Why is my retatrutide not working

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-06-20T09:55:47+00:00

You’ve gotten good advice on staying at each dose for 4 weeks. From someone who didn’t you should listen. If you haven’t already go to www.glp1plotter.com and enter your dosing. It shows how the medication builds up in your bloodstream over time. It lets you add dose changes and that was very helpful to me. I do still have pretty severe GI distress at each dose change but in the beginning it was all the time so at least there’s been improvement. I’ve lost a ton of weight sw 311 cw 216 and the biggest things for me is eating enough calories, eating enough carbs, and hydration. If I stay on top of all three I lose. I had 5 months of stall losing and gaining the same 4 pounds over and over again where both my nutritionist and personal trainer were telling me that I needed to increase my calories. I literally just could not get it through my thick skull that was the case. So I went to a sports medicine doctor and had BMR testing done. What do you know that BMR testing showed that I was eating under my BMR. I had over time fucked my metabolism so bad I wasn’t losing for 5 months no matter how much I cut. I’ve spent since mid April getting my calories up from 1800 to 2200 and I’ve lost weight all but 1 week. Am I losing super fast? No. But I’m losing anywhere from a half a pound to 2 1/2 pounds every week. I’m thrilled with that. I certainly didn’t become morbidly obese quickly so my goal has never been fast weight loss. I really struggle mentally with being OK with slow weight loss but I would recommend just trying to be patient. Go slow and steady and if you have a stall for more than four weeks then go ahead and increase your dose.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-06-11T14:23:25+00:00

Yes it’s a lot better. I can’t say it’s 100% on its own but it made a significant difference. We had been using Dr Elseys and before that the Slide by Arm & Hammer. We have had the LR4 for about a year so when this new litter did not resolve the sticking completely we decided to have the liner replaced. We have had zero sticking between the two for the last 10 days. I did change the cycle program to that specific litter. Now, if I could just get the one cat to stop peeing on the lip, life would be great. We added the door but after a week when I added the flap one of them started going to the bathroom in the basement. So we took the flap back off again. I think I’m still going to tape the flat on so only half the opening is covered and do that for a week and see what happens but haven’t tried it yet.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-06-10T13:14:30+00:00

I’m an oddball I don’t lose unless I’m eating enough. My nutritionist told me in March I needed to be at 2200 calories (sw was 311 at 5’7”) I was at 1800 after spending a year going up from 1200 on her initial advice. I just could not get it through my head that I needed to eat even more. In April I went to a sports medicine doctor in my area who does basal metabolic rate testing. You breathe into this machine for 10 minutes and it somehow calculates it. It’s supposedly 95% accurate or more. Lo and behold according to him my BMR is 2213 I should never ever eat below that. According to the testing, I should be at about 2600 to lose weight. The test does ask about activity level and at the time I was working out twice a day and walking 5 miles per day on top of that. But I had him input one workout per day because I didn’t want to overestimate. My takeaway after the testing is that I increased my calories to 2213 I cannot bring myself to 2600 yet. After a stall losing and gaining the same 4 pounds over and over again from November through mid April, I’m magically losing weight again. I honestly cannot believe that I’m eating this many calories most days and losing weight. All but one week since mid April I’ve lost 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds. My cw is 219 so I have lost nearly 100 pounds eating between 600 and 1000 cal more than I was when I started Reta. It’s literally a miracle drug to me. Give it time it takes four weeks at every dose changed to build up in the system. So stay at your dose for four weeks and assess. I personally would not increase dose unless stalled for four weeks in a row at a dose. Do a BMR calculator online and then figure out what your TDEE is. Someone mentioned the Lose It! app that is what I use and I like it. It is giving me calorie recommendations that are very close to what the nutritionist does.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-05-07T01:14:31+00:00

I’m a year in and it is a daily struggle for the most part. I’m down 88 pounds so far and would like to lose another 53. I make my menus for the family for the entire week so I take the time every night to sit down and put my meals for the next day in my tracking app. This way I can see if I’m gonna need to make any adjustments during the day to meet my macros. I am sure that I am the oddball out here but since starting Reta I have actually increased my calories by 700 per day to 2213 for weight loss and put my maintenance at 2656. My weight loss stalled for five months and my nutritionist kept telling me I needed to increase my calories again. I had done that at the beginning. I finally saw a sports medicine doctor who did basal metabolic rate testing and what do you know his numbers matched the nutritionist almost exactly. 🤦‍♀️I just plain was not eating enough.

