Weight loss or Muscle gain?

Creatine adds water inside the muscles so lean-mass numbers go up and the first two weeks are the loading period. That lines up exactly with your timing.

I would keep the creatine. It helps with lifting and the extra weight is mostly water. The point is dropping fat, not whatever number the scale shows. You could cut off limbs and lose weight too, but that is not the goal.

We are about the same height and current weight. My watch says 32.5 percent body fat though I do not trust it much. Motivation for the gym is low. Scale weight alone does not tell you about health or how you feel. If the only number that matters is the scale then there are extreme ways to make it drop fast.

The weight bump lines up with when you started creatine and it has only been a week. Gains from it level off; do not panic unless calories are too high. I dislike the phrase weight loss. Fat loss while keeping or adding lean mass is what counts. Sacrificing muscle is never worth it.

If the scale is right then you gained muscle and lost fat at the same time. That is a win for health and appearance. I just wish those impedance devices were more trustworthy.

Thanks for the input. I will stay on the current doses for another three or four weeks and keep logging data. Food noise is stronger than it was on tirzepatide so I may raise the retatrutide dose or shorten the interval to six days. The added cagrilintide has not helped much yet.

The app calling you obese is kind of funny.

The cagrilintide amount tried so far may simply be too small to notice an effect. Testing 0.25 to 0.5 mg would give a clearer picture, but increase slowly. Gut side effects often improve after several months as tolerance builds, so a dose that caused trouble earlier might be fine later. Small steps or splitting doses are safer when retrying retatrutide.

How do others on these meds decide on a goal weight versus the ideal weight shown by their scale? I am 180 cm, currently 104 kg, and the device lists 71.3 kg as ideal. Starting weight was 120 kg last July. Reaching the ideal number would mean another 33 kg loss, which feels extreme. Is it better to settle around 80 kg or keep going all the way?

Goal weight is whatever you set for yourself. There is no single correct formula. The real question is what outcome you actually want.

Two things matter most to me: BMI for a rough picture and body-fat percentage. My target is 12-15 percent, down from 29 percent now. It took sixteen months without meds to reach 19 percent body fat two years ago, so the current pace feels doable with retatrutide. BMI is not the main driver.

Congratulations in advance. When you hit the final number you may want to update the nickname.

If the scale is right and you are at 25 percent body fat now, dropping to 15 percent without losing lean mass would be roughly 10 kg lower, landing around 94 kg or 90-92 kg if some muscle is lost. Those devices only read accurately if you already have a lot of muscle. Waist measurements give a better clue about visceral fat. DEXA or MRI remain the only truly reliable methods.

My original target was 10-15 lb above what I weighed in my thirties. I am now 15 lb below that and still dropping slowly. The new focus is fat loss rather than a fixed scale number. Strength training has been part of the plan the whole time to protect muscle.

I am also stuck trying to pick a sensible target. Currently 104.3 kg after starting at 114.8 kg in mid-March.

A BMI around 28 at 90 kg and 1.8 m is fine if body fat is 15 percent. Extra muscle does not carry the same health risks as extra fat. Losing another 17 kg of lean tissue just to reach BMI 22 would likely be less healthy. Aiming below 90 kg at 15 percent body fat is quite extreme for most people. Waist size is a useful extra check for visceral fat.

A DEXA scan is the only way to get trustworthy body-composition data before making big decisions. University exercise-science labs with GE machines tend to be reliable. Impedance scales are too inaccurate to base targets on. For men, 20 percent body fat is healthy, 15 percent is very good, and staying under 12 percent long term is difficult for most.

I asked my doctor for a goal and she simply said I looked fine. BMI tables suggested 152-205 lb for my height; older insurance tables gave 181-207 lb. A recent DEXA showed 223 lb at 23 percent body fat with a suggested target of 218 lb at 20 percent while adding a little muscle. The scan at least gives clearer direction than the charts.