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Peptides: where to begin?

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Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#101

Post by rootusrootus »

olalonde wrote: post #57
tbojanin wrote: post #21

I tried retatrutide for 10 weeks, here are my results: Before: 5'7, ~182lb Bench 1rm: 315 Squat: 5x10 225 Deadlift: 5x5 315 After: same height lol, 154lb Bench 1rm: 285 Squat: 5x10 205 Deadlift: 5x5 275 Suffered some anhedonia towards the end but that went away ~1wk after stopping. Overall pretty good, not any side effects. Definitely fixed my food craving problem. I didn't have a high intake of protein during the 10…

You lost muscle because you lost around 1.54% of body weight per week, which is way too aggressive. The maximum recommended amount for losing weight while retaining muscle is around 1%. You will also most likely experience a weight rebound.

Hasn't this mostly been debunked? You lose muscle mass because you lost mass overall, and whether you lost it too quickly or not is not the major factor. AFAIK maintaining muscle mass while losing fat is borderline impossible for anyone who isn't extremely fat and/or very disproportionate composition to begin with.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#102

Post by cjbgkagh »

rootusrootus wrote: post #84
cjbgkagh wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought Semaglutide at 50c/mg and had it tested, it's the real deal. What's the normal price, $100/mg? My gf is in medicine so she had a friend test it through their work.

Won't be anywhere near that. I don't have prices handy, but Lilly sells tirzepatide (a bit better than sema, and usually a bit more expensive) at 500/mo (maybe a bit less now on the trump rx site, I don't recall). Depending on dose, that'll be about 10 bucks a mg give or take. At 50c/mg for sema you were paying a bit of a premium. These days even tirz is only about 30-35c/mg.

I used to buy from Peptide Sciences so I was certainly paying a premium for reputation at $20/mg. I think Semaglutide is now at a bit of a premium due to it falling out of favour and most people switching to Triz and Reta. I only take a low dose and am happy to stick with what's working.

There must be an irony that it was Trumps crackdown on peptides, I presume to prop up his prescription company, that forced me to switch to Chinese supply. By doing it all at once it created a critical mass for that market.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#103

Post by cjbgkagh »

rootusrootus wrote: post #96
cjbgkagh wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With most of these you can really tell if they work or not and there is a pretty predicable dose dependent reaction profile. With slow meds like semaglutide you'd maybe not notice it in the first week but you will by week 3. I had mine tested but if that wasn't available I probably would have considered the anecdotal evidence to be sufficient. It appears that most of the scamming is just people taking the money and n…

The most dangerous failures I've seen have been sending the wrong peptide. 15 mg of tirzepatide and 15 mg of semaglutide is a very different experience. After nearly getting hosed in a group buy (I did get refunded, but that is far from a guarantee) because of a product mismatch, I decided to just pay for nexaph. Love him or hate him, his popularity relies on his reputation and he has been more careful than most supp…

That makes sense, I don't like that the bottles are unlabelled so the first thing I have to do is label them. The box is labelled and this seems to be standard practice. Semaglutide is falling out of favour so I guess they're substituting. I have 4 years supply now so I guess I'll check back then and see where the market is at.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#104

Post by rootusrootus »

GenerWork wrote: post #49
diath wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These peptides are already relatively cheap, here's one US domestic source: https://imgur.com/a/OXOkSdR

$120 for 10mg of reta is highway robbery.

Yeah I'm always amazed at what they can get people to pay for individual vials. I buy kits of 24mg reta for ~280. And that's not the cheapest, for certain.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#105

Post by margalabargala »

Bender wrote: post #3

It seems we are treating Peptides like drugs here. It's my opinion that amino acids regardless of how they are chained do not belong under and stricter regulation than food given I eat peptides every day from my food. Then again I do not believe in the concept of prescription drugs. Everything with a NDC code should be at the grocery store and I should be able to stock up on it without permission especially given how…

> It's my opinion that amino acids regardless of how they are chained do not belong under and stricter regulation than food given I eat peptides every day from my food.

I mean, why regulate anything? Everything is just different arrangements of hydrogen and time. It's so weird that certain arrangements of hydrogen and time try to claim to have things like "morals", and try to force other arrangements of hydrogen and time to not do arbitrary contrived concepts like "murder".

All is one. Just hydrogen and time. Therefore everything should be legal.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#106

Post by rootusrootus »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #102
rootusrootus wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Won't be anywhere near that. I don't have prices handy, but Lilly sells tirzepatide (a bit better than sema, and usually a bit more expensive) at 500/mo (maybe a bit less now on the trump rx site, I don't recall). Depending on dose, that'll be about 10 bucks a mg give or take. At 50c/mg for sema you were paying a bit of a premium. These days even tirz is only about 30-35c/mg.