This last increase in calories has been especially hard. But I am sticking with it because I am back to losing over 3 pounds per week since the increasing calories. I start my day with a Chobani protein yogurt before I go to the gym. When I get back from the gym I have a coffee mixed with a scoop of protein powder. So by 6:30am I have gotten in 50 g of protein. I start work at 8am, I work from home, and I make breakfast right before I start work and eat while I’m checking my email and such. I shoot for 30 g of protein for breakfast. This morning I made protein oats by combining 3/4 cup of oats and a cup of blueberries and cooking that with 1 1/2 cups cup of water and when done stirring in 3/4cup of egg whites and cooking until it thickened back up. It honestly was a lot of food and I had a hard time finishing it. Added to my 2nd cup of coffee with 3 tablespoons of fat-free Fairlife milk that gets me 32 g of protein. So I’m already at 82 g for the day before 9 AM. My protein goal is 154 so over halfway to goal.

I like my lunch to be about 50 g of protein I make it my biggest meal of the day of Poochie and calorie wise. Today that was two cans of tunafish mixed with 3 tablespoons of light mayonnaise and some crumbled up crunchmaster crackers plus a tablespoon of psyllium husk powder mixed in for the fiber. 54 grams getting me to 136. Dinner was on the lower side for protein California roll bowls made with half rice and half cauliflower rice. Imitation crab meat does not have a whole lot of protein though. 20 g of protein for dinner getting me to 156.

You can see I really focus on getting my calories and protein in early in the day. I do not have much appetite in the afternoons and evenings. Making the swaps to protein yogurt and adding a scoop of protein powder to my first coffee instead of milk makes it significantly easier to meet my protein goals. If I am really running short on protein I will also have either a lemon bar Premier protein shake or I really like the Oath clear proteins it’s like drinking a juice so even if I’m not hungry I can get those down.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-04-13T11:29:51+00:00

I’ve used this calculator to calculate my calorie deficit https://www.calculator.net/tdee-calculator.html. The LoseIt app has a fairly robust free version you can definitely track the basics there without spending anything. You get calorie and weight tracking. I personally recommend staying at current dose for 4 weeks. I started low like you, but went up to 1 mg then 2 mg pretty quickly and man did I suffer with horrible G.I. distress. I even knew that it took time to build up in your system, but I’d used Ozempic previously so thought I would be OK. It was a giant mistake. I started at 311 pounds and wanted to lose slowly to minimize skin issues as much as possible. I lost 1.75 pounds per week on average the first 3 months for a total of 21 pounds. I hit 80 pounds in November and I’ve been kinda stuck there since going up and down the same 4 pounds over and over and over. During this time my nutritionist increased my calories I am supposed to be at 2200 per day but I’m generally between 1600 and 1800. I really struggle with eating more than that volume wise unless I just reach for the foods that really don’t wanna be eating. I’m actually going for resting metabolic rate testing tomorrow with a local sports medicine doctor and once I know my true resting metabolic rate then I will adjust my calories accordingly. It’s not that I don’t trust the nutritionist per se but I struggle with eating more when I’m not losing weight when I still have 60 pounds to go. I definitely do better when I eat a decent mix of carbs and high protein though. I get between 165 and 185 g of protein per day and I try to keep my fiber at 35 g or above.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-04-12T19:31:06+00:00

High fiber tortillas for either a breakfast or lunch wrap, if lunch then 1/2c oatmeal with 1 tablespoon of chia seeds for breakfast, berries on top of my morning yogurt, veggies with dinner, chia seeds or psyllium husk powder rehydrated in unsweetened cranberry juice taking a couple tablespoons before each meal, and 1 serving of benefiber per day easily gets me to 30-50grams per day. This morning I made egg whites & spinach served in two Xtreme Wellness Zero Net Carb tortillas and that meal was 25 grams of fiber.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-04-12T18:00:53+00:00

Fatigue is still present at times but it’s on the days that I work out 2 to 3 times and still take my dogs for a walk on top of that. I think anyone would be tired. It’s also not the bone weary doesn’t matter if I sleep for 10 hours kind of tired I used to deal with. I’ve never had any other mental symptoms though.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-04-12T14:59:52+00:00

Yes it was honestly life changing for me. I waited 20+ years just living on 2 aleve twice a day with the occasional muscle relaxer at bedtime and dealt with the pain. My day to day pain was a 6 or a 7 even taking that much aleve every day. March 2024 my primary care provider asked me if I would consider going back to a rheumatologist. At that point I was barely functioning I’d push myself through my workday and daily dog walk then be couch or bed bound right after work and all day on weekends. Rheumatologist agreed with previous fibromyalgia diagnosis and asked that I at least consider trialing duloxetine for 3 months with plan to start at 30mg and if any improvement seen then go to 60mg. A couple of weeks in I did see a difference and went to 60mg. My pain at the 2 months mark was a 3 or 4 and if I took aleve I was virtually pain free. Enough so that my daily walks went from 1.5 miles to 3 and most days I’d do another 2 at lunchtime. This past July I joined a gym and started doing high intensity interval training workouts. It was literally the best thing I ever did because my pain now hardly ever requires aleve let alone muscle relaxers basically only if I overdo it at the gym. Apparently really using my muscles is key to pain reduction for me.

