Just curious if anyone else has had this problem or has any solutions. Even in a slight surplus abt 3500-4k cals a day hunger without reta is ravenous. On reta .5mg eod hunger is at bay but pumps are horrible no matter the carb amount. Could have 200g carbs pre workout get a pump for my first exercise then flat again. I need a solution. Switch to cag? Try .5mg every three days? Genuinely can’t control appetite without absuing stimulants and hating my life without a glp. Hoping for any answers or just people with similar experiences I can’t find much on the forums about reta inducing flatness or moderate hypoglycemia but it makes sense that it would in a high carb state. Fasted glucose around 70-90 a1c 4.6 if that means anything. Just can’t find an answer really. Low dose reta totally changes my life the food addiction and ED is gone mostly but these workouts and flat looking physique is almost as bad
MESO-Rx
Anabolic Steroids
RockyP
Member
I have found this to be the case also. Big Paul from Anabolic Bodybuilding YT channel / pod also mentioned it. It makes sense, you've got glucagon agonism going 24 / 7 which directly opposes insulin (which would help you get / stay full). That said however, I think it's tricky to separate the effect of reta vs. the impact of being in a deficit / depleted. Surely if you took say 50 mg anadrol with some LMNT and 50 g of cyclic dextrin you'd have a nice pump going, but pumps and fullness are not the same. I've been in a deficit / depleted for many months now, only a few re-feeds in there and they were not large, just maybe 500 cals over maintenance for the day with sushi. I will say that I was able to get full with that while on the reta, so I'm not sure it's actually a reta issue as much as it is reta causing you to be in a deficit / deplted state. IMO a good test would be to run a 500 - 1000 cal surplus for a week on your current reta dosage, and get all of those extra calories from carbs. Be sure your sodium intake and hydration are appropriate, and see what happens.
madcap71
Member
Raiders789
Member
How's your digestion bro?
For me personally, if I eat anything big within like an hour or two before my lift I'll get too much splanchnic pooling and not be able to get a pump at all. I'm also on 20mg of reta which noticeably slows my digestion although its not as bad as the other glps. For my lifts, I'll have a big 200-300g carb meal like 3 hours before and then just chill and let it digest, pepper capsules and iberogast have been hella good for me in terms of gut mobility and speeding up digestion. And then I'll drink some electrolytes + glycerol and go lift and get an absolutely monstrous pump.
I think if u try to time your carbs like that it might help - I'm on 20mg of reta but can still get 4500 cals / 800g carbs down easy. Also I like eating super high gi carbs for that preworkout meal and immediately post workout, like my go-to is a fuck ton of cereal + yogurt + honey paired with some digestive enzymes, iberogast and pepper capsules - Absolutely gas and digests hella quick. I'll save my fav lower gi foods like wholegrain pasta/sourdough for later in the day, reta makes those digest very slow in my experience.
U also could be getting some post meal hypoglycemia - are u using gh? I'd get bad post meal hypo episodes when I'd pin gh before my lifts and eat a super high gi carb post workout meal, of if I'd pin gh in the morning and eat a high gi meal even 4+ hours after and then be hella flat during my lifst(confimred with cgm). Switching all my gh to night got rid of that problem, but u could look into getting a cgm to monitor that
yea ive noticed overdoing the food leaves my stomach full and pump suffers but i think its more of a constantly tanked glucose issue even if i eat rk treats an hour before and a fairlife 2 hours before im still flat. i just started gh 4 days ago before bed but this was an issue before. when i came off for a few weeks pumps were disgusting glucose was up a lot but was just so hungry. might try cagrillintide but i like that reta is just a little bit of nausea and more of a slight mental shift than making me feel sick. i pretty much cant get over 110 glucose ever lol. maybe that could be due to slowed digestion idk. tomorrow ill try to have a very light breakfast and 4-5 hrs later super high fast acting carbs maybe a mix of rk treats and some candy or gatorade and see if that helps a bit. ive got some cagrillintide so that will be my next step if i cant figure this out. even debated pinning my gh with pw meal to basically induce high glucose before the gym i actually started gh just to hopefully increase my glucose a bit. electrolytes definitely make a huge difference i needed double my pre reta sodium intake at least back when i was on 6-8mg reta.
both are EXTREMELY high. between preworkout meal and pre workout blend probably 5-6 grams of sodium. my pumps were good when i was dieting on higher dose reta it seems to have only become an issue now that im in a large surplus on so many carbs
350 test 25 var 2 iu gh + cialis and 200g carbs 4-6g sodium pre gym with a lot of fluids. Wouldn’t say im totally flat just no more of that freaky pump feeling i was getting off reta. My pumps off reta on 300 test alone was better than now on reta gh and var and a slight pump in test
Raiders789
Member
If u start cagrillintine lmk how that mixes with the reta because I've been looking into trying that too for a bit more appetite supression. But yea lmao I'm the same with the glucose - Most mornings I'll down 200g of fruit loops + cinnamon toast crunch + lucky charms mixed in dannon no sugar yogurt with a fuck ton of honey and won't see my bg go over 115 on my cgm
shit is actually crazy.My go to for like an hour preworkout is I'll do 1.5L water with 6g table salt(~2.5g sodium), 50g glycerol, 50g dextrose and a bit of potassium salt, and then ill do the same thing intraworkout but without the glycerol. Literally get insane pumps every lift and get unreal vascularity, its so goated.
Id be careful with doing gh preworkout - I used to do that but would get bad hypoglycemia episodes because the reta would keep me so insulin sensitive. Would def be worth trying but might be nice to snag a cgm if u do. U also might be better off just constantly sipping on some dextrose water too or slamming some honey every 5 mins thoughout the lift.
read that sometimes a low dose can cause worse issues than a higher dose so started upping the dose and totally flat again. i’m wondering if its not a glucose issue but rather an intracellular water retention issue because even when i slam carbs and get somewhat of an insulin response i look vascular and somewhat pumped but never full. it may be too much sodium/water and not enough potassium and magnesium. will try to fix that and add glycerol and l citrulline and dextrose pre workout and see if that helpsIf u start cagrillintine lmk how that mixes with the reta because I've been looking into trying that too for a bit more appetite supression. But yea lmao I'm the same with the glucose - Most mornings I'll down 200g of fruit loops + cinnamon toast crunch + lucky charms mixed in dannon no sugar yogurt with a fuck ton of honey and won't see my bg go over 115 on my cgm
My go to for like an hour preworkout is I'll do 1.5L water with 6g table salt(~2.5g sodium), 50g glycerol, 50g dextrose and a bit of potassium salt, and then ill do the same thing intraworkout but without the glycerol. Literally get insane pumps every lift and get unreal vascularity, its so goated.
Id be careful with doing gh preworkout - I used to do that but would get bad hypoglycemia episodes because the reta would keep me so insulin sensitive. Would def be worth trying but might be nice to snag a cgm if u do. U also might be better off just constantly sipping on some dextrose water too or slamming some honey every 5 mins thoughout the lift.
SnowyMiami
Member
This year's Mr. Olympia shows the reta effect. Big guts and the rest of the body looking mid. Nothing like the Arnold or Dorian days.
RockyP
Member
As far as I know Nick was one of the the only ones using GLP-1's. Unclear if he dropped them in time (apparently not). I do think that these are unlikely to be helpful for competitors at that level. At least with Reta, it definitely throws a wrench into the getting full aspect, and they can't be messing around with appetite suppression either. Some pro's are starting to experiment with low dose reta in the off season (Jewett), where I think it makes more sense for them to keep fait gain minimal and help with the side effects of high GH dosing.
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