Retatrutide Week 33: 240.8 lbs - The Sick Week: Scale Up, Fat Down 5.4 lbs

# Retatrutide Week 33: 240.8 lbs - The Sick Week: Scale Up, Fat Down 5.4 lbs ## YouTube Summary Subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/@Dark.Rebuild if you prefer video format. ::youtube[{"videoId":"c5EWgyMiJeE"}] ## Current Stats - **Week 33 Weight:** 240.8 lbs - **Weekly Change:** +1.4 lbs - **Total Progress:** -95.8 lbs - **Body Fat %:** 19.3% (scale reading, likely ~21% DEXA-adjusted) - **Retatrutide:** 8mg weekly (going to 6mg next week) - **HGH:** Still stopped - **Testosterone Cypionate:** 150mg weekly (2x 75mg IM Monday/Thursday) - **GHK-Cu:** 2mg daily - **Telmisartan:** 40mg daily (AM before gym) ::gallery[{"images":["https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/fff50620-0140-4a80-8510-07ac3c889941.png","https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/545bb0e6-62a0-4edc-a0d8-efd898e73f01.png","https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/218fa6fc-4b5a-499c-8c0b-de10feabfba2.png","https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/b658cdb1-027b-498d-9436-7c96986bdd00.png","https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/5e28b93b-769b-4f07-9201-855ce64ea36c.png","https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/bb0b2a42-b2a9-45c9-92e2-927ef3125dac.png","https://retatrutidelog.com/uploads/e6035680-5cba-426b-a6c6-f5320acd1076.png"],"captions":["","","","","","",""]}] This was not a normal week. **Wednesday:** Complaining about constipation. Last meal Wednesday night. **Thursday:** Diarrhea + fever hit, fasting continues (no food all day) **Friday:** Still sick/fever, still fasting **Saturday morning:** Felt well enough to hit the gym, broke fast post-workout **Saturday afternoon:** Recording this video, still slight headache and body aches **Saturday night (predicted):** Expecting night sweats as fever breaks The scale went up 1.4 lbs. But I lost 5.4 lbs of fat. Let me explain what happened. ## Week 33: The Sick Week Timeline **Wednesday:** Normal day, but complained about being constipated. Last meal Wednesday night. **Thursday morning:** Woke up with diarrhea. By afternoon, fever kicked in (100-102°F). Decided to skip the gym and continue fasting. No appetite anyway, and with GI issues, I wasn't about to "add more traffic to the jam." **Friday:** Still sick. Fever holding. Still not eating. Just fluids, electrolytes, vitamins, and supplements. Monitored blood ketones and glucose throughout the day. **Saturday morning:** Woke up feeling well enough to hit the gym. Got there late (around 11am). Broke the fast post-workout with 5 eggs, cottage cheese, roasted potatoes, coffee, and a Coke Zero. **Saturday afternoon:** Recording this video. Still have slight headache and body aches, but mostly recovered. **Total fast duration:** About 60+ hours (last meal Wednesday night through Saturday late morning post-gym). **Current state:** Still have slight headache and body aches, but felt strong at the gym this morning. ## The Numbers: Scale Up, Fat Down  **Week 33 vs Week 32 changes:** - Weight: 240.8 lbs (up from 239.4 lbs, **+1.4 lbs**) - Body Fat Mass: 46.4 lbs (down from 51.8 lbs, **-5.4 lbs fat**) - Muscle Mass: 181.2 lbs (up from 175.0 lbs, **+6.2 lbs muscle**) - Body Water: 142.2 lbs (up from 137.4 lbs, **+4.8 lbs water**) - Body Fat %: 19.3% (down from 21.6%, **-2.3% drop**) - Waist: 35.43" (down from 36.37" Week 31, **-0.94 inches**) - Visceral Fat: 7 (down from 8, **-1 level**) **Total progress: -95.8 pounds** (336.6 lbs → 240.8 lbs in 33 weeks) The scale shows the net result: -5.4 lbs fat, +6.2 lbs "muscle" (really water), +4.8 lbs water = +1.4 lbs total. **What actually happened:** I got depleted from being sick and fasting for 60+ hours. Then rehydrated. The bioimpedance scale is reading the water returning to muscle tissue as "muscle gain." But the fat loss? That's real. ## The Fat Loss Was Real: Ketone Data I tracked blood ketones and glucose throughout the fast. **Blood Ketones:** 1.4-1.5 mmol/L **Blood Glucose:** 84-86 mg/dL Those ketone levels