I have been taking compounded tirzepatide for the last four months, with generally good results, and thought it might be helpful to share an overall report. I am also contemplating my next steps in terms of some possible stacking options (or just sticking with the current regime), and would love to hear some input. I will plan to update this thread with progress going forward.
ME: Early 40's male, physically active but with a history of back and foot injuries, high cholesterol, and being fat (duh). I'm 6 feet tall and have gone back and forth between peak weights of ~270 and adult lows in the 210-220 range a couple of times. For the last year or so I have been lifting a lot more weights, gained muscle, and had decent orthopedic health / no injuries, but found myself eating a lot more and struggling to control weight. When I hit 265 again around January I decided to take the plunge with tirz. My goal is to lose weight gradually and minimize muscle loss.
What follows is a quick summary of my progress to date, followed by some comments and possible next steps.
I generally weigh in and pin first thing on Saturdays.
Week 1: 2.5 mg / 263.0 lbs
Week 2: 2.5 mg / 257.9 lbs
Week 3: 2.5 mg / 258.6 lbs
Week 4: 2.5 mg / 255.7 lbs
Week 5: 2.5 mg / 254.0 lbs
Week 6: 3.3 mg / 253.4 lbs
Week 7: 3.3 mg / 253.5 lbs
Week 8: 5.0 mg / 252.4 lbs
Week 9: 5.0 mg / 247.0 lbs
Week 10: 5.0 mg / 245.7 lbs
Week 11: 5.0 mg / 245.5 lbs
Week 12: 5.0 mg / 245.4 lbs
Week 13: 7.5 mg / 246.6 lbs
Week 14: 10 mg (split dose) / 243.5 lbs
Week 15: 7.5 mg / 241.0 lbs
Week 16: 7.5 mg / 239.5 lbs
Week 17: 7.5 mg / 235.1 lbs
Week 18: 7.5 mg / 234.2 lbs
Dosing Notes: I set out hoping to titrate slowly, both for cost reasons and sustainability. I also did not want to lose weight so drastically that I had loose skin / massive muscle loss. This is anecdotal and subjective, but I did not find that moving in smaller increments (e.g. going to 3.3 mg from 2.5) really helped with restoring appetite suppression, so I abandoned that and just decided to move between the recommended doses at the slowest effective pace. I ran an impromptu experiment with split dosing when I had a brief supply interruption in week 14, but found kind of the same thing - didn't really provide additional suppression beyond the once weekly 7.5 mg, so I went back. I think I am ready to move up to 10 mg OR maybe add 1 mg reta.
Side Effects: I got a bad headache right after my first dose and felt a little out of whack for a day or so, but other than that, it's been pretty smooth sailing. I love food and I don't find that tirz makes me want to stop eating or lose interest in food entirely, it just reduces cravings between meals and allows me to stop eating sooner. I still find myself reaching for snacks when I'm around the office too, I think this is mostly habit - find myself snacking a lot less when I'm not at work. I am able to overeat if I want to, but I start getting pretty bad indigestion right away, so the tirz generally deters me from that. But there have been a few times where I still found myself overeating / stuffing on dessert, usually later in the week when I haven't pinned in a while.
Other substance interactions: I haven't seen this discussed a whole lot. I find that tirz increases my alcohol tolerance, presumably due to the delayed absorption, without really causing worse hangovers / recovery times, so that's cool. But I only drink occasionally (1-3 times per month) and usually don't drink a lot when I do (no more than 5-6 drinks, often only 1 or 2). I frequently take low-dose edibles at night for relaxation / sleep and have heard that may blunt the appetite suppression a bit, but so far it's been ok for me. I am starting to research some peptides for sleep / mood as well.
Sourcing: I am not requesting source info here, but I hope it's ok to just say that I started out getting my tirz from a US-based compounding pharmacy via a local doctor (paid through the nose), and, looking to bring costs down, I recently switched to a US-based reseller, which has been fine so far. I may go a more direct route in the future but am a bit hesitant to get into the crypto space, and right now the markup from the US-based resellers is not so bad that it outweighs the convenience for me.
Next Steps:
My goal weight is ~220ish, might try to get down to 210 if it feels realistic once I get closer. At that point I will switch to maintenance and recomp. I am weighing a couple options here.
1. Just stick with straight tirz and move up to 10 mg
2. Add a low dose of reta instead of increasing the tirz and see how it goes
3. Move up to 10 mg tirz and add tesamorelin for recomp / muscle preservation
Some of the heart rate stuff makes me a little hesitant about reta, but I have a low RHR and not much history of serious side effects from any others meds or peps, so I will probably give it a go eventually, either stacked with tirz or maybe as part of a maintenance regime later on. I considered CJC/IPA in place of the Tesa if I went that route, but it sounds like most people think Tesa is more effective and the cost is not a huge issue for me. I am also interested in some other peps for support in a couple of areas but don't want to add too much at once. Appreciate any comments and happy to answer questions.
