It really depends on your goal, but if you’re trying to run a clean cut with minimal side effects, this is what’s worked well for me. I started reta at 0.5 mg per day for the first 3–4 weeks, then bumped it up to 1 mg. Even at the lower dose, I noticed a big drop in food noise. Cravings were way easier to handle, and staying in a deficit didn’t feel like a constant battle. The biggest thing for me was that eating didn’t feel forced, and I didn’t feel sick or overly full after meals like some people report. It just felt normal, but controlled. I dropped about 6 pounds of water pretty quickly at the start, then about 2 pounds per week consistently after that. What really stood out was that my strength held steady the whole time, and I didn’t feel like I was losing muscle. Lifts stayed strong, workouts felt productive, and I wasn’t dealing with that flat, drained feeling you usually get deep into a cut.
For MOTS-c, I’ve been running around 5 mg per week. It’s a lower dose, but I did notice better endurance and recovery. One example that stood out was I trained legs with a buddy who’s also cutting but not using it, and he’s about 35 pounds lighter than me. We did a leg press burnout and he was completely gassed, while I wasn’t even out of breath. Stuff like that made me feel like it was actually doing something in terms of performance while dieting.
What makes the whole setup effective is how much easier it makes consistency. You’re not thinking about food all day, your portions naturally come down, and your energy feels more steady instead of up and down. That alone makes a huge difference when you’re trying to stay locked in for weeks. At the end of the day, diet, cardio, and lifting still have to be on point, but this just makes everything easier to stick to without feeling burnt out or miserable over a 12-16 week cut.
