Facing the scale honestly and starting over

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PepGladiator

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No shame involved here, and no blame either. Let's begin with that.

Age — 50

Sex — male

Height — 5'11

Weight at the start — 225 lb

Body fat share — 25.1%

Weight right now — 219

Pounds shed — 6 lbs

Weekly dosing:

  • Tirz — 2.5 mg, taken weekly (x 4 weeks)
  • Tesa — 1.0 mg, 5 days of the week (x 4 weeks)
For the past 10 years, losing weight and getting into shape has been the goal. Every diet got a shot, intermittent fasting among them, yet the belly fat never budged. The gym already sees me 4 times a week, and years of heavy lifting left decent muscle underneath. Cardio is where the biggest gains are available. Portion control is my real weak spot — saying no to a bigger plate has never come easily, and that habit has held me back for years. Good food is a genuine love of mine, and that is exactly what has kept progress out of reach.

Roughly 4 weeks back, my GLP-1 journey began. Supplies for the first 6 weeks came from 1 local reseller up in Canada, though the pricing cannot be sustained. Plenty of Reddit threads on grey-market sourcing eventually pointed me to this forum. Ordering from an unknown vendor takes real nerve when forum posts are the only basis for trust, and crypto payments add their own learning curve. Still, you stumble along and pick it up as you go. A grey-market Tirz/Tesa/Reta delivery is what I am now waiting on.

Only 6 lbs have come off across those first 4 weeks. Discouragement creeps in at times — is that it? Is this the miracle everyone keeps describing, just 6 lbs in 4 weeks? Running the arithmetic helps: 1.5 lbs weekly so far, which projects to my goal of 185 (my weight back in my 30's) by October. That thought is what gets me to the gym.

Things that shifted:

  • My appetite is suppressed now and food cravings are far weaker. Tirz gets the credit for that.
  • Sleep has been superb — from 5-6 hour nights broken by insomnia to 8 hours every night. The odd part is how vivid my dreams have become; Tesa seems the likely culprit.
  • Side-effects have been minimal. Skin dryness (ashy patches) showed up in the second week and has been the main nuisance. A search online suggests dehydration on Tirz is a known cause, so water intake is going up to test that theory. Otherwise it is lotion, lotion, lotion — legs and arms especially.
Worries on my mind:

  • Will the vendor's package actually turn up? That worries me.
  • Suppose it does arrive and turns out impure or contaminated, etc etc... Filtering is something I need to learn, along with how to get product tested.
  • Fingers crossed there are few long-term consequences from using these products
What I'm excited about:

  • Where I land in 6 months is something I can't wait to see

For the moment the plan is simple: stay on Tirz and Tesa and see how far that carries me before Reta even gets considered (assuming those shipments land). Posts here brim with excitement about what Reta can do, and curiosity has me tempted to just switch over. Part of me insists on holding one regimen long enough to learn what it does to my body first, and that is the side I am leaning toward.

Updates will land in this thread as things develop.

Tell me if you're in the same position, or starting from somewhere different.
 
Nice post! Treating it as pounds dropped each week shows a sensible mindset. Sure, you might shed weight quicker, yet the chance of side effects rises a lot and those could mess with your day-to-day life. I dealt with that myself and it is definitely not a trade worth making. Our builds are pretty similar, right now I'm 6' 228.4lbs, though on January 7th I weighed 261.6lbs at the start. The first target I randomly picked was 210lbs, but if progress continues nicely I suspect I'll lower it to match yours more closely.

When it comes to worries and anxieties, those are totally expected. Getting parcels into Canada appears somewhat trickier than in certain nations, but still easier than in others. Even if you occasionally get burned, you'll end up way better off than with single vial resellers or big pharma prices, so I'd recommend working that into the cost of doing business.
 
nice one - the toughest bit is getting going, and before long you'll be where you want to be - as you mentioned, October is achievable for your target and it's honestly not that distant. My own Reta journey began in October 2024, and I've since dropped 70lbs and reached my goal. Another Albertan here too, shipping to this province is a bit of a hassle but I've made it work. Best of luck!
 