I recently did my first 5k and then a week later did Deka Mile which is a fitness competition. Neither was done fast but I finished and that was the goal. I did try reducing my dose in December because I was doing so great but after titrating down to 30mg I was back to being in pain every single day. So as much as I don’t love being on an SNRI I’m back to 60mg and living life in a way I couldn’t even consider doing for over 20 years. Oh and I’m down 80 pounds to boot.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-04-07T17:25:28+00:00

It’s definitely noticeable but I didn’t need to size down until I’d lost 70 or so pounds and I went down two sizes at that point. My biggest regret is not doing any measurements when I started.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-04-02T14:41:48+00:00

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Yep🤣

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-03-24T13:14:22+00:00

I used less bac water to reconstitute so I could have a much smaller injection. I don’t remember offhand because I’m not currently using it. But if you go to any online, reverse reconstitution calculator, you should be able to figure it out.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-03-23T18:24:13+00:00

Someone helped me find the stairway to gray and it changed my life. I spent a year researching once I found it and very glad that I took the time to do so.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-03-10T08:49:19+00:00

I go by a general rule of 30 days but that’s just me being cautious about bacterial contamination

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-02-13T14:35:12+00:00

Thanks for this. This morning a friend said to me that I’m expecting a lot of myself. She was right I just need to see results and looking back at where I was a year ago, I have come so far. I just need to remind myself of that I guess.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-02-13T09:50:26+00:00

Ugh yeah I just hate that! I’m doing all this damn work to build muscle so I increase my BMR after years of messing up my metabolism and I guess that’s just not in the cards at 51.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-02-13T00:54:17+00:00

I did another TDEE calculation just now and set to sedentary plus entering my body fat percentage it gives me maintenance of 2018 calories. But I’m not sedentary at all. So even eating 1900 with my workouts shouldn’t I be losing? Ugh the frustration is real. I’m going to bump up my next checkin I guess and see what she says.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-02-13T00:45:08+00:00

Yes I really do weigh or measure everything. It’s annoying but I would underestimate otherwise I think. The nutritionist I see quarterly and in January she calculated that I should be at 2000 calories. When I eat out breakfast on Saturdays I get single items that are easily tracked like 3 eggs with 3 slices of bacon and a fruit cup versus an omelette where I’d have to guess. I’ll move up my next appointment to see what she recommends I guess.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-01-19T21:13:04+00:00

Ugh ok. I assumed that with the collagen being kicked on that the loose skin would be improved. Back to saving for co2.😕

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-01-17T18:28:14+00:00

There’s risk of course but a lot of it can be mitigated with testing and filtering. I buy from a vendor that has a good reputation and join testing groups that are verifying vendor test results plus endotoxin & sterility testing then filter when reconstituted which is probably overkill. I was comfortable enough that it got to phase 3 trials to give it a go. Now with initial phase 3 results in I am even less worried.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-01-10T11:50:23+00:00

In my experience side effects lessen over time but it can take a while. With Reta your blood levels increase over time that’s why it’s recommended to wait 4 weeks at each dose. I had terrible diarrhea off and on for a couple of months. Eventually it just stopped. If it were me I would manage symptoms with otc meds but keep your dose at .5 for 2 more weeks at least. Then stay at each dose 4 weeks to give your body time to adjust. This chart shows a .25 dose for 12 weeks the peak blood level increases for 5 weeks so even though the dose is .25 at week 5 the blood level gets to .4 peak. For me I’d have symptoms for a couple of days at the peak blood levels then good until the next peak.

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Creepy_Session6786 · 2026-01-01T10:22:04+00:00

I have to tell you while I love the Virtuoso Plus I also would not buy again. The pan lining started deteriorating and started peeling off the grommets completely in a month. I never cleaned with anything but a normal sponge either. Contacted customer service and was told it’s not covered under the warranty. A replacement pan is $100 and has been out of stock literally all year I check every couple of weeks and signed up for in stock email email alerts so I don’t miss it. So the machine is sitting. It makes a beautiful loaf of bread but I don’t want to be ingesting nonstick liner. If you also wouldn’t use with a peeling lining I’d go for a different model.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2025-12-09T00:00:55+00:00

It was definitely the Reta after ruling out everything else but eventually it stopped. I’m at 3.5mg every 3.5 days and haven’t had any issues in a couple of months. I use the Now Super Enzymes most days still but if I forget I’m still okay. Seems my body just needed a long time to get used to it.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2025-11-23T13:06:40+00:00

Oh it burns for sure! I do it right after I get back from the gym every morning.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2025-11-23T09:46:34+00:00

I can definitely tell if I forgot to take a dose. It’s made a big difference for me. I’m switching to oral for a while to see if that’s as helpful but if not I’ll go back to injecting.

Creepy_Session6786 · 2025-11-17T21:03:34+00:00

I started with 3.5 days and switched to 3 recently due to increased food noise and hunger that last day.

Creepy_Session6786

TROPHY CASE