CommunityDosing & Titration

Dosage advise

20 replies13 peopleFeb 12, 2026☆ Follow
Summary

How to overcome a weight loss stall on retatrutide after major prior loss while doing heavy training

The original poster has lost 135 kg total, switched from semaglutide to retatrutide at 5 mg, eats 1200 kcal daily with clean protein intake and 2.5 hours of daily training, yet sees no scale movement and even a 1 kg gain. Others report similar stalls until reaching 8-12 mg, note water retention and muscle gain from lifting can mask fat loss, and recommend a DEXA scan plus possible thyroid check. Several note metabolic adaptation after extreme loss makes further reduction difficult even at very low calories, and one user saw movement after raising to 7.5 mg plus magnesium.

What this discussion establishesWhere people disagree

Whether calories should be raised to 1800+ to escape conservation mode or kept low while pushing retatrutide higher

Still open

How much further weight can realistically be lost versus maintained after 135 kg reduction

Nothing here is advice.

20 replies · 13 people
BlueLantern16archiveopening postFeb 12

I've been on Reta for about five weeks after switching from 2.4 mg Wegovy. Currently at 5 mg but the weight isn't moving even though I'm only eating around 1,200 calories a day. Thinking about going up again. I've dropped about 135 kg total and still want to lose another 15-20 kg before considering skin removal surgery. The past 12 months have been tough with almost no tangible loss. Since I increased training to around 2.5 hours a day and brought weightlifting back, I've actually gained about 1 kg. Body composition looks better though, which makes it frustrating. Protein is solid, diet is clean, and I don't drink. Anyone who's been through something similar have advice?

BlueTimber78archiveFeb 13
↳ replying to @BlueLantern16 (opening post)

Adding strength exercises tends to make most folks retain extra fluid. This occurs particularly often when also consuming items with matching properties. I have zero background in losing mass at the amount you've managed, which is great. However, assuming no major issues arise and moving up after the top levels of earlier treatment, increasing the amount gradually looks okay. Regrettably, sitting at the tails of the distribution means little shared experience, so you're cutting new ground.

QuietTimber26archiveFeb 13

1. Congrats on the progress! 2. I stalled on high dose Tirz for a few months. Switched to Reta and didn't notice much until I reached 8 mg.

BlueBeacon12archiveFeb 13
↳ replying to @BlueLantern16 (opening post)

I keep thinking about how muscle has greater density than fat tissue, meaning that while putting on muscle it's likely fat loss is happening even if the scale shows higher numbers. Paying attention to body changes and overall well-being counts for more than the reading on the scale.

BlueBeacon12archiveFeb 13
↳ replying to @BlueTimber78

Yeah that checks out too since right now it looks like you're trading fat for water plus muscle which helps overall health but fails to register like any real change when checking weight. If no bad reactions show up then there's still space to raise the dose further.

SharpCompass52archiveFeb 13

I got a Dexa scan covering my whole body and it let me notice improvements the scale alone doesn't reveal.

BlueMarble65archiveFeb 13

I found eight milligrams did the job fine while ten or twelve felt much better overall.

CopperSignal27archiveFeb 13

Wow, dropping such a huge amount of body mass deserves real recognition. These kinds of treatments often behave differently once someone has already shed a large portion of weight compared with the beginning when excess was still extreme. At best they might support holding onto the new lower weight, which itself exceeds what most trial results show for typical cases. Big reductions in size slow down the body's energy use while ramping up appetite, so keeping the scale steady becomes very difficult. Your account of the scale staying put even at low daily energy intake matches that kind of adjustment; the same intake would normally produce further drops in almost anyone else. Moving from the prior level straight across to a higher amount of the newer compound could cut down on unwanted reactions, and if hunger remains and reactions stay mild the amount could be increased a little faster. My own story is comparable though I reached the lower weight first without any medication and I move around less now. I am trying to hold onto a reduction of roughly half my original size while using a combination of the two main compounds plus a small recent addition of the third one, and I see a slow weekly drop of a couple hundred grams at most. Before those compounds entered the picture my own progress had already stopped completely for twelve months even though daily energy stayed between sixteen and eighteen hundred, the very range that had produced steady monthly drops earlier. The straightforward step is to raise the newest compound as far as reactions allow. Anything past the usual top level would depend on personal results and goals, and if further reduction is still desired there are no well-tested safe routes. Carrying that much extra mass carries serious health downsides, so the downsides of stronger or combined treatments are probably smaller than the downsides of sliding back. That could point toward going past the standard maximum, layering in the third compound, or adding extra activity on the first receptor pathway. It may turn out that the final portion cannot come off when energy intake already sits that low. Even so the achievement so far is huge, and keeping most or even part of it matters most for staying healthy over time. In my experience the compounds have made holding the line much more bearable. I take it the usual lab work and pressure checks have been done along the way. Many of the other problems tied to carrying extra mass are simpler to address than the weight itself.

