Tesa experience?

[DragonOfTheSea]

Update for posterity:

Week 5 day 2

Tesa .5mg / Ipa .25mg daily, first thing AM, fast 2 hours post pin - Not planning to increase this cycle.

Reta 2mg/wk (1mg every 3.5days) - Maintenance. Achieved goal weight.

Energy levels consistent and high. Very seldom experience mid-day slumps. I work late nights a couple nights a week and can now easily sail through them instead of weeks ago I would drag ass pretty hard the last couple/few hours. When I get home I'm able to easily go to sleep.

Sleep is generally solid and pretty consistent. Sleep quality is good with minimal to no waking any longer, when I used to wake an average of 3 times a night before starting cycle.

At home weight lifting for recomp is going well- only a few weeks in, every other day, light duty and seeing muscle definition and gains already. Everything responding very well.

Still no sides, no water weight, no swelling.

 

[Gr33dyOctopus]

Im, about to finish my 3rd week of Tesa/Ipa mix, and feeling alright about it.
The stinging from the shots has been less and less as I go along.

Pinning in the mornong and along with some of the others here i also have some issues with not drinking coffee in the mornings... an hour or two after I pin usually go for a strong coffee with two small thimbles of vanilla or hazelnut creamer. Its hard not to do when I've been doing it for so long.

Plan to keep pinning Tesa till my Lobsta hgh group buy gets here, having a huge round of bloodwork done and then will probably switch to the hgh unless someone talks me out of it. I dont mind the Tesa, but from all I've seen here the real hgh would be more effective with likely better results.

 

[Commander]

I have been doing 1.5mg at night at around 11:30 or 12. Even if I fall asleep I get back up and take it. I think you need to stsy fasted longer than an hour after you take it for the full benefits. I simply can’t do that in the morning, I need my coffee…

 

[RetaRX]

@RetaRX thanks for the reply. Hats off to you too. Im assuming that you are getting desired results from the Reta at that dosage. I don't respond that well and if things don't change in a week or two I'm going to increase my Reta (currently at 8 mg). Did you send your Tesa out for testing or just went with gut feeling when you purchased?

6 weeks on Reta for 12kg loss. I knew from the second I pinned that I was extremely sensitive to the peptide. I had an instant reaction in the form of satiety and appetite loss. A friend of mine was in a similar experience as yours on Reta and he tried a 2 week washing period and went back to lower dose and more frequent pinning. He went from 8mg a week to 1.5mg every 3 days and that had a more profound impact on his appetite suppression.

I haven’t tested the tesa but I kept an eye on the vendors socials for feedback from other users. So far so good. The cost of individual testing is too high in Aus.

Week 3/day 5 could have been a disaster. I almost pinned 750mcg of ipa instead of 100mcg because I was tired and somewhat complacent. I was about the draw the tesa units out of the ipa vial. Next time 10min between pins.

Tesa went in right glute, used the bench to bunch up the bum fold. Worked like a charm. Mild sting, nothing major.

IPA went into the upper left belly, got mild flushing but I injected slightly faster than usual. The plunger didn’t want to cooperate so when I gave it a squeeze the 4 units just disappeared.

Sleep was good but interrupted by external factors. Found it difficult to fall back asleep. The sleep that I did get which totalled about 6 hours in two parts, was deep and good quality.

 

[ThatNextGril]

Tesa, patience, and coffee: So, I'm only three weeks into 2mg tesa/day (with Reta 8mg/wk) and my jump-for-joy feeling hasn't lifted-off. I reminded myself today (after re-reading material) that NOTHING clearly obvious happens until week 8 and the most results don't happen until week 26. Patience.

As with many doing the Reta/Tesa combo, I'm doing my Tesa in the morning. Which brings up a lifestyle question. Its not about avoiding eating for a few hours. Its about coffee.

For years I've been a big morning cup-of-jo guy. Black without anything in it. I know that cortisol increases and the increase of fatty acids into the blood stream from black coffee can blunt the optimum effect of Tesa. I also know that I should wake up, take my shot, wait for an hour then drink my coffee -- but that appears to be more difficult than I originally thought lol.

My question is "how much of an impact" does black coffee have if I drink a cup and pin around the same time?

I literally have this same question but about sermorelin. I just can't remember to take it at night, and also I sometimes eat late so trying for an empty stomach when on a GLP-1 pep and eating late just isn't optimal for me. I would prefer to pin in the morning, truly more fasted, and I am 100% with you on the "must have my morning black coffee first thing" ride. I did some looking into it and supposedly it might still be effective if you pin then wait only 30 mins, but man, when I tried that 2 days in a row it was haaaarrrd. I wish there was a third option!

