psycho_driver
GLP-1 Apprentice
I'll be briefly testing out some non GLP-1 compounds for weight loss along-side reta and documenting the results, both tangible and how I felt while using them, in this thread. I'm a 48yo male who has spent most of my life fat-fit. I have never stopped playing sports since childhood. I've gone through periods where I've been in great shape and capable of putting up impressive numbers in the gym, but mostly I've cruised along at 30-40lbs overweight.
Here's a brief breakdown of my GLP-1 journey this year. Got back from family vacation on 6/20/25. Started compounded tirzepatide from Brello. Starting weight was 251lbs. I think I started at their recommended dosing which is somewhat close to the recommended name brand dosing. By August 1st I was 235.9lbs. Switched over to reta at 1mg 2x per week for 2 weeks, then 2mg 2x per week for the next two weeks. Workout routine of fairly heavy circuit lifting 3x12 across 10 exercises 3x per week locked in. I get 15k+ steps almost every day. I'm doing pretty good keeping added sugars out of my diet and getting 2/3 of my weight in protein. Also doing pretty good with hydration and electrolytes. I start taking MOTS-C and it's quite noticeable for me at the dose I land on, 2.5mg 2x per week. About a week later I added in methylene blue at 4mg per day, it is also a noticeable little bump in energy.
September 1st I weighed 228.2lbs. I still had some of the Brello tirzepatide so I switched to dosing tirzepatide 3.3mg Wednesday afternoons with reta 2.1mg Sunday mornings. Sometime around here I start taking SLU at ~1mg 2x per day. Within a week I'm taking ~2mg 2x per day. Not super noticeable, though my intra-set cooldown times are improved while working out. I finish four weeks on MOTS-C so decide to take time off and start up SS-31 at 1mg daily. Don't notice a thing from it. Try some higher doses, up to I think 5mg daily, still don't notice and effect from it. Strength increasing slowly in gym, slower than I would have been gaining for similar work in my younger days.
October 1st I weighed 224.5lbs. I had recently added in injectable 5-amino-1mq and doing 1mg 2x per day. As the month went on I'd go up to 2mg 2x per day, and tried a few larger doses because as with SS-31, I wasn't really feeling any difference with it. NAD+ precursors had never really done much for me either though. At this point I'm hoping the 5-amino-1mq will help keep me from hitting a complete stall. I'm still doing the tirz/reta split, I switched from a 12mg to 15mg vial of reta and my dosing goes up to 2.25mg per shot.
Early in October I get my last blood work as of now. All positive changes from early July to then. A1C 6.1 -> 5.4. LDL ~160 -> ~140. Trigs ~145 -> ~110. HDL up a few points. Liver enzymes 70-80 down to into normal range for the first time I've ever seen. My hematocrit had been at the highest point of normal in July so I had donated, still down a couple of points here. Had a couple of inflammation markers checked and it turns out I had low systemic inflammation. My fasted insulin was 14.x and per the formula you find online I was at 3.0 on the insulin resistance scale, the lowest point of the 'significant' category. Hoping to further improve this.
I also wore a portable ECG throughout October since I ocassionally have Wolff-Parkinson-White like episodes. Because of this, I stopped supplementation with anything that could affect my cardio system outside of the GLP-1s. I wrapped up SS-31 early in the month (still nothing noticeable). Stopped a lot of my OTC supplementation such as berberine and methylene blue. I also let my diet slide back to something more like the normal for me. A lot more carbs. A lot more cheat days (maybe cheat weeks). Ate a bunch of Halloween Candy. Decide to embark on this experiment sometime during the month and start planning it out/obtaining the compounds.
November 1st I weighed 222.7. Honestly I was happy to have lost any weight since I wasn't trying at all during October. Note: On my home scale, which is what I'll be doing the weekly comparisons on, I weighed 221.8, which is probably pretty accurate since i weigh there in my underwear. The formal weight number is from an InBody. I was also dropping 2% bodyfat per month up until October, where it said I went up 0.1%. I finished my tirzepatide supply right at the end of the month. Keep in mind, this will mean there will be some lingering tirzepatide in my serum along with the reta for most of November.
Here's the supplementation I will be using through November with these compounds. The supplementation I'm adding in that wasn't present in September marked as new:
Berberine 800mg AM (optionally PM as well if I've had a lot of sugar)
Nicotinamide Riboside 500mg AM on the days I take 5-amino-1mq (until supply runs out, ~10 days)
SLU-PP-332 ~10mg 2x per day sublingual
Urolithin A 500mg 2x per day with SLU (new)
CoQ10 200mg 2x per day with SLU
HMB (free acid) 3g per day
Zinc 30mg per day AM (new)
Boron 10mg per day AM (new)
Tongkat Ali 200mg per day AM (new)
Multivitamin gummy daily AM
Shilajit 300mg per day AM (newish, switched from paste in Aug to capsule)
Ginseng 50mg per day AM (new)
Tumeric 25mg per day AM (newish, switched from gummy to capsule)
1 scoop of colostrum
Taurine 1g AM
Vitamin E 90mg per day AM (new)
Lutein 20mg per day AM (new)
Zeaxanthin 2mg per day AM (new)
Astaxanthin 6mg per day AM (new)
MOTS-C 2.5mg 2x per week
Melanotan II ~320mcg 2x per week
5-amino-1mq 1mg 2x per day 5 on/2 off
kisspeptin-10 100mcg 2x per day (new) 5 on/2 off
Omega 3 fatty acids 1040mg PM
Every night a bedtime tea with:
Citrus Bergamot ~750mg
Creatine 5g
Magnesium citrate 500mg
Taurine 1g
Ashwagandha Root ~750mg
Glycine 1g
Here are my baseline numbers from October that I will be comparing against throughout November. Most of these are provided via an AmazFit Helio Strap worn on the bicep.
