New here, considering adding Tesamorelin to my Retatrutide protocol

5ft7 South Asian guy, heart disease and diabetes run in my family.

As a kid I was chubby. After college I started lifting and watching what I ate, and by 2017 I'd gotten down to 65kg at 22 years old. From that point on I tracked calories and trained consistently, yet visible abs never showed up — the rest of me was lean (I figure it's the South Asian genetics, fat sticks to the torso, and man boobs have been an ongoing issue). Then life got chaotic: marriage, fatherhood, job stress. By 2026, at 31, I'd hit 98kg.

After being diagnosed with high cholesterol, I'm working to rebuild my fitness and nutrition. Diet, exercise and prescribed statins got the cholesterol under control. Weight loss was minimal though, and I still carried a lot of fat.

I started Tirz and lost 10kg in 2 months (2.5mg pinned weekly; I chose not to raise the dose in month 2 because 2.5mg gave me no side effects and hunger was still under control). Tirz pushed me to tighten up nutrition and training even more — I didn't want to waste what I was paying, and it's absurdly expensive here in the UK.

Tirz began to plateau. I was about to bump the dose when I came across Reta (purchased face-to-face via the grey market). Midway through I learned about counterfeit Synedica pens in circulation and got pretty spooked, but mine checked out fine — only effect was mild weakness, which I also attribute to the calorie deficit. I've been pinning 2.5mg of Reta weekly and dropped another 3kg over the 2 weeks on it.

Now I'm weighing whether to stack Tesa. Is it actually worth the hassle — daily injections, hunting down a legit pen source, or dealing with powder vials and converting them to pens myself, which I'm not keen on? Syringes freak me out because I dislike long needles; the small pen needles bother me less. On top of that, vacation is next month, so I don't know how I'd keep Tesa cold while traveling, or whether it's even allowed on a flight.

This time I'd like to actually chase abs. Getting older makes fat loss harder and fat gain easier. I've built a decent amount of lean muscle from lifting heavy since 2016, so adding muscle isn't the goal. What do you all suggest? Would Tesa get me shredded, or is Reta on its own sufficient?

Hey man, right now I’d stick with what you’re doing. Strength training and a proper diet are things you already know well and have experience with, and that’s the lifelong base. The biggest thing you can add is retatrutide or tirzepatide. Tesamorelin has its uses, but in your situation it won’t change the game. As long as you keep dropping weight consistently and keep going to the gym, your abs will show regardless.

If you were 93kg at this point with almost no muscle, no gym background, and close to developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease, the math would be different.

For now I’d say keep doing what you’re doing and keep picking things up little by little when you have time. If you stall later on, or visceral fat or elevated cholesterol sticks around even after your lifestyle changes, then you could revisit it.

But when it comes to medication, retatrutide or tirzepatide is clearly better than tesamorelin for what you’re trying to achieve. Tesamorelin would be the fine tuning, while the other is what does the heavy lifting.

avidreaders said:

Hey man, right now I’d stick with what you’re doing. Strength training and a proper diet are things you already know well and have experience with, and that’s the lifelong base. The biggest thing you can add is retatrutide or tirzepatide. Tesamorelin has its uses, but in your situation it won’t change the game. As long as you keep dropping weight consistently and keep going to the gym, your abs will show regardless.

If you were 93kg at this point with almost no muscle, no gym background, and close to developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease, the math would be different.

For now I’d say keep doing what you’re doing and keep picking things up little by little when you have time. If you stall later on, or visceral fat or elevated cholesterol sticks around even after your lifestyle changes, then you could revisit it.

But when it comes to medication, retatrutide or tirzepatide is clearly better than tesamorelin for what you’re trying to achieve. Tesamorelin would be the fine tuning, while the other is what does the heavy lifting.

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I appreciate the detailed reply—it was just the guidance I was looking for. I'll keep Tesamorelin in mind for adjustments later on.

I'm currently in week 6 out of a 12 week run, and for me there's been 0 effect or difference. I stick to the plan and inject on 5 out of 7 days. Based on what you've described, you're doing things right—just stay consistent! I've got an Islander frame too, so I get the struggle with keeping weight off.

Best of luck!

Hey. Honestly, I'm with the other guy on this.

Pinning every day isn't that rough. Still, you haven't spent enough time on the Reta to hit a plateau. Adding anything else right now doesn't make sense. Just stay the course, you know.

Have you thought about 5-Amino-1MQ? It isn't a peptide, but because it targets the NNMT enzyme, it works very well for fat loss. A lot of anecdotal accounts say it's especially helpful when body fat is already on the lower side.