SharpKettle11archiveFeb 13

Amazing progress well done! Are you tracking your Kcal?

BlueQuill24archiveFeb 13

That kind of massive reduction in body mass really stands out as amazing. It would be great to learn about the starting point and reasons along with any insights gained along the way. Regarding the point where progress stopped, limited research trials showed the strongest effects from twelve milligrams each week split into portions. Plenty of folks in this group report quicker changes using smaller amounts instead. If rest, exercise, and food intake are all good, then maybe trying a bigger amount could make a difference. Or perhaps combining with another peptide variety might create extra effects while using the current or reduced level, as some have done. Ultimately everything seems highly personal and based on stories. To be honest, details like how old, the initial size, weekly average drop, reasons for keeping going, lessons picked up, impacts on social connections, and future plans interest me more. The reason is that the achievement so far already looks outstanding.

BlueLantern16archiveFeb 14
↳ replying to @QuietTimber26

Thanks, I may decide to boost the quantity once more since the main complaint is just not sleeping well enough.

BlueLantern16archiveFeb 14
↳ replying to @SharpCompass52

Truthfully I planned to carry it out but ended up with my belt fitting two holes smaller although I thought the loss in weight would be more than the gain in muscle

SharpCompass52archiveFeb 14
↳ replying to @BlueLantern16

Most times that holds true though maybe fat loss paused while adding muscle instead. An imaging test might indicate the overall change equals losing 145 kg fat along with gaining 10 kg muscle! In any case nice work on how far you've come.

PatientAnchor11archiveFeb 14
↳ replying to @BlueLantern16 (opening post)

You really know your stuff when it comes to those compounds. The body weight came out to three hundred pounds after I checked the conversion online. Folks from the states like me never learned much about kilograms. Those other old units from across the pond are even worse to bring up.

BlueLantern16archiveFeb 16
↳ replying to @BlueQuill24

Responding to the queries here I shed roughly 125 kilos across a couple of years followed by another ten the year before. My professional path has advanced nicely and folks act more kindly toward me now. For workouts I do strength sessions along with aerobic work each morning focused on boxing and similar sparring most days without any breaks at present. Future aims include competing in older age boxing events besides just keeping going. Everything paused temporarily when my partner faced cancer in her chest area requiring several operations including one where infection nearly proved fatal along with drug and ray treatments plus preventive steps afterward but she recovered fully and routine returned allowing me to resume. Five days back I raised the amount to seven point five and shed two additional kilos while increasing magnesium intake due to suspected fluid buildup which has the numbers dropping once more.

ClearKettle41archiveFeb 16

It might be worth getting thyroid levels checked if T3 comes back low. Consuming so few calories each day can really limit energy intake. My own thyroid function dropped because food consumption stayed too low for too long. Raising daily intake from under fifteen hundred up toward eighteen hundred finally brought noticeable changes, and that happened prior to starting the medication. Paying attention to how outfits sit and how the midsection looks tends to reveal progress better than relying on the scale alone. When pants started fitting looser and the stomach area receded, those signs pointed to more actual fat reduction than any numbers on the scale had indicated.

CopperSignal27archiveFeb 17

It's surprising how your weight holds steady at just 1200 calories a day even with all that activity. From my own experience after shedding a large amount, my maintenance level sat around 1600-1800 calories daily with barely any movement beyond a short walk now and then, and I had lost far less than you. This looks like a strong example for higher doses of the medication because it can raise daily energy burn by 100-200 calories, since sticking to such limited food long term feels hard. Your workouts and smaller waist suggest you may have gained a little muscle as well.

SlowBramble78archiveFeb 17
↳ replying to @PatientAnchor11

At this point it looks like we must switch those BTU values known as British thermal units across to ATU values known as American thermal units.

SharpCompass66archiveFeb 17

Losing that huge amount of weight deserves recognition and it looks like all the right steps are being taken toward better habits. However such a small daily calorie total combined with long daily sessions of lifting and exercise can cause the metabolism to enter a protective state. The system adapts to this level and clings to stored fat for as long as it can. Raising the total calories consumed with emphasis on protein plus some quality fats and carbohydrates made things better in my case. The present body weight wasn't shared but reaching a higher number of calories daily proved helpful. Perhaps fat is turning into muscle which means the reading on the scale might stay the same while internal health improves and becomes easier to maintain. Wishing continued success after such strong results already.

Add your experience

If you have tried it, this topic is still open. Sign in to reply — it takes a minute.

Dosage advise · ZyraTrack Community