confirm I was burning fat. Deep ketosis for 60+ hours. The -5.4 lbs fat loss makes sense: - **Front half of the week:** Tight diet, normal eating (until Wednesday night) - **Thursday-Saturday morning:** 60+ hour fast in deep ketosis - **Total:** ~5 lbs of fat burned The scale is probably right on this one. ## Sub-20% Body Fat (With Caveats) The scale shows 19.3% body fat. Last week's DEXA scan showed the RENPHO scale underestimates body fat by about 2 percentage points. So my real body fat is probably around **21%**. **But either way:** I'm sub-21% body fat now. That's the first time breaking through that threshold. Can I trust this week's reading 100%? No. My body was under massive stress - fever, depletion, fasting, rehydration. The bioimpedance readings are going to be wonky. But the ketone data confirms fat burning happened. The waist measurement confirms fat is leaving the midsection. And even accounting for the scale's optimism, I'm definitely leaner than last week. **Sub-20% on the scale. Probably ~21% in reality. Still a milestone.** ## The Waist: Down Almost a Full Inch in Two Weeks I forgot to measure my waist before the DEXA scan in Week 32. So this week's measurement is compared to Week 31. **Week 31:** 36.37 inches **Week 33:** 35.43 inches **Change:** -0.94 inches Almost a full inch off the waistline in two weeks, while the scale went up 1.4 lbs. That's the recomposition showing up. Fat leaving the trunk, water returning to the extremities (arms, legs, shoulders). Scale climbs, waist drops. I measure consistently at the same spot: about 1.5 inches above my belly button, right where a little birthmark is. Same spot every week for accurate tracking. ## The "Muscle Gain" Is Water The scale shows +6.2 lbs muscle and +4.8 lbs water. I didn't gain 6.2 lbs of contractile muscle tissue in one week. That's impossible. What happened: When you're sick and fasting, your body gets depleted. Glycogen stores empty out. Intracellular water drops. You flatten out. Then when you rehydrate and start eating again, water rushes back into muscle tissue. The bioimpedance scale reads that as "lean mass" because it is - it's water inside muscle cells. It's temporary. It's not new muscle. It's just rehydration after depletion. The net effect: -5.4 fat, +6.2 "muscle" (water), +4.8 body water = +1.4 lbs total on the scale. ## Fasting: Practical, Not Strategic I didn't plan to fast. I fasted because I felt like shit and had no interest in eating. With diarrhea on Thursday, the last thing I wanted to do was add more food to the GI issues. "Don't add more traffic to the jam," as I said in the video. So I just... didn't eat. **Did I feel hunger?** Yes, short hunger pangs throughout the day. They passed quickly. **Did I feel weak?** Not really. Ketones were elevated, so energy was fine. **Did I have heartburn?** A little bit in the evenings, but it only lasted a few seconds. **Was it hard?** Not as hard as I expected. The sickness probably helped suppress appetite. I monitored blood pressure, glucose, and ketones throughout to make sure I wasn't going hypoglycemic or having any issues. Everything stayed stable. **First meal post-fast:** Saturday around noon after the gym. 5 eggs, half a cup of cottage cheese, roasted potatoes, coffee, and a Coke Zero. Eased back in? Nope. Just went back to normal eating. ## Gym: Skipped Thursday and Friday, Back Saturday I skipped the gym Thursday and Friday while sick. Didn't want to spread it around the gym, and I had a fever - no point forcing it. Saturday morning I woke up feeling well enough to go. Got there late (around 11am), but got the workout done. Felt strong. The fast and depletion didn't wreck my performance. If anything, I felt light and recovered. **First meal post-fast:** Saturday around noon after the gym. 5 eggs, half a cup of cottage cheese, roasted potatoes, coffee, and a Coke Zero. **Current state:** Saturday afternoon while recording this. Still have a slight headache and some body aches, but nothing major. I think I'm out of the woods. ## YouTube Growth: 1,201 Subscribers The YouTube channel hit **1,201 subscribers** this week. **+103 subscribers this week.