{"id":359930,"date":"2025-12-21T15:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T15:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/359930\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T15:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T15:24:16","slug":"people-are-injecting-themselves-with-an-experimental-new-weight-loss-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/359930\/","title":{"rendered":"People Are Injecting Themselves With an Experimental New Weight Loss Drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\"Though<\/p>\n

\t\t\tIllustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Retatrutide, a new weight loss from Eli Lilly, isn\u2019t even out yet. For tht matter, it hasn\u2019t even finished human clinical trials. But it\u2019s already garnered a cult-like following, Wired reports<\/a>, with adherents swearing by its miraculous benefits.<\/p>\n

Lilly\u2019s drug works similarly to semaglutide<\/a>, which is sold by Novo Nordisk under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy. It mimics a gut hormone responsible which binds to the GLP-1 receptor for regulating blood sugar levels and your perception of hunger, in effect suppressing your appetite.<\/p>\n

But retatrutide is no mere GLP-1 agonist, as semaglutide and others like it are known. It\u2019s being hailed as a first-of-its-kind \u201cTriple G\u201d drug because it targets the GLP-1 receptor, the GIP receptor, and the GCG receptor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the three together\u2026 you can actually make a single molecule, like a master key, that opens multiple doors as effectively as [individual] keys, and achieve superior outcomes,\u201d Richard DiMarchi, a chemist and chair in biomolecular sciences at Indiana University, told Wired.<\/p>\n

In a phase II trial, obese participants who were administered retatrutide lost an average of 24.2 percent of their body weight over a 48-week period, Wired noted, which is more than what other drugs have achieved in nearly twice the amount of time.<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s yet to hit the mainstream, it\u2019s been a hit with so-called \u201cgrey market pharmacies\u201d that sell unapproved drugs under the guise that they\u2019re only for \u201cresearch purposes.\u201d Such pharmacies can be a vital pipeline of hormones and other compounds<\/a> for trans and non-binary people seeking gender-affirming care, providing affordable alternatives to what you\u2019d get through your health insurance, but they\u2019re also an outlet of drugs with questions about their efficacy and safety, like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.<\/p>\n

After trying retatrutide for himself, one man, 48-year-old Jake Terry, has launched an entire business that sources \u201cresearch chemicals\u201d from Chinese and other overseas manufacturers to peddle them to daring consumers. Terry\u2019s pharmacy, and others like it, send the drug as a powder, leaving customers to follow instructions to mix and put it in a syringe themselves. It may sound a little jerry-rigged and prone to error, but its takers swear by its results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 53 with the dad-bod gut,\u201d Terry\u2019s business partner who chose to remain anonymous told Wired. \u201cThis is the first time in my life I\u2019ve actually seen my abs. And I\u2019ve changed nothing, other than retatrutide. I don\u2019t exercise more. I don\u2019t do anything other than take the shot once a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another man who goes by Craig took retatrutide through an official Eli Lilly trial and lost up to 80 pounds. \u201cBecause I can\u2019t eat as much, I have a better relationship with food,\u201d he told the magazine. \u201cI have more mental space to do other things instead of just thinking about, like, when I\u2019m going to eat again.\u201d<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t worked out well for everyone. 50-year-old fitness YouTuber Adrian Cook said he took retatrutide because he had a \u201cnegative association with eating,\u201d and that the \u201cpitch for reta is it just puts that stuff on autopilot.\u201d As a result, \u201cyou don\u2019t have to deal with cravings, or the feeling of desperation you get from always being hungry,\u201d he told the magazine.<\/p>\n

Crook lost 25 pounds in seven weeks, but stopped because of extreme nausea, though his circumstances are very specific: he was taking a proton pump inhibitor to manage acid reflux he got after taking anabolic steroids.<\/p>\n

Lilly spokesperson Niki Biro cautioned that \u201cretatrutide is an investigational molecule that is legally available only to participants in Lilly\u2019s clinical trials. Anyone purporting to sell retatrutide for human use is breaking the law, and no one should consider taking anything claiming to be retatrutide outside of a Lilly-sponsored clinical trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on weight loss drugs: Scientists Testing GLP-1s for Overweight Dogs and Cats<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins \/ Futurism. Source: Getty Images Retatrutide, a new weight loss from Eli Lilly, isn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,84,377],"class_list":{"0":"post-359930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}