Retatrutide: A Game-Changing Weight Loss Breakthrough?
July 4. 2023
In the last couple of years, diabetes medications, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic weight loss, made a huge impact on the weight loss journey of thousands of people trying to achieve a healthy weight. Today, a new drug is appearing on the near horizon, promising even better results. Is retatrutide the next weight loss medication breakthrough?
During clinical results, retatrutide showed its impressive ability to help individuals reduce their body weight. The numbers surpass the ones delivered by other type 2 diabetes drugs of the same kind. In this article, our weight loss clinic in Chicago tells you everything you need to know about retatrutide for weight loss, Eli Lilly & Company’s groundbreaking drug.
What is retatrutide?
Retatrutide is a new experimental drug for weight loss and type 2 diabetes developed by Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company. Retatrutide works very similarly to other diabetes and chronic weight management medications called Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. What all these medications, including retatrutide, have in common is that they mimic the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist.
What makes this new drug different? Retatrutide doesn’t only act as the GLP-1 receptor agonist. This novel medication mimics three different hormones: glucagon-like peptide 1, glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP), and glucagon receptors. This triple effect earned retatrutide the nickname Triple G. These hormones help with blood sugar levels control and have an incredible weight loss side effect as well.
Retatrutide is still under study; it has not yet been approved by the Food And Drugs Administration (FDA) as a type 2 diabetes or weight loss drug. But the promising results from Eli Lilly’s clinical trials indicate retatrutide will get FDA approval soon.
How do diabetes medications promote weight loss?
Since all the mentioned medications’ active ingredients act as similar receptor agonists, how they work to promote weight loss is very alike too. GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptor agonists are used for blood glucose control. When a person has type 2 diabetes, their bodies can’t produce and manage insulin as they should. When we have a meal, our body indicates the pancreas to secrete insulin so glucose (from your food intake) can exit the bloodstream and enter our cells. Then, our cells use glucose as a source of energy. This care system is imbalanced when you have diabetes or insulin resistance, leading to dangerously high blood glucose levels. The receptor agonist in retatrutide, Ozempic, and Mounjaro tell the pancreas to produce insulin and the liver to stop releasing sugar.
Besides being an effective diabetes treatment by helping with blood glucose management, these medications have one more thing in common: their aid in weight loss. How? GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon produce an appetite-suppressing effect. You may have heard of appetite suppressants for weight therapy; Phentermine for weight loss is a popular one. A decrease in appetite is highly beneficial to achieving weight loss. Diets are part of any successful weight loss program; reducing your daily calorie and food intake is crucial to reduce your body weight.
The receptor agonists on these weight loss drugs also slow down your stomach emptying (how fast food leaves your stomach). That promotes weight loss by providing a sensation of fullness for longer after you eat.
How does glucagon change the game?
Additionally, from the appetite-suppressing and slow gastric emptying effect, the glucagon receptor agonist brings a new benefit to the table. When this hormone is combined with GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonists, it also creates an energy expenditure effect.
Energy expenditure is the energy your body uses each day to perform essential functions, from breathing and digestion to taking a wall or exercising. Your body uses your daily food intake or your fat stores as sources of energy. Your resting energy expenditure refers to the energy your body expends while you are resting or asleep; this counts for about 60% to 75% of the calories you burn every day. Reaching a calorie deficit (burning more calories than the ones you consume) is the number one rule of weight loss. Any increase in your energy expenditure will help you attain your goals faster. Glucagon hormone enhances energy expenditure, making retatrutide an extremely powerful weight loss tool.
How do you take retatrutide for weight loss?
Since retatrutide is still not an approved medication, we will have to wait until it is officially launched to the public; that’s when we’ll learn exactly how this medication will be supplied to patients. Nevertheless, Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical has already revealed some information regarding this new drug use. We can also guess how this medication will be supplied by comparing it to its predecessors, Ozempic and Mounjaro.
What we know for sure is that retatrutide comes in subcutaneous injections, just like most of this type of medicine. Subcutaneous injections are extremely easy to use and relatively painless. If you never used one before, you will likely have no trouble starting now. Your healthcare provider will explain how to use them and show you the best place to inject Mounjaro for weight loss. Most individuals apply the injection themselves, but you can also ask a friend or family member for help. Injectable pens are ways to carry around, but they have specific storage and temperature guidelines you must follow.
Retatrutide is taken once a week, always on the same day. This weekly schedule is ideal for people with busy lives or who travel often. The medical weight loss treatment will start with the lowest possible dosage to give you body adjustment time. Your doctor will slowly increase the dose each month or as they see fit until reaching the maximum dosage. Retatrutide’s minimum dose is 1mg per week, and the maximum allowed dosage is 12mg a week. The larger the dose, the more body weight clinical trials participants lost. There’s still no news if the best time of day to take Mounjaro or Ozempic will also apply for this new drug.