** Slower growth than the previous two weeks (+251, then +223), but still solid. From 29 subscribers 13 weeks ago to 1,201 now - that's **41x growth** in just over three months. I missed daily vlogs Thursday and Friday while sick. Didn't think anyone wanted to watch me look miserable on camera. Back to the normal schedule Monday morning. ## Lab Partner: First Order Going Out Monday The Lab Partner membership tier vote is almost closed. **MOTS-c is winning.** That'll be the first compound we send to Freedom Diagnostics for testing. **Monday afternoon:** I'm placing the order for all the compounds in the voting pool: - BPC-157 - TB-500 - MOTS-c - GHK-Cu - Tesamorelin **The plan:** Once the package arrives (probably 2-3 weeks post-Chinese New Year), I'll close the poll within 2 days and send the winning compound (MOTS-c) to Freedom Diagnostics. Then we'll cycle through the rest. Members vote on which one goes next, I send it for testing, we get the COA, repeat. **Timeline for first test:** - Order Monday - Receive in ~2-3 weeks - Send to Freedom Diagnostics within 2 days - Get COA back in 2-3 days after they receive it Members get early access to COA results before they're posted publicly. This is independent, crowd-funded peptide verification. No supplier politics, no conflicts of interest. If you want to be part of this, use the [join link on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRKyrE8khBaia7PHFqWdqpg/join). ## StepUp Challenge: Week 33 Update - 18 Members We gained **1 more member** this week! Now at **18 members**. If you'd like to join our group, you can use the [direct group invite](https://join.thestepupapp.com/zW07S5) or read about [why I started this challenge](https://retatrutidelog.com/posts/my-step-count-is-trash-started-a-group-to-fix-it). ## Protocol Update: Dropping to 6mg Next Week Week 33 was the second week at 8mg retatrutide (down from 12mg). **Next week:** Dropping to 6mg. **The titration plan:** - Week 34-36: 6mg weekly (3 weeks) - Week 37-39: 4mg weekly (3 weeks) - Week 40: 2mg weekly (final week of the cut) The goal is to find the minimum effective dose while finishing the cut down to 215 lbs / 15% body fat. Right now I'm at 240.8 lbs and probably around 21% body fat (DEXA-adjusted). That's 25.8 lbs away from goal. At 2-3 lbs per week, that's 8-10 weeks. The titration schedule lines up perfectly. **Rest of the stack stays the same:** - Testosterone Cypionate: 150mg weekly (staying on permanently) - GHK-Cu: 2mg daily (skin and hair benefits) - Telmisartan: 40mg daily (blood pressure management) ## What's Next **Recovery:** Get fully over this sickness. Still have slight headache and body aches, but I'm 95% back. **Normal eating:** Back to 2200 calories, 230g protein per day. The fast is over. **Lab Partner order:** Going out Monday. MOTS-c testing in 2-3 weeks. **Titration:** Dropping to 6mg retatrutide next week. **Goal:** 25.8 lbs to 215 lbs / 15% body fat. 8-10 weeks estimated. 95.8 pounds down. Body fat sub-21% (DEXA-adjusted). Waist at 35.43". Visceral fat at 7. This was a weird week - sick, fasted, depleted, rehydrated. Scale up, fat down, waist down. But the data doesn't lie. The ketones confirm it. The fat loss is real. ::sourceguide[{ "headline": "Need a source? ", "description": "Quick access to my supplier's contact info.", "buttonText": "Get Contact Info", "variant": "gradient" }] --- **Disclaimer:** The information provided on this site is for **educational and informational purposes only** and reflects my **personal experiences and opinions**. It is **not** intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Retatrutide is an **investigational drug** that is **not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration** for any use outside of clinical trials. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional before making any decisions regarding medications, supplements, or medical treatments. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this site may be affiliate links.