ME: Early 40's male, physically active but with a history of back and foot injuries, high cholesterol, and being fat (duh). I'm 6 feet tall and have gone back and forth between peak weights of ~270 and adult lows in the 210-220 range a couple of times. For the last year or so I have been lifting a lot more weights, gained muscle, and had decent orthopedic health / no injuries, but found myself eating a lot more and struggling to control weight. When I hit 265 again around January I decided to take the plunge with tirz. My goal is to lose weight gradually and minimize muscle loss.
What follows is a quick summary of my progress to date, followed by some comments and possible next steps.
I generally weigh in and pin first thing on Saturdays.
Week 1: 2.5 mg / 263.0 lbs
Week 2: 2.5 mg / 257.9 lbs
Week 3: 2.5 mg / 258.6 lbs
Week 4: 2.5 mg / 255.7 lbs
Week 5: 2.5 mg / 254.0 lbs
Week 6: 3.3 mg / 253.4 lbs
Week 7: 3.3 mg / 253.5 lbs
Week 8: 5.0 mg / 252.4 lbs
Week 9: 5.0 mg / 247.0 lbs
Week 10: 5.0 mg / 245.7 lbs
Week 11: 5.0 mg / 245.5 lbs
Week 12: 5.0 mg / 245.4 lbs
Week 13: 7.5 mg / 246.6 lbs
Week 14: 10 mg (split dose) / 243.5 lbs
Week 15: 7.5 mg / 241.0 lbs
Week 16: 7.5 mg / 239.5 lbs
Week 17: 7.5 mg / 235.1 lbs
Week 18: 7.5 mg / 234.2 lbs
Dosing Notes: I set out hoping to titrate slowly, both for cost reasons and sustainability. I also did not want to lose weight so drastically that I had loose skin / massive muscle loss. This is anecdotal and subjective, but I did not find that moving in smaller increments (e.g. going to 3.3 mg from 2.5) really helped with restoring appetite suppression, so I abandoned that and just decided to move between the recommended doses at the slowest effective pace. I ran an impromptu experiment with split dosing when I had a brief supply interruption in week 14, but found kind of the same thing - didn't really provide additional suppression beyond the once weekly 7.5 mg, so I went back. I think I am ready to move up to 10 mg OR maybe add 1 mg reta.
Side Effects: I got a bad headache right after my first dose and felt a little out of whack for a day or so, but other than that, it's been pretty smooth sailing. I love food and I don't find that tirz makes me want to stop eating or lose interest in food entirely, it just reduces cravings between meals and allows me to stop eating sooner. I still find myself reaching for snacks when I'm around the office too, I think this is mostly habit - find myself snacking a lot less when I'm not at work. I am able to overeat if I want to, but I start getting pretty bad indigestion right away, so the tirz generally deters me from that. But there have been a few times where I still found myself overeating / stuffing on dessert, usually later in the week when I haven't pinned in a while.
Other substance interactions: I haven't seen this discussed a whole lot. I find that tirz increases my alcohol tolerance, presumably due to the delayed absorption, without really causing worse hangovers / recovery times, so that's cool. But I only drink occasionally (1-3 times per month) and usually don't drink a lot when I do (no more than 5-6 drinks, often only 1 or 2). I frequently take low-dose edibles at night for relaxation / sleep and have heard that may blunt the appetite suppression a bit, but so far it's been ok for me. I am starting to research some peptides for sleep / mood as well.
Sourcing: I am not requesting source info here, but I hope it's ok to just say that I started out getting my tirz from a US-based compounding pharmacy via a local doctor (paid through the nose), and, looking to bring costs down, I recently switched to a US-based reseller, which has been fine so far. I may go a more direct route in the future but am a bit hesitant to get into the crypto space, and right now the markup from the US-based resellers is not so bad that it outweighs the convenience for me.
Next Steps:
My goal weight is ~220ish, might try to get down to 210 if it feels realistic once I get closer. At that point I will switch to maintenance and recomp. I am weighing a couple options here.
1. Just stick with straight tirz and move up to 10 mg
2. Add a low dose of reta instead of increasing the tirz and see how it goes
3. Move up to 10 mg tirz and add tesamorelin for recomp / muscle preservation
Some of the heart rate stuff makes me a little hesitant about reta, but I have a low RHR and not much history of serious side effects from any others meds or peps, so I will probably give it a go eventually, either stacked with tirz or maybe as part of a maintenance regime later on. I considered CJC/IPA in place of the Tesa if I went that route, but it sounds like most people think Tesa is more effective and the cost is not a huge issue for me. I am also interested in some other peps for support in a couple of areas but don't want to add too much at once. Appreciate any comments and happy to answer questions.
