Beginner: reta solo or stacked with tesa?

gimmeshelter said:

I had planned to follow that same route, and a handful of people told me to let reta do its " thang " on its own first. Solid guidance — I'm down 42 and sitting at my goal weight. Whenever you can manage it, introduce one pep at a time so u can tell what is actually doing the work. No two people are the same. Stubborn belly fat hasn't really been an issue for me, though I do carry a bit around the love handle area — and I'm also 54, so I try to be realistic about " fat " around the waist area. ha
That's great to hear!

Yeah, after going through everyone's replies, I figure I'll start out with just reta and let it do its thang.

I'm 28, so my goal is to shed the weight before second puberty kicks in and the fat starts putting up a fight to stick around lol
 
Guccipoppi said:

That's great to hear!

Yeah, after going through everyone's replies, I figure I'll start out with just reta and let it do its thang.

I'm 28, so my goal is to shed the weight before second puberty kicks in and the fat starts putting up a fight to stick around lol
yeah, that's fine. In my honest opinion, reta should be paired by everyone with food tracking, steady cardio (those are free calories) and resistance training. Put all of those together and the lbs just drop off. Without tracking, you'll never have a clue why you dropped lbs or why you didn't. That part isn't up for debate.
 
Same here. Go slow when titrating reta. Personally, after a month I introduced some tirz and kept both at a low dose. Give it at least 3 months before you introduce anything else.
 
Guccipoppi said:


Gm folks!

I just wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts on what I’m planning for my peptide journey.

As a complete first-timer, I’m thinking of starting with RT5 on its own, just so I can get a feel for it, see how my body reacts and whether it actually helps with my weight loss.

Buuuut I was also thinking about stacking it with TSM5 for the visceral fat loss I’m just wondering whether that might be doing a bit too much straight out of the gate. Should I take it slow and stick with RT5 by itself first, or would an RT5 and TSM5 stack be okay for a beginner?

I’m still doing my research and figuring everything out, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience with either of them, especially if you started with one before eventually adding the other!

Click to expand...
My take is that beginning with just one compound makes sense. You'll be able to tell what it's doing and whether your body tolerates it well. Then, if you decide to bring in something else down the road and it doesn't agree with you, figuring out which one is the problem becomes much simpler.
 
Guccipoppi said:

I'm begging you all to bear with me, because the question I'm about to ask is going to make me sound like a complete beginner.

When someone gets a 5mg Reta vial, is the 0.5mg-1mg figure the amount you work out once it's been reconstituted?
Nope. Picture this: you're after 0,5 mg of the peptide powder. Your vial holds 5mg of powder, and suppose you add 2ml of bacteriostatic water to it. In that case, drawing 0,2ml of the liquid gives you the 0,5 mg you want.
 
Slaine said:

Nope. Picture this: you're after 0,5 mg of the peptide powder. Your vial holds 5mg of powder, and suppose you add 2ml of bacteriostatic water to it. In that case, drawing 0,2ml of the liquid gives you the 0,5 mg you want.

On top of that, here's the nicest-looking calculator around:








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One more thing: when math isn't your strong suit, just ask an AI a simple question and it will hand you the answer you're after.
 
Slaine said:

One more thing: when math isn't your strong suit, just ask an AI a simple question and it will hand you the answer you're after.
And there are times I'll use all 3 or 4 of them. The peptide calculator, the rough estimate I work out mentally, a standard calculator, and checking with AI.

That said, my own usual choice is almost always 3 mL of BAC.
 
aepower2016 said:

A lot of people here use Tesa, or have used it, to trim the waist. When you're just starting out, though, the fat you're carrying isn't "stubborn" — it's simply spread all over. I hope that doesn't come across as harsh, but honestly, beginning with reta by itself will likely deliver the same outcome as adding tesa this early in the process. If your body fat % is on the higher side, you'll almost certainly see meaningful waist reduction from reta on its own.

No offense taken whatsoever!

You're correct that it isn't only belly fat — it's fat stored all over, especially on my thighs and butt, and lately I've spotted it on my arms too.

Still, the plan is to kick things off with reta by itself and then judge how it treats me!
 
Calm Logic said:

And there are times I'll use all 3 or 4 of them. The peptide calculator, the rough estimate I work out mentally, a standard calculator, and checking with AI.

That said, my own usual choice is almost always 3 mL of BAC.

So would 10 ml of bac water be too much for a reta 5 mg or a 10mg? Is 3ml sufficient?
 
My own run with Reta plus Tesa gave me really good outcomes. The fat loss came mostly from the Reta, while the Tesa let me hold onto muscle during a calorie deficit, which meant the weight I dropped was fat. If you're training with weights, the bump in igf-1 that Tesa produces is a big plus. For roughly 4 months I ran around 1-2mg of Reta each week alongside 1-2mg of Tesa every day. My body fat moved from roughly 20% down to 14%, and I dropped a few inches around my waist. Both were started at basically the same point, and this was the first peptide protocol I had ever run. The hunger increase and the insulin sensitivity that Tesa can bring are both eased considerably by the Reta.

Before anything else, get a baseline igf-1 blood test (decent labs don't cost much), then set your Tesa dose from that number. Retest igf-1 after 4 weeks and tweak the dose to match. If you aren't getting side effects, a z score near 2.0 is a reasonable target.
 
