My Reta 3 month Journey ( with Dexa scan results)

You ramped the dose too quickly, barely ate, dropped forty pounds in eight weeks, and still expected muscle to stay put?

Makes sense. Once you’re no longer carrying that extra forty pounds, the muscles that used to move it all day aren’t needed as much, so some size disappears even if you keep training the same lifts.

If the scans are accurate, thirty-eight pounds in seventy-one days is a 1.4 % weekly drop driven by a roughly 1,200-calorie daily deficit that was also low in protein. Titration based on how suppressed appetite felt may not have been ideal. I’ve lost twenty-eight pounds in seventy-eight days at a gentler pace, started lifting last month, added HMB and TRT, and plan another scan soon to check how the lean mass is holding up.

It’s frustrating—there’s no injection that leaves you both lean and muscular at the same time. I never scanned but suspect I lost plenty because I dropped weight fast and skipped most gym sessions. Still, skinny-fat beats the previous state.

I’m only dropping about half a kilo a week yet still gaining strength and some muscle. The key is keeping the calorie deficit modest and protein high. I’ve been on 3 mg every five or six days for three months now.

Four-plus months in, just reached 3.5 mg, and only eighteen pounds down. I lift four days a week, aim for at least 100 g protein daily, and hope muscle loss has been minimal. I’m a woman in her fifties with another fifteen pounds to go. The claim that retatrutide spares muscle is just repeated online without evidence.

The lean-mass number also counts water and glycogen stored in muscle, so diet and inflammation levels can make the drop look worse than it is. Keep going.

Do you have before-and-after photos? Any drop in lifting strength?

DEXA is sensitive to hydration, glycogen, gut contents, and reduced inflammation, all of which can swing the lean-mass reading. Tracking strength, tape measurements, and protein intake gives a fuller picture. I still manage 200 g protein daily on reta with high-protein, low-carb meals and train hard. I also had low testosterone checked before starting and am now pursuing treatment because it affects muscle retention.

It depends how curious you are. I’m doing a baseline and then follow-ups along the way; next one is scheduled for April.

When figuring daily protein on reta, do you use ideal body weight or current weight? How many grams per pound? Does age or type of training change the target?

Plenty of conflicting numbers exist depending on whether you count per pound of lean mass or total weight. My focus is holding onto what I have during a cut rather than adding much, so I added TRT, lifting, and 3 g HMB daily. Next scan is coming up in the next few weeks to compare with the late-January baseline.

Thirty-eight pounds in ten weeks is rapid enough that muscle breakdown is expected. Roughly ten of those pounds are probably water, leaving something closer to twenty fat and eight to ten lean tissue. The deficit required for that pace doesn’t line up with the claim of only mild appetite suppression. At 27 % body fat the person wasn’t obese to begin with, so the drugs weren’t studied for this use case. Dropping the dose and easing the deficit to one-to-two pounds a week would be more sustainable.

Any thoughts on whether protein needs differ between fast-twitch and slow-twitch dominant training? Also, does retatrutide itself raise the protein requirement to spare muscle compared with dieting without it?

Muscle loss can be limited even in a cut. Last year I went from 270 to 200 in nine months eating 1,300–1,400 calories with 150 g protein, lifting three-to-four days and adding zone-2 cardio. Refeeds every three-to-four weeks helped. I used tirzepatide up to 5 mg plus 200 mg testosterone weekly and lost very little muscle. After stabilizing I moved into a slow recomp.