Excellent post and impressive progress. I'm also looking into Tesa because of its effect on belly fat, though my plan is to hold off until I hit a plateau.

There is one thing you didn't bring up that I want to ask about. Do you log your food? MyFitnessPal is what I use, the paid subscription, though the free version does the job as well. This step is non-negotiable. Without it, you won't truly know or grasp the reason you're dropping or putting on pounds. I've even begun weighing my food in grams with an ebay scale. Breakfast and lunch get that treatment, and I attempt it at dinner too, but I'm less consistent there.

At first I figured tracking would be a pain and drive me nuts, yet it has a bit of a gamification vibe. In a way, tracking becomes a challenge. So if you're already tracking, ignore this, and once more, congrats and keep pushin.
 
Your experience mirrors my own: a 5'9" guy, 60 years of age, who adored eating and could never get a diet to last. A chunk of that came from feeling beaten down by how slowly the pounds came off, plus those miserable mornings when the scale creeps up despite everything you endured the day before.

As far as I'm concerned, Tirz is a genuine miracle medication. I began in November at 230 lbs. These days I'm at 170 lbs., just a handful of pounds away from where I want to land. I think I shed almost no muscle, if any at all, since my arm and leg strength feels exactly like it always did. My drop happened pretty quickly because I stuck to a rather aggressive titration plan. Patience wasn't my strong suit. I'm aware I also fell short on protein. Exploiting that appetite suppression was my priority, so some days I ate fewer than 1000 calories. Losing this fast isn't something I'd necessarily suggest--it places a heavy burden on your system and triggers some inflammation, which showed up in my bloodwork earlier this week. Given time, it ought to settle down.

Take pleasure in your journey. Keep in mind that those trousers you've held onto for years--the pair that's too snug to wear today--will only fit for a handful of weeks before a belt becomes necessary!
 
FartfulCodger said:

Your experience mirrors my own: a 5'9" guy, 60 years of age, who adored eating and could never get a diet to last. A chunk of that came from feeling beaten down by how slowly the pounds came off, plus those miserable mornings when the scale creeps up despite everything you endured the day before.

As far as I'm concerned, Tirz is a genuine miracle medication. I began in November at 230 lbs. These days I'm at 170 lbs., just a handful of pounds away from where I want to land. I think I shed almost no muscle, if any at all, since my arm and leg strength feels exactly like it always did. My drop happened pretty quickly because I stuck to a rather aggressive titration plan. Patience wasn't my strong suit. I'm aware I also fell short on protein. Exploiting that appetite suppression was my priority, so some days I ate fewer than 1000 calories. Losing this fast isn't something I'd necessarily suggest--it places a heavy burden on your system and triggers some inflammation, which showed up in my bloodwork earlier this week. Given time, it ought to settle down.

Take pleasure in your journey. Keep in mind that those trousers you've held onto for years--the pair that's too snug to wear today--will only fit for a handful of weeks before a belt becomes necessary!
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whoa, that is a fast ramp. Mine has been small steps: .5mg for 1-4 weeks / .8mg from week 5. 12 lbs off. Tracking everything, lifting and a decent chunk of cardio keeps me in a reasonable cal deficit. The plan is to re train my brain around which foods, when to eat, and logging it. Strictly speaking I am not hugely overweight, but the target is 20-25 this yr, slowly. Also I appear to be a super responder. Even at .5mg across Weeks 1-4, food was take it or leave it, so staying in a deficit took no effort. My 10mg vial is going to expire long before I get through it lol
 
My own journey mirrors yours too. A 44 year old guy, 6"3, kicked off this bout of Obesity Kombat at 263lbs. About 8 days back I began Reta. Today I took my 2nd dose. Every comment in this thread is fantastic. For