Guccipoppi said:

So would 10 ml of bac water be too much for a reta 5 mg or a 10mg? Is 3ml sufficient?
Look up a peptide calculator on the web. Enter the vial size (5-10mg), how much water you added (1-3ml), and your intended dose. Depending on those variables, it will show you how many units to draw into the syringe.
 
I run both together. Not dead yet. Since July I've dropped 25lbs. On top of that, my diet is low carb and high protein, and I ride more than 100 miles each month.
 
Guccipoppi said:

So would 10 ml of bac water be too much for a reta 5 mg or a 10mg? Is 3ml sufficient?
When you mention reconning a 5/10mg reta vial... if that's what you mean, then yeah, 10ml is way too much....most people wouldn't even go as high as 3ml....a typical recon would likely be 1/2ml of BAC water...
 
Guccipoppi said:

That's great to hear!

Yeah, after going through everyone's replies, I figure I'll start out with just reta and let it do its thang.

I'm 28, so my goal is to shed the weight before second puberty kicks in and the fat starts putting up a fight to stick around lol
Honestly, at 28 I wouldn't bother messing around with any of the GH peptides. A bit of Reta, plenty of sleep, staying hydrated, and a big pile of protein, and you'll be right where you want to be before you know it! You've still got youth and energy on your side, so the sky is the limit!
 
Guccipoppi said:

So would 10 ml of bac water be too much for a reta 5 mg or a 10mg? Is 3ml sufficient?
When I first got started, this is the peptide calculator I relied on. After the math clicks, you can handle it mentally. It's straightforward and simple to operate.




With a 5mg vial, 1ML of water is what I'd put in, and from there each 20 units on a syringe = 1mg. 0.5mg is 10 units. 1.5mg would be 30 units, and so on.

Also, have you picked up your Reta yet, or not? For the first few weeks, 5mg works well, but my guess is that after a month or so you'll titrate up to 1.5-2mg a week. If buying hasn't happened yet, I'd personally go with 10mg vials. Skip the 20-30+mg big vials for now, but when you work out cost per mg, 10's make more financial sense. Should you already have 5's, no problem. At the the end of the day, it's all Reta.
 
Guccipoppi said:


Gm folks!

I just wanted to hear everyone’s thoughts on what I’m planning for my peptide journey.

As a complete first-timer, I’m thinking of starting with RT5 on its own, just so I can get a feel for it, see how my body reacts and whether it actually helps with my weight loss.

Buuuut I was also thinking about stacking it with TSM5 for the visceral fat loss I’m just wondering whether that might be doing a bit too much straight out of the gate. Should I take it slow and stick with RT5 by itself first, or would an RT5 and TSM5 stack be okay for a beginner?

I’m still doing my research and figuring everything out, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience with either of them, especially if you started with one before eventually adding the other!

Click to expand...
When it comes to shedding visceral fat, GLP1s come out ahead, and retatrutide is the strongest of the bunch.
 
Guccipoppi said:


Buuuut I was also thinking about stacking it with TSM5 for the visceral fat loss I’m just wondering whether that might be doing a bit too much straight out of the gate. Should I take it slow and stick with RT5 by itself first, or would an RT5 and TSM5 stack be okay for a beginner?

I’m still doing my research and figuring everything out, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience with either of them, especially if you started with one before eventually adding the other!

Click to expand...
A while back I had the same plan in mind. I was close to hitting my goal weight while on reta, and I came across a solid deal on tesa. But then it hit me that my Dad would be a better fit for it — honestly, I'd bet he's mostly visceral fat. So I'm holding onto it for him, once he's got some time on tirz under his belt.

My guess is reta is clearing mine out, though without a scan there's no way to know for sure, so instead I went with CJC/IPA. And even that, I'm planning to hold off on starting for a while.

In your position, I'd give the reta time to work its magic first.
 
sheilarae74 said:

A while back I had the same plan in mind. I was close to hitting my goal weight while on reta, and I came across a solid deal on tesa. But then it hit me that my Dad would be a better fit for it — honestly, I'd bet he's mostly visceral fat. So I'm holding onto it for him, once he's got some time on tirz under his belt.

My guess is reta is clearing mine out, though without a scan there's no way to know for sure, so instead I went with CJC/IPA. And even that, I'm planning to hold off on starting for a while.

In your position, I'd give the reta time to work its magic first.
Tracking numbers just came through for a few kits of tesa...the appeal there is pretty clear, though I want to get my routine dialed in with it first before it ever enters the rotation...That said, I picked up a kit of CJC/IPA from one of the recent GB 'slow boat from CN' buys, mostly for the same rationale as the tesa, so assuming it shows up (fingers crossed 😳) I'll have a few options to run alongside reta and find out what works...👍
 
HolyTrinity said:

When I first got started, this is the peptide calculator I relied on. After the math clicks, you can handle it mentally. It's straightforward and simple to operate.




With a 5mg vial, 1ML of water is what I'd put in, and from there each 20 units on a syringe = 1mg. 0.5mg is 10 units. 1.5mg would be 30 units, and so on.

Also, have you picked up your Reta yet, or not? For the first few weeks, 5mg works well, but my guess is that after a month or so you'll titrate up to 1.5-2mg a week. If buying hasn't happened yet, I'd personally go with 10mg vials. Skip the 20-30+mg big vials for now, but when you work out cost per mg, 10's make more financial sense. Should you already have 5's, no problem. At the the end of the day, it's all Reta.
Right, I still haven't bought it. I was debating between the 5 and the 10, though from what I can tell, most vendors begin at 10mg.
 
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