long as you stay on them the weight should stay lost. Most people will regain most or all of the weight if they stop them. Some try to reduce doses for maintenance, my interpretation of the research is the dose used to lose the weight is likely what you will need to stay on longer term, but some people succeed with lower doses.
 
BNLFL said:


He's on Reta Kat, not Tirz.

Here's my thoughts in a quick thought. Not sure about your "titrate slowly" statement. Some do start on what I call baby doses of .05mg, then go to 1mg. If you look at Lilly's Triumph Study they start at 2mg, then 4mg, 6mg. 9mg and finally 12mg. I don't recommend jumping up really really like I've seen do, but I'm no Dr. They recommended 4 weeks on each dose. This is what I did with some minor tweaks. I'm stopping after 4 weeks of 9mg and will be messing with maintenance doses. Anyways, I averaged 2.2lbs a week for a 55lb total loss. Side effects do go away, at least they did in my case. Only side that a bunch get is shitty sleep, and I sure have it. I didn't get it till late in the 6mg shots. The slow vs recommended titrate works different for everyone. I believe most who've been on it for a long time, started at the trail dose.

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That’s interesting. Did you increase when you felt you plateaued, or did you increase based on number of weeks to match the study?
 
Quagmire_Giggity said:


That’s interesting. Did you increase when you felt you plateaued, or did you increase based on number of weeks to match the study?

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I based increases on the studies. Two doses (4 and 6mg for 6 weeks) were doing really good, but my scale didn't show anything after 6 weeks on these doses. If that makes any sense. I tried to titrate 1mg twice, didn't do crap.
 
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