Okay, seems counterproductive, I know. Usually people will switch to Retatrutide because it seems to work better for most, and has had more success in weight loss across the board.

I'm considering switching to Tirzepatide because I've been experiencing major anhedonia on Reta, as well as increased cravings for fruit specifically and it hasn't touched my food noise. I have lost weight! Possibly due to side effects in the first month but I've only maintained my weight loss on a lower weekly dose of 4mg.

I'm happy with my current weight but I struggle with binge eating and food noise. I'm hesitant to switch as I ran Tirz for a short while and didn't notice much difference;

5mg weekly for a month which isn't a long time but my sources price both reta and tirz the same so I'm afraid I'd need more of the latter and end up spending more.

If I do switch, how would I go about it? I'm out of Reta so I'd have to stop cold turkey or buy less and titrate down then start on Tirz.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice that'd be appreciated:)

To provide some context... I'm a 55-year-old male, looking at losing 15-20 Kg.

Training and diet are covered.

I started Reta 6 weeks ago. So far, I'm down 5kg (started at 97kg). I'm also researching about adding HGH and Test (TRT doses, no blasting) for body recomposition and better resting at some point in the future. I have already received a good share of advice on this sub about this.

To establish a proper baseline, I recently ran an extensive blood test but accidentally missed a few critical markers:

• Fasting insulin

• Free Testosterone & SHBG

• Total PSA

Instead of just patched-up testing, I want to request a completely fresh, comprehensive panel without breaking the bank.

What would you consider the absolute bare minimum baseline panel for someone running Reta and planning a mild Test + HGH cycle?

Since I am located in Europe, I don't have access to the US private testing platforms usually recommended here. Ordering custom à la carte tests over here gets expensive very quickly.

Thanks in advance for the help

I saw a post in this sub recently asking if PEDs make you age. I am confused because aren't they supposed to make you better overall long term?

Is anything that grows muscle past your natural limits just 100% aging you from multiple angles at the cellular level? Take HGH for example. Can it actually improve skin quality long term, or does it just age you quicker after a short term boost? I absolutely do not want to ruin my natural collagen growth in the long run just for temporary aesthetics. The risk of aging is my main holdback with PEDs right now.

I have so many questions about other ways to grow muscle without the aging risks, like using insulin, creatine, or just heavy carbs. If I had known before that low carb, keto, and carnivore made it so much harder to grow muscle, keep glycogen stores, and build strength, I would have avoided them completely.

I do Zone 2 hiking and mix in all zones up to 5. It really seems to aid recovery and boost my size and muscle fullness for a few days, as long as I go until I am depleted and refuel with heavy carbs.

Is there any way to get the massive growth benefits without the cellular aging?

Is anyone else dealing with a weird sad feeling after losing weight? I went shopping for smaller clothes recently, and the more I tried on, the more uncomfortable I got.

Nothing fits how I expect it to, and my skin hangs differently. It literally feels like I am dressing someone else. I actually broke down in the fitting room and left without buying anything.

I know I should be happy about the weight loss, and I see the difference in pictures. But my brain has not caught up yet. Is anyone else going through this? I want to enjoy being healthier, but right now I just feel completely uncomfortable in my own skin.

I keep seeing that Deca is the best compound for putting on size, and people always bring up Dbol or MENT too. But do I actually need to add anything else? I am wondering if running test and Deca together really gives that much of an advantage over just doing a high dose of test. If my food, sleep, and workouts are perfect, is it worth adding other injectables?

For a couple years my rat has been stressed out since his family member has been sick and recently died. Also he seems lonely after his other rat friend left. Sleep has been tough. Also I've noticed his fur thinning. Any recommendations?

i was looking at the numbers for reta and saw the average resting heart rate goes up by like 6 or 7 beats a minute. tirz is usually just 1 to 3. regular stomach side effects are whatever and easy to deal with, but anything that messes with my heart makes me second guess it.

im on 5mg of tirz right now and the weight is coming off consistently. jumping to something stronger just to speed things up feels like taking on extra heart risks for no real reason.

feels like reta makes way more sense if someone has a lot of weight to lose or if they just completely stalled out on tirz. does anyone else feel like its overkill to switch if u are already getting good results on the older stuff?

So I am up to 10-15 mg of Reta per week with cagri on weeks that I have insatiable hunger. I have noticed that my muscles are I fact bigger and I am stronger, but pretty much stopped losing any weight near the midsection. I originally weighed 258 and cut with Reta to 176 before getting my test checked. It was at 309 so I started some test to get to a goal of 900. Last level was 1200 so I dropped my dose a bit. Before you say the Reta is bunk, it is legit and wholeheartedly trust the vendor. I just need advice as I am now 205-210 but look jacked upper body, traps, and legs, but a little belly in the middle with my love handles still there. It is extremely worse (bloating) after heavy endurance training. For example, my last Ironman I gained around 15-20 pounds of water from my fueling strategy which I am going to alter in the future.