Average blood pressure: 124/81
Average resting heart rate: 67
Average HRV: 28
Average sleep score: 68
Average stress score: 37
Ending weight: 221.8
Here's a brief breakdown of my GLP-1 journey this year. Got back from family vacation on 6/20/25. Started compounded tirzepatide from Brello. Starting weight was 251lbs. I think I started at their recommended dosing which is somewhat close to the recommended name brand dosing. By August 1st I was 235.9lbs. Switched over to reta at 1mg 2x per week for 2 weeks, then 2mg 2x per week for the next two weeks. Workout routine of fairly heavy circuit lifting 3x12 across 10 exercises 3x per week locked in. I get 15k+ steps almost every day. I'm doing pretty good keeping added sugars out of my diet and getting 2/3 of my weight in protein. Also doing pretty good with hydration and electrolytes. I start taking MOTS-C and it's quite noticeable for me at the dose I land on, 2.5mg 2x per week. About a week later I added in methylene blue at 4mg per day, it is also a noticeable little bump in energy.
September 1st I weighed 228.2lbs. I still had some of the Brello tirzepatide so I switched to dosing tirzepatide 3.3mg Wednesday afternoons with reta 2.1mg Sunday mornings. Sometime around here I start taking SLU at ~1mg 2x per day. Within a week I'm taking ~2mg 2x per day. Not super noticeable, though my intra-set cooldown times are improved while working out. I finish four weeks on MOTS-C so decide to take time off and start up SS-31 at 1mg daily. Don't notice a thing from it. Try some higher doses, up to I think 5mg daily, still don't notice and effect from it. Strength increasing slowly in gym, slower than I would have been gaining for similar work in my younger days.
October 1st I weighed 224.5lbs. I had recently added in injectable 5-amino-1mq and doing 1mg 2x per day. As the month went on I'd go up to 2mg 2x per day, and tried a few larger doses because as with SS-31, I wasn't really feeling any difference with it. NAD+ precursors had never really done much for me either though. At this point I'm hoping the 5-amino-1mq will help keep me from hitting a complete stall. I'm still doing the tirz/reta split, I switched from a 12mg to 15mg vial of reta and my dosing goes up to 2.25mg per shot.
Early in October I get my last blood work as of now. All positive changes from early July to then. A1C 6.1 -> 5.4. LDL ~160 -> ~140. Trigs ~145 -> ~110. HDL up a few points. Liver enzymes 70-80 down to into normal range for the first time I've ever seen. My hematocrit had been at the highest point of normal in July so I had donated, still down a couple of points here. Had a couple of inflammation markers checked and it turns out I had low systemic inflammation. My fasted insulin was 14.x and per the formula you find online I was at 3.0 on the insulin resistance scale, the lowest point of the 'significant' category. Hoping to further improve this.
I also wore a portable ECG throughout October since I ocassionally have Wolff-Parkinson-White like episodes. Because of this, I stopped supplementation with anything that could affect my cardio system outside of the GLP-1s. I wrapped up SS-31 early in the month (still nothing noticeable). Stopped a lot of my OTC supplementation such as berberine and methylene blue. I also let my diet slide back to something more like the normal for me. A lot more carbs. A lot more cheat days (maybe cheat weeks). Ate a bunch of Halloween Candy. Decide to embark on this experiment sometime during the month and start planning it out/obtaining the compounds.
November 1st I weighed 222.7. Honestly I was happy to have lost any weight since I wasn't trying at all during October. Note: On my home scale, which is what I'll be doing the weekly comparisons on, I weighed 221.8, which is probably pretty accurate since i weigh there in my underwear. The formal weight number is from an InBody. I was also dropping 2% bodyfat per month up until October, where it said I went up 0.1%. I finished my tirzepatide supply right at the end of the month. Keep in mind, this will mean there will be some lingering tirzepatide in my serum along with the reta for most of November.
Here's the supplementation I will be using through November with these compounds. The supplementation I'm adding in that wasn't present in September marked as new:
Berberine 800mg AM (optionally PM as well if I've had a lot of sugar)
Nicotinamide Riboside 500mg AM on the days I take 5-amino-1mq (until supply runs out, ~10 days)
SLU-PP-332 ~10mg 2x per day sublingual
Urolithin A 500mg 2x per day with SLU (new)
CoQ10 200mg 2x per day with SLU
HMB (free acid) 3g per day
Zinc 30mg per day AM (new)
Boron 10mg per day AM (new)
Tongkat Ali 200mg per day AM (new)
Multivitamin gummy daily AM
Shilajit 300mg per day AM (newish, switched from paste in Aug to capsule)
Ginseng 50mg per day AM (new)
Tumeric 25mg per day AM (newish, switched from gummy to capsule)
1 scoop of colostrum
Taurine 1g AM
Vitamin E 90mg per day AM (new)
Lutein 20mg per day AM (new)
Zeaxanthin 2mg per day AM (new)
Astaxanthin 6mg per day AM (new)
MOTS-C 2.5mg 2x per week
Melanotan II ~320mcg 2x per week
5-amino-1mq 1mg 2x per day 5 on/2 off
kisspeptin-10 100mcg 2x per day (new) 5 on/2 off
Omega 3 fatty acids 1040mg PM
Every night a bedtime tea with:
Citrus Bergamot ~750mg
Creatine 5g
Magnesium citrate 500mg
Taurine 1g
Ashwagandha Root ~750mg
Glycine 1g
Here are my baseline numbers from October that I will be comparing against throughout November. Most of these are provided via an AmazFit Helio Strap worn on the bicep.
Average blood pressure: 124/81
Average resting heart rate: 67
Average HRV: 28
Average sleep score: 68
Average stress score: 37
Ending weight: 221.8