 

[ChicagoFit]

@ThatNextGril coffee is life lol. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, I'll pin myself. My current frustration is looking at the scale over-and-over again in disbelief that my weight doesn't budge (8mg Reta/wk & 2mg tesa/day). Its only been three weeks, but so damn frustrating.

 

[muhvugga]

My question is "how much of an impact" does black coffee have if I drink a cup and pin around the same time?

Everything I’ve read about Tesa seems to indicate that it’s insulin released from eating that blunts the effectiveness of the pulses following the pinning of Tesa.

It’s generally accepted that drinking black coffee or tea doesn’t tend to break a fast. If anyone has any material to read to understand how it would interfere I’m definitely interested as well… but until that surfaces I’d say “enjoy your coffee, dude”

 

[muhvugga]

I think the half life of Tesa is also something like 30 mins, so with a 2mg dose if you really want to be a purist about being in a fasted state you’re looking at a 3-4hr window of bleak no coffee time (maybe 8-12 hrs for Ipa)… fuuuuck that.

 

[GleepGlop]

Does anyone have experience stacking reta + tesa? I've heard mixed results due to the opposing glucose effects. Some people claim the stack works, while others say the tesa blunts the effects of the reta.

Asking because I have high visceral fat levels. In fact, I was recently diagnosed with fatty liver. All the more reason I'd love to target the visceral fat quickly and effectively. I know reta does well with visceral fat, but curious if tesa could amplify.

 

[Gr33dyOctopus]

As far as i can tell, they work synergisticly though in reality there is no hard science or known testing that proves that one way or the other, as far as i know anyway.

 

[muhvugga]

Does anyone have experience stacking reta + tesa? I've heard mixed results due to the opposing glucose effects. Some people claim the stack works, while others say the tesa blunts the effects of the reta.

Others here likely have more experience than me but I’ll come out of hiding and admit I’m doing both (on my 6th week of 6mg Reta + now going into my 2nd week of 1mg Tesa) and have had no issues.

I’ll be getting some more baseline bloodwork done soon (mostly for check test, tsh, and igf1 trend), but supposedly the thing to monitor would be your fasting glucose and HbA1c levels across multiple readings as a trend as indicators that the two combined may be an issue.

Anecdotally, I started doing both myself out of a desire to more quickly manage my visceral fat and to help avoid loss of muscle from reta alone.

I’ve been measuring and monitoring my waistline, knowing that Tesa water retention will stall and hide reta weight loss occasionally and I’ve already reduced by an inch in the week after starting Tesa (caveat here is it could have also been reta momentum as I’ve lost close to 2-3” of waistline overall including this most recent loss).

Asking because I have high visceral fat levels. In fact, I was recently diagnosed with fatty liver. All the more reason I'd love to target the visceral fat quickly and effectively. I know reta does well with visceral fat, but curious if tesa could amplify.

In that case assuming you don’t have other complications like diabetes, etc. I would think that any cons for combining both are outweighed by the benefits; but if you have reservations you can’t go wrong with just sticking with Reta. Reta affects both sub-q and visceral fat, while Tesa primarily affects visceral fat.

 

[Cannonball72]

Does anyone have experience stacking reta + tesa? I've heard mixed results due to the opposing glucose effects. Some people claim the stack works, while others say the tesa blunts the effects of the reta.

Asking because I have high visceral fat levels. In fact, I was recently diagnosed with fatty liver. All the more reason I'd love to target the visceral fat quickly and effectively. I know reta does well with visceral fat, but curious if tesa could amplify.

Yes, been stacking Reta and Tesa since end of January.

53/54 yr old male.

Very positive experience. Down ~30lbs, 219 to 186/192 (fluctuating depending on exercise load).

Despite weight loss, VO2 max is up from 46 to 52. Significant performance improvement in endurance MTB.

Weights have remained steady throughout.
BP 265-275 working weight (5x5)
DL 395-415 (3x5)
Don’t squat due to volume of MTB.

Waist 36ish to 32-33 inches

Visible/deep 4 pack, still have a hoagie sized pocket of fat around the belly button, but it is slowly receding. Love handles significantly shrunken.

Using a bio-impedance scale, visceral fat is down 40%. Have not used a Dexa.

Reta 4mg/wk, split dose 2mg 2x/wk.
Tesa/ipa blend 5/2 schedule. 2mg Tesa/.3mg Ipa.

Also on ~70mg test/week (.18ml - .2ml every other day), enclomiphene, hcg. Have hypogonadism and family history of hypogonadism. I only want a high natural level.

Supps - creatine, fish oils, coq10, magnesium glycinate and some other sports supplements.

Regularly drink LMNT to ensure I get my electrolytes, helps prevent leg cramps in the middle of the night given my calorie deficit and workload.

Only issues I experience are sleep quality if I inject Reta at night.

 

[GleepGlop]

Yes, been stacking Reta and Tesa since end of January.

53/54 yr old male.

Very positive experience. Down ~30lbs, 219 to 186/192 (fluctuating depending on exercise load).

Despite weight loss, VO2 max is up from 46 to 52. Significant performance improvement in endurance MTB.

Weights have remained steady throughout.
BP 265-275 working weight (5x5)
DL 395-415 (3x5)
Don’t squat due to volume of MTB.

Waist 36ish to 32-33 inches

Visible/deep 4 pack, still have a hoagie sized pocket of fat around the belly button, but it is slowly receding. Love handles significantly shrunken.

Using a bio-impedance scale, visceral fat is down 40%. Have not used a Dexa.

Reta 4mg/wk, split dose 2mg 2x/wk.
Tesa/ipa blend 5/2 schedule. 2mg Tesa/.3mg Ipa.

Also on ~70mg test/week (.18ml - .2ml every other day), enclomiphene, hcg. Have hypogonadism and family history of hypogonadism. I only want a high natural level.

Supps - creatine, fish oils, coq10, magnesium glycinate and some other sports supplements.

Regularly drink LMNT to ensure I get my electrolytes, helps prevent leg cramps in the middle of the night given my calorie deficit and workload.

Only issues I experience are sleep quality if I inject Reta at night.

Thanks for sharing all the details, the is great information. I've been hesitant to add tesa to my stack because I've read others say it stalled their weight loss. After reading your experience I think I'll get some.

 

[Cannonball72]

Thanks for sharing all the details, the is great information. I've been hesitant to add tesa to my stack because I've read others say it stalled their weight loss. After reading your experience I think I'll get some.

Start low on the Tesa and titrate up, there may be som initial water retention but it goes away.

IMO Reta does the heavy lifting on the weight loss, the Tesa is helping with post workout/exercise recovery, strength maintenance while in deficit.

I can’t explain how I can workout/exercise like I do in this kind of deficit without the Tesa and test-c.

The workload I do would probably crash my natural test if I didn’t already have an issue.

 

[ronin365]

I tried a cycle of Tesa and my weight loss stalled. I didn't really experience any significant effects compared to when I used CJC-1295/Ipa. I was lifting the heaviest I ever had in the gym while on CJC-1295/Ipa. I am on Ipa only for now, and my weight is finally trending down again--we shall see if that continues and if Tesa was really the cause. Once I get some more CJC-1295 to stack with Ipa, hopefully my gym performance will improve again. My guess is maybe Tesa was increasing insulin resistance even though I'm on Reta. I wish I had thought to check my morning levels while I was on Tesa.

 

[GleepGlop]

Start low on the Tesa and titrate up, there may be som initial water retention but it goes away.

IMO Reta does the heavy lifting on the weight loss, the Tesa is helping with post workout/exercise recovery, strength maintenance while in deficit.

I can’t explain how I can workout/exercise like I do in this kind of deficit without the Tesa and test-c.

The workload I do would probably crash my natural test if I didn’t already have an issue.

Good to know. How long does the water retention typically last on average? I'm sure it varies from person to person, but curious what your experience was.

Do you feel like the tesa helped you protect muscle mass while on reta? I think that's my main concern. I workout, eat healthy, and try to get in as much protein as possible. It's really hard to eat enough some days though. I have to set reminders on my phone just to eat.

 

[GleepGlop]

Others here likely have more experience than me but I’ll come out of hiding and admit I’m doing both (on my 6th week of 6mg Reta + now going into my 2nd week of 1mg Tesa) and have had no issues.

I’ll be getting some more baseline bloodwork done soon (mostly for check test, tsh, and igf1 trend), but supposedly the thing to monitor would be your fasting glucose and HbA1c levels across multiple readings as a trend as indicators that the two combined may be an issue.

Anecdotally, I started doing both myself out of a desire to more quickly manage my visceral fat and to help avoid loss of muscle from reta alone.

I’ve been measuring and monitoring my waistline, knowing that Tesa water retention will stall and hide reta weight loss occasionally and I’ve already reduced by an inch in the week after starting Tesa (caveat here is it could have also been reta momentum as I’ve lost close to 2-3” of waistline overall including this most recent loss).


In that case assuming you don’t have other complications like diabetes, etc. I would think that any cons for combining both are outweighed by the benefits; but if you have reservations you can’t go wrong with just sticking with Reta. Reta affects both sub-q and visceral fat, while Tesa primarily affects visceral fat.

What was your starting dose with tesa? 0.5? How was it when you started? Side effects?

 

[aepower2016]

@ThatNextGril coffee is life lol. Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, I'll pin myself. My current frustration is looking at the scale over-and-over again in disbelief that my weight doesn't budge (8mg Reta/wk & 2mg tesa/day). Its only been three weeks, but so damn frustrating.

I've been on tesa and Ipa for 34 days now and also been on reta for a while. I'm with you I got frustrated a few times during my weekly weigh ins but I definitely noticed and felt a change in waist reduction. I also keep track of my hypertrophy training and notice my numbers slowly increasing again. I started at 1mg tesa and 200mcg ipa both daily. 4 days ago I increased tesa to 1.2mg and Ipa to 250mcg. Biggest benefit has def been the amount of deep sleep I've been getting. Recently woke up in tears because of how realistic these dreams be for me now 😭.

For me personally, tesa/ipa has indirectly impacted muscle gain/preservation due to the better sleep quality. However, I would be cautious to say it has helped with direct muscle growth. Slowly titrating up to see if this could eventually be the case at least for me.

 

[Troposphere]

I tried a cycle of Tesa and my weight loss stalled. I didn't really experience any significant effects compared to when I used CJC-1295/Ipa. I was lifting the heaviest I ever had in the gym while on CJC-1295/Ipa. I am on Ipa only for now, and my weight is finally trending down again--we shall see if that continues and if Tesa was really the cause. Once I get some more CJC-1295 to stack with Ipa, hopefully my gym performance will improve again. My guess is maybe Tesa was increasing insulin resistance even though I'm on Reta. I wish I had thought to check my morning levels while I was on Tesa.

I had a similar experience on CJC/Ipa. I stalled after maintaining a 1.5-2lb/wk weight loss. I switched to HGH and continued to stall. I upped my reta dose from 3mg/wk to 4mg/wk and it seems I am going down again.

With that said, I am pretty sure my BF% continued to drop during that time. I also think that the GH secretagogues and HGH cause water retention which may mask actual weight loss.

Some folks also seem to think that reta is actually helping with preventing insulin resistance due to elevated IGF-1 levels

 

[lastresort]

I was on Tesamorelin and CJC1295-noDAC/Ipamorelin for 2 months on top of retatrutide.

I don't know if they helped me but I do think that when I breathe in and "suck" my belly inward, it looks more concave. lol

 

[Cannonball72]

Good to know. How long does the water retention typically last on average? I'm sure it varies from person to person, but curious what your experience was.

Do you feel like the tesa helped you protect muscle mass while on reta? I think that's my main concern. I workout, eat healthy, and try to get in as much protein as possible. It's really hard to eat enough some days though. I have to set reminders on my phone just to eat.

Can’t say it was Tesa directly, but it did not hurt. Water retention passed pretty quickly, if I remember correctly.

 

[Puller]

Correct that most data suggests cycling a certain number of days/week isn't necessary, so daily is ok, however that Tesa should be done on protocol cycles (such as a defined number of weeks on, then weeks off). This data is certainly much more varied, and ultimately should be determined by test data rather than "feelz" or guestimation. IGF-1 levels and scores should ultimately determine dosage amount and duration. Everyone starts at different levels and will respond differently.

As for refrigeration, yes it's common to be suggested that reconstituted Tesa shouldn't be refrigerated, this is due to a common "gelling" that many people experience of the reconstituted solution. So, storing in a cool, dark place is often recommended, but I imagine this also significantly contributes to the accelerated degradation of the compound, which is why it is often suggested to administer the reconstituted compound within roughly 2 weeks.

That all being said, my thoughts about the gelling problem are either or both: Poor quality peptide, and/or poor quality BAC water. From most anecdotal accounts, reconstituting quality Tesa with Hospira BAC results in perfectly refrigeration-friendly solution. I know that mine has been in the fridge for 2 weeks and is still perfectly fluid, and I plan to use this prepared batch for the 40 days the dosage will last me (20mg Tesa/10mg Ipa dosing .5/.25 daily = 40 doses).
But, to each their own there..

Peptide crafters posted results of a test they did with tesa, they tested baseline purity and content, then 30-60-90 days. 30 & 60 showed almost no decline in purity and content, 90 days showed a 1% decline in purity and .9 mg content loss. Room temp sample went down much quicker, losing about 1% monthly the first 2 months and 5% overall. But really I dont see anyone keeping a bottle for 90 days in any case, even 20mg would be gone in 40 days at .5mg daily.