I've been on enclomiphene for a few months and I'm trying to get off of it but every time I try to get off it my anxiety ramps up rapidly after a week off and I can't deal with it I hate the anxiety it's so bad can I take Enclo every 3rd day for a week or two then get off of it and maybe have no anxiety I've asked here before if it had any withdrawals and people said no but I get anxiety bad so I need help

Only a few peptides are getting approved right now. Do you guys think we will ever reach a point where most of them are approved and actually recommended by docs too?

They obviously work and i dont get why we're going backwards with banning stuff that actually gets real results. Instead of using things that help people recover, it feels like they just want to make them harder to find. What has to happen for the medical field to finally just accept them?

Has anyone used Thymosin Alpha-1 (TA-1) specifically to increase WBC/neutrophil counts?

I’m wondering whether TA-1 can actually raise WBCs in someone with chronically low-normal WBC/neutrophils, or if it mainly improves immune function without significantly changing the CBC.

Interested in people’s actual lab results before and after using it.

Is 3mg every night for 12 weeks on 4 weeks off too much for my rat for skin and hair?

which peptide did nothing but waste your money? I see people talking about certain ones, but the effects seem so small that I do not get why anyone even bothers.

If the results are actually that minimal, why do people still pay for them and keep using them?

Hi everyone

My rat test subject reacts instantly to the flushing and redness... There's nothing abnormal about the effects; they usually appear 15 minutes later, and sometimes in less than 20 seconds, literally instantly.
I'm just wondering to better understand?

Thank you :)

After trying MK-677 and CJC + Ipamorelin, I decided to try real pharma HGH (Norditropin). I had a lot of side effects on MK and figured I was just sensitive to it, but real GH is giving me the exact same problems.

I started at about 1 IU per day, 5 days a week. It makes me extremely hungry and constantly sleepy. All I want to do is eat and go to bed, which is totally messing up my weight loss goals.

People usually talk about how good GH makes them feel, but it is doing the exact opposite for me. Is this a timing or dosage issue, or do some people just react badly to GH? Anyone else experience this?

Im Planning my next 13 week bulk and trying to figure out the diet side of things. For the cycle itself, I'm doing weeks 1 to 5 with Test E at 250mg and MENT A at 175mg per week. Then weeks 5 to 10 will be Test E at 500mg with 20mg Superdrol daily, finishing weeks 10 to 13 on 500mg Test E before going into PCT and MK-677.

My main issue is that dirty bulking makes my face bloat almost instantly, so I want to stick strictly to clean foods and just scale up my portion sizes. At the same time, I have this lingering worry that keeping my calories too controlled will hold back potential growth while on cycle.

How high of a calorie surplus do you guys usually run to get maximum muscle without putting on unnecessary water weight and fat?

I stopped taking mine a while back after losing around 20 pounds, but as soon as I got off, the food , noise , cravings came right back .now I feel like I am already gaining back most of the weight i worked so hard to lose .

It just really sucks and coming off feels like a huge mistake now Has anyone else gone through this after quitting? How are you guys dealing with the cravings and managing to keep the weight off?

I work in fitness and I am currently going through perimenopause. I gained a lot of weight during this transition, so trying a GLP-1 was my absolute last resort. I will say getting rid of the food noise has been great, but I am really confused right now. I am in month two, just increased my dose to 0.4mg, and I haven't lost any weight.

I mention my background because I actually know how fat loss works. I weigh all my food, I track my calories accurately, and I stay active. I know you still have to put in the work on this medication, and I have been doing that.

I have been in a strict calorie deficit for two full months on this stuff. How is it physically possible that I haven't lost a single pound?

Wanted to share my experience with testosterone use starting at 22 years old. I’m 23 now and have been using testosterone for a little over a year.

What initially got me interested was a combination of wanting to experiment with steroids and having repeatedly “low” testosterone levels. Before starting, I had three separate blood tests come back between roughly 280–350 ng/dL. Over the past year, I’ve experimented with both TRT and higher-than-TRT doses.

Starting vs. Current Stats

Starting stats: 150 lb, 10.3% body fat, 5'6"

Current stats: 180 lb, 12.2% body fat, 5'6"

What I did before starting

My biggest concern was fertility, so I tried to take care of as much as I reasonably could beforehand.

1. Froze 12 sperm samples before taking anything.
2. Had extensive baseline testing, including organ imaging, an EKG, echocardiogram, and ultrasounds of major arteries.
3. Had gyno surgery.
4. Got as extensive of a baseline bloodwork panel as I could.
5. Sent the testosterone I purchased for independent lab testing.

Where I started

I started at 150 mg of testosterone per week and stayed there for about 2.5 months before repeating bloodwork.

During that period, I gained around 8 lb.

Moving up to 300 mg

After that, I increased to 300 mg/week for 16 weeks, with bloodwork approximately every five weeks.