I used to buy from Peptide Sciences so I was certainly paying a premium for reputation at $20/mg. I think Semaglutide is now at a bit of a premium due to it falling out of favour and most people switching to Triz and Reta. I only take a low dose and am happy to stick with what's working. There must be an irony that it was Trumps crackdown on peptides, I presume to prop up his prescription company, that forced me to s…

IIRC the biggest impetus for cracking down was Lilly throwing a fit about the gray market supplying reta well before it even becomes available via the normal channels (who knows when that will be). But as you say, it just pushes people to buy direct from Chinese vendors (and it is basically impossible to stop direct imports like that). Would be safer if more reputable US-based sellers could supply it semi-openly as before. Nexaph is still selling it, but I figure the clock is ticking on that.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#107

Post by rootusrootus »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #103
rootusrootus wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most dangerous failures I've seen have been sending the wrong peptide. 15 mg of tirzepatide and 15 mg of semaglutide is a very different experience. After nearly getting hosed in a group buy (I did get refunded, but that is far from a guarantee) because of a product mismatch, I decided to just pay for nexaph. Love him or hate him, his popularity relies on his reputation and he has been more careful than most supp…

That makes sense, I don't like that the bottles are unlabelled so the first thing I have to do is label them. The box is labelled and this seems to be standard practice. Semaglutide is falling out of favour so I guess they're substituting. I have 4 years supply now so I guess I'll check back then and see where the market is at.

> I have 4 years supply now

I know a bunch of people with multi-year stockpiles. I've got ~5 years of reta and ~6 years of tirz. This is too much, of course, but I determined a while back that under no circumstances do I ever intend to find myself unable to source it. My life is immeasurably better after losing 110 pounds.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#108

Post by [deleted] »

Bender wrote: post #6
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> given I eat peptides every day from my food This is briefly addressed in the article, but basically it's one thing to eat a peptide and quite another thing to inject it. Your digestive system is extremely adroit at taking peptides and proteins and breaking them down into individual amino acids, which are then absorbed via "transporters" in the gut. (e.g. SLC6A14 for glutamate and cysteine.) If you eat insulin, abso…

I agree with some of this. There are most certainly orally active peptides such as BPC-157 and its replacement PDA penta deca arginate that can repair the gut and still circulate throughout the body especially in those with leaky gut. People with leaky gut should be able to buy a clean source of BPC-157 or PDA without a prescription and without visiting dark alleys. It is very safe and tolerable. GLP's are all the ra…

[deleted]

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#109

Post by tptacek »

rootusrootus wrote: post #99
tptacek wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and I actually see the logic of that (unlike virtually everyone else on HN, and let's not rekindle that debate; the search bar avails). The point is you don't need a prescription to get it. People might be better off if GLP1s were also BTC. Hard to say! Certainly you can abuse a GLP1 and get yourself very sick, or not abuse it and still end up with pancreatitis. But smoking and alcohol presumably cause way mor…

> smoking and alcohol presumably cause way more cases of pancreatitis Indeed. In fact, I think just recently there were updated studies for at least one of the popular GLP1s that disclaimed entirely a link to pancreatitis.

To be clear I don't think it's actually reasonable to suggest GLP1s should be OTC in 2026. Were that to happen it would be part of a regime change in drug regulation that I'd categorically oppose. The timeline on GLP1s (unlike Zofran) doesn't support it. There are arguments for why your doctors would want to know that you're taking it, and on what schedule. But it should be extremely easy to get.

Re: Peptides: where to begin?

#110

Post by rootusrootus »

tptacek wrote: post #109
rootusrootus wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> smoking and alcohol presumably cause way more cases of pancreatitis Indeed. In fact, I think just recently there were updated studies for at least one of the popular GLP1s that disclaimed entirely a link to pancreatitis.

To be clear I don't think it's actually reasonable to suggest GLP1s should be OTC in 2026. Were that to happen it would be part of a regime change in drug regulation that I'd categorically oppose. The timeline on GLP1s (unlike Zofran) doesn't support it. There are arguments for why your doctors would want to know that you're taking it, and on what schedule. But it should be extremely easy to get.

Agree, it does feel like a class of medication that deserves more control than OTC would provide. I do think it should be largely voluntary, however, with doctors expected to provide it unless there is a specific contraindication that would make it harmful.
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