4 health benefits of retatrutide
Retatrutide is an extremely promising new medication that has the potential to deliver many health benefits beyond weight loss. So far, these are the health advantages this drug has shown during clinical trials:
Promotes substantial weight loss
The reason why everybody is talking about retatrutide even before its release is because of how promising this drug is for weight loss management. Just like other medications of its kind, with diet and regular exercise, retatrutide will pave the road to your dream weight. Eating healthy and staying active is necessary for this medication to do its work, but it will be worth it. Most people who are not losing weight on Ozempic or Wegovy lack the commitment to that essential step of the process. With retatrutide’s appetite-suppressing effect, following a low-calorie diet will be easier, and so will reach your body weight loss goals.
Blood sugar management
Retatrutide is also a very promising medication for type 2 diabetes mellitus treatment. Individuals with this condition have trouble managing insulin, so they often develop high blood sugar levels. High glucose levels present several hazards to people’s health. Retatrutide’s three receptor agonists can help restore blood glucose levels back to normal and improve this condition.
Cardiometabolic conditions improvement
During clinical trials, retatrutide was also associated with the improvement of cardiometabolic measures, including glycated hemoglobin, fasting glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Retatrutide would also be highly beneficial in treating hypertension (high blood pressure). Clinical trial participants showed a decrease in blood pressure after a 48-weeks treatment.
PCOS
Retatrutide is showing impressive results in treating or improving different health conditions. Polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is a condition in which the ovaries produce androgen hormones in excess. That leads to health problems such as irregular periods, subfertility, insulin resistance, and overweight, among others. Ozempic and Mounjaro are being considered for PCOS treatment. Obesity or being overweight is both a symptom and a precursor of PCOS; treating excess weight with Ozempic for PCOS can help manage this disorder. Therefore, everything indicates that retatrutide could also improve this condition.
What are the potential side effects?
Most medications come with a quote of adverse effects. In the case of retatrutide, studies showed that the side effects of this new drug are very similar to other blood sugar and weight loss treatments. The most common adverse effects are gastrointestinal: nausea, vomiting, stomach upset, diarrhea, and constipation. Those side effects were mild and tolerable; they are mostly transitory and related to the dosage increase. When your healthcare provider increases the dose, that’s when you are most likely to experience side effects. There are Ozempic and Mounjaro foods to avoid to lessen the symptoms; you probably can apply this to retatrutide as well.
Mounjaro and Ozempic, which have a similar effect to retatrutide, can lead to rare but severe side effects that are worth mentioning. Retatrutide needs further study to determine whether it can increase the development of the following adverse effects. Inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), kidney problems, gallbladder problems, change in vision, and severe allergic reactions.
Is retatrutide for weight loss more efficient than Ozempic?
When trying to achieve weight loss through a medical program, you probably want to find the most efficient treatment. The good news is obesity and overweight medications are constantly improving, and new ones are developed every year. Not too long ago, Ozempic was the number one weight loss drug, and nothing could beat its levels of efficacy. With Ozempic and a proper diet and exercise – some people also throw fasting benefits by hour into the mix – individuals were losing an average of 13 lbs after the treatment. But more recently, Mounjaro appeared, promising more significant body weight reduction.
Is retatrutide more efficient for weight loss than Ozempic and Mounjaro? Numbers from clinical studies say a big yes. With Wegovy (Ozempic brand for weight loss treatment), individuals lose an average of 15% of their body weight in about 68 weeks. With Mounjaro, people can use up to 22% of their body weight in 72 weeks. During retatrutide’s latest clinical trials, participants using the drug lost an average of 24,2% body weight reduction in only 48 weeks. All the results are with the highest possible dose on every medication.
By analyzing the numbers, you can see that retatrutide promises a more significant weight loss in a reduced period. That makes this new medication extremely more efficient than any of its predecessors.
If you are already on one of the mentioned weight loss programs, switching from Ozempic to Mounjaro or retatrutide is possible. Nevertheless, all these medications are highly successful; choosing the right one depends on more than their efficacy. Your doctor or weight loss expert can help you decide on the one that better suits your specific needs and goals.
Final thoughts
Obesity medications are constantly improving and topping themselves. In the last few years, different type 2 medications have become incredibly successful as obesity treatments. Our weight loss clinic is devoted to staying informed about the latest innovations. That is why, today, we showed you a glimpse of what retatrutide – the newest and most promising weight loss medication so far – can bring to the table. It may take some time until this novel medication is released for weight loss management. In the meantime, you can kickstart your weight loss with Ozempic or Mounjaro. Do you want to learn more about these medical weight-loss programs? Schedule a call with our team and start your journey today!
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