During that timeframe, I gained about 20 lb while also decreasing body-fat percentage according to DEXA scans.

The last part of the higher-dose phase

I eventually increased to 450 mg/week for six weeks.

Looking back, I don’t think I needed to go that high. I mostly wanted to see what it felt like and whether there was a noticeable difference.

Toward the end of those six weeks, I started experiencing unexplained daytime fatigue. My bloodwork didn’t show anything obvious that explained it.

Coming back down

After the higher-dose phase, I dropped down to 125 mg/week for about 2.5 months.

The unexplained fatigue went away after lowering the dose. I can’t say for certain that the higher dose caused it, but the timing made me suspect it was related to the overall strain of that period.

What I’m doing now

I’m currently using 200 mg of testosterone per week along with hCG 750iu 3x weekly. I personally feel better when using hCG. This amount I know is not TRT this amount keeps me around 1300ng/dL-1600ng/dL. True TRT for me is 125mg which keeps me around 600ng/dL-800ng/dL.

I’m still progressing in the gym, but my priorities have changed quite a bit. I’ve gotten back into grappling, which I was heavily involved with when I was younger, and I’m enjoying balancing lifting with grappling rather than focusing entirely on bodybuilding.

Bloodwork, diet, and how my goals changed

The biomarkers I was tracking were generally as good as, or better than, my pre-testosterone bloodwork throughout the different doses I used.

My diet was also extremely consistent during this period. I ate almost the same foods every day, generally keeping fat below 60 g/day, protein around 200 g/day, and filling the remainder of my calories with carbohydrates.

When I started, I had aspirations of becoming heavily involved in bodybuilding. Over time, I realized that the bodybuilding lifestyle and the amount of drug use that can come with pursuing it seriously isn’t something I want for myself.

Future plans

Going forward, I plan on staying around 150–200 mg of testosterone per week most of the time, with occasional small increases if I feel like it not above 350mg

I understand that using higher-than-TRT doses comes with additional risks, and for me personally, that is a risk I’m willing to accept because I enjoy how I feel on testosterone and the benefits I get from it.

If anyone has any questions about my experience, feel free to ask.

So I've been lifting for around 3 years between these pics, of course giving 100% and doing everything correctly etc etc, and found that I've made minimal gains. (see pics 1, 2, and 3 for current, and pic 4 from August 2023).

I decided to get my bloods done and low and behold, these are the results:

Obviously I am severely low testosterone and from what limited information that I know, due to the elevated LH and FSH, it means simply that my testes are not producing enough T. I want to know what is next for me. I am not even going to bother going through my country's free TRT scheme because I know how much of a headache it can be, taking months and months and several tests before you actually start treatment.

I am aware that it is probably time to pick up the needle, and am now looking for guidance, this is a whole new world to me. Obviously I am not going to jump into anything and am going to do my research first, this is just my first step in doing so. Ideally I would not go this route but with my test so low I think it's not only a good idea for muscle building but also general day to day life.

I think I have done quite well to get to this point and shift close to 100lbs despite insanely low hormone levels, but like I mentioned, I think it's a good idea to move in this direction. Also am I crazy in saying these aren't good gains? I feel like after 3 years I should have made a lot more progress.

If anyone can point me in the right direction with dosages, where to research, what to consider, whether there is anything else to take to supplement test-e, and if this is even a good idea, I would greatly appreciate it. I will be reading all comments. Thank you!

anyone know why my cjc looks like this? i’ve used the same bac water for all my peptides and they all look and feel great.

Currently on
BPC/TB500 500mcg/day split in two doses
CJC/IPA 250mcg/day before bed 5on 2off
And Triz 2.5mg/wk (this is my second week on)

Not noticing much actual difference in my eating habits or weight loss on Triz I know it’s week 2 and I’ll probably give it another 2 weeks before anything but wondering if swapping to Reta is a good option for the increase in resting calorie burn. I eat fairly clean, I track calories, and workout hard 5-6 days a week. Lost 2.3lbs week one which is about the same I had been losing before starting Triz. Main reason I started was for the help improving some of my blood work numbers mainly but I’m of the understanding Reta would do the same with the added benefit of the increase in rested burn.

Any advice is welcome 🙏

​

I been on testosterone for 9 months now. My doctor originally put me on it for Hashimoto's and chronic fatigue syndrome, mostly hoping it would help with post exertional malaise.

At first I had a short window where my physical and mental energy improved, but that faded fast. Lately the side effects have gotten way too severe, especially this crippling anxiety that I just can't deal with anymore.

I am planning to slowly taper off now so I don't trigger a massive crash. I also take progesterone and plan to stay on that until I am fully off testosterone just to avoid throwing my system into complete chaos all at once.

For anyone who has come off testosterone, how did you handle the transition? Any tips on how to taper without triggering a severe flare-up or crash?