 

[ChicagoFit]

Im, about to finish my 3rd week of Tesa/Ipa mix, and feeling alright about it.
The stinging from the shots has been less and less as I go along.

Pinning in the mornong and along with some of the others here i also have some issues with not drinking coffee in the mornings... an hour or two after I pin usually go for a strong coffee with two small thimbles of vanilla or hazelnut creamer. Its hard not to do when I've been doing it for so long.

Plan to keep pinning Tesa till my Lobsta hgh group buy gets here, having a huge round of bloodwork done and then will probably switch to the hgh unless someone talks me out of it. I dont mind the Tesa, but from all I've seen here the real hgh would be more effective with likely better results.

@Gr33dyOctopus i've stalked your posts and you live on the wild-side. clearly you know that the add-ons to the coffee are trouble. I am getting use to waking up in the middle of the night to pee and pin. Maybe that could work for you?

I don't think anyone is going to talk you out of HGH, but there is a difference between Tesamorelin with the body producing its own growth hormone (endogenous --from the inside) vs the body receiving actual growth hormone (exogenous --from the outside).

As a rule of thumb for all hormones, an exogenous hormone is "more powerful" but also "shuts down" the body's production of the same naturally occurring hormone because the exogenous hormone is present and the body doesn't need to work to get it. Frequently, once the exogenous hormone is discontinued, the natural ability of the body to start producing the same hormone naturally doesn't bounce back to baseline. With Tesamorelin, the mechanism of producing the natural hormone is never shut down, in fact, like a muscle it might become exercised.

 

[muhvugga]

What was your starting dose with tesa? 0.5? How was it when you started? Side effects?

I started at 1mg, pinning 7 days a week in the morning. I’m now switching pinning to the evening just to see how if it affects sleep (too early to tell).

Edit: Side effects… just slight sting after pinning. Got the absolute best sleep for first 1-2 days when starting, but haven’t seen it occur since then (hence now trying to pin at night to re-create that). Feeling less fatigued in the mornings, better EQ, and more recently better recovery from workout (all expected with slightly higher testosterone though). No other noticeable sides.

My plan is to stick with 1mg for at least a month, or at least until I do the responsible thing and get some baseline bloodwork done. I also don’t feel my use or need matches 1:1 with the trial conditions (they weren’t also on reta, among other details) and I want to observe how I do with workouts more. So far, so good - but there’s just not enough time for me to say it’s all due to Tesa vs me just being consistent and being able to gradually increase my weight during sets.

I do also have Ipa on standby in the freezer but I don’t want to add too much at once - again also waiting until I get off my ass to get baseline done.

 

[Gr33dyOctopus]

@Gr33dyOctopus i've stalked your posts and you live on the wild-side. clearly you know that the add-ons to the coffee are trouble. I am getting use to waking up in the middle of the night to pee and pin. Maybe that could work for you?

I don't think anyone is going to talk you out of HGH, but there is a difference between Tesamorelin with the body producing its own growth hormone (endogenous --from the inside) vs the body receiving actual growth hormone (exogenous --from the outside).

As a rule of thumb for all hormones, an exogenous hormone is "more powerful" but also "shuts down" the body's production of the same naturally occurring hormone because the exogenous hormone is present and the body doesn't need to work to get it. Frequently, once the exogenous hormone is discontinued, the natural ability of the body to start producing the same hormone naturally doesn't bounce back to baseline. With Tesamorelin, the mechanism of producing the natural hormone is never shut down, in fact, like a muscle it might become exercised.

Yes that could absolutely work for me! I can stick myself anytime midnight or 1am isnt a bad idea! Ty!

And oh my Jesus, picking vegetables that I buy on sale at Safeway.. i didn't know that after using hgh my levels possibly won't go back to baseline??? No matter what I learn it never seems to be enough, I had thought that was a given 🤪

Im just not used to hormones like hgh and test, rapidly realizing they are whole different animals ", in fact, like a muscle it might become exercised." Didn't know that either!! Following you now!!!!

Didnt know that either! Then quite possibly ill just stick with Tesa, price isnt really an issue but long term health certainly is. Again, ty so much for that food for thought and valuable information, thats why i stay on this board, that and to annoy tf out of Zippity and make him wonder why he ever let me come back!!! 😅🤣😂🤣😅

Heres one of my favorite memes as a token of appreciation! 🤗🤗🤗🤗