Changing My Stance: Why Tirzepatide Might Beat Retatrutide for Most People

Derek Pruski

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16d (edited) • Peptide Tips

Disclaimer: Research peptides only. Educational purposes. Not medical advice. Talk to your doctor.

I've always said: research with whatever allows you to stay on plan and keeps you in a deficit.

But after experimenting with both extensively, I need to rethink this.

My Experience:

Tirzepatide → food noise basically gone while still being able to eat

Retatrutide + cagri → still thinking about food way too much

Even adding cagrilintide to reta hasn't given me the same mental freedom as tirz. And that's making me question whether reta's theoretical advantages are actually worth it for most people.

What the Clinical Data Shows:

Tirzepatide (SURMOUNT trials): Participants consistently reported serious appetite suppression. Many said they basically stopped thinking about food between meals.

Retatrutide (Phase 2 trials): Weight loss was impressive (24% at 48 weeks), but appetite control was hit-or-miss. Some people experienced it, others didn't.

The pattern is clear: tirz delivers consistent appetite suppression for almost everyone. Reta is more variable.

The Part Everyone Overlooks:

Yeah, reta might burn slightly more fat because of glucagon receptor activation. But here's the reality—

Most researchers don't have their diet and training dialed in yet.

And getting THOSE fundamentals right will do way more for fat loss than reta's glucagon effect ever will.

You can replicate reta's fat-burning advantages through:

Increased cardio
Lipo-C injections
L-carnitine supplementation
Fasted training sessions
Consistent resistance training

Here's my honest take: If you dial in nutrition, training, and sleep, you'll get comparable results with tirz—without fighting hunger all day. Reta's edge only matters if everything else is already optimized. For most people, it's not.

What I'm Seeing:

This pattern keeps repeating: researchers switch from tirz to reta, then come back—not because tirz made everything effortless, but because it made staying on plan manageable.

This is especially true for people who've always had intense hunger signaling or need high food volume to feel satisfied.

With tirz, you still have to make conscious choices. You still have to plan your meals. You still have to do the work.

But you're not constantly fighting your body's screaming hunger signals. You can actually stick to your nutrition plan without burning out mentally in week two.

When hunger is manageable instead of overwhelming, you can:

Actually follow through on meal prep consistently
Make rational food choices instead of reactive ones driven by intense cravings
Learn what appropriate portions look like without feeling deprived
Build new eating patterns without constantly falling back into old survival-mode habits
Stay consistent long enough for new behaviors to actually stick

The difference isn't "effortless" vs "hard"—it's "sustainable" vs "unsustainable."

For people who've spent years fighting intense hunger and falling back into binge cycles or old patterns, tirz creates enough breathing room to actually build something new. Reta, for many, doesn't provide that same buffer.

My Updated Position:

For most researchers, tirzepatide is probably the better choice.

Consistent appetite control → better adherence → better long-term results.

Reta absolutely has its place for researchers who: