Update, on cycle two
Promised I’d stay in touch and give an update on the lower dose / steadier approach, so here it is.
I’m now around 5 weeks in running roughly 0.5mg (around 5 ticks/dashes on my syringe) every 5 days and honestly this has been an absolute game changer for me personally.
Your body doesn’t count days, it counts half lives, purity and doses. This isn’t the usually straight forward every 7 day injection, the idea is to have less shock on the CNS and a steadier spike of Reta in my blood and receptors.
At this dose:
- No nausea
- No “overfilled” feeling
- No real side effects at all
The food noise is gone, but without the horrible feeling of being sick or unable to function. I can comfortably eat what is basically a normal Reta diet for me, around 1900 calories, without feeling like I’m forcing food down.
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## Sleep & hydration update
Both have massively improved.
I realised a big issue previously was simply not being intentional enough with hydration. If fluids aren’t directly near me, I genuinely just don’t think about drinking.
What’s currently working really well for me:
- Applied Nutrition Hydrate
- 2g sea salt
- 1 litre water
- Twice daily
Since doing this consistently:
- Sleep improved
- Recovery improved
- General wellbeing improved
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## Biggest thing I’ve learned so far
Reta feels much more like a compound you gradually build into rather than something you should aggressively ramp up every week chasing stronger effects.
At first I made the mistake a lot of people probably make:
“You don’t feel much, so you increase the dose.”
But honestly, for me the benefits seemed to compound over time instead.
The best analogy I can give is it’s less like flicking on a light switch and more like warming up an engine. At first you think not much is happening, then after a few weeks at a steady dose everything starts running smoother:
- appetite regulation
- food noise
- focus
- routine
- consistency
Ironically the lower steady dose has actually felt more effective overall than the higher aggressive approach because my body has had room to adapt instead of constantly fighting side effects.
I think a lot of people rush doses because social media makes it seem like you should immediately “feel” something dramatic. For me, the longer steady approach has been far better.
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## Weight loss update
Because let’s be honest… we’re all interested in the weight loss side too.
This time the weight loss is much steadier:
- First 2 weeks: basically plateaued
- Then started moving again
- Currently averaging around 0.5kg per week
Honestly, I prefer this massively over the previous ~1kg/week.
The faster loss felt like it was putting unnecessary strain on my body. I’m not racing for a wedding or a holiday. I’m just trying to improve steadily without burning myself into the ground.
And as most of us know, racing yourself usually ends badly.
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## Overall
At this lower dose I still get:
- Appetite control
- Better focus
- Reduced food noise
- Better routine and consistency
But without:
- The sleep issues
- The inability to eat
- Feeling physically stressed all the time
I’ll keep updating towards the end of this cycle and afterwards as well.
Happy to answer questions because I know I probably haven’t covered everything people will want to know.
As always I used dictate on ChatGPT for ease, so no this isn’t AI slop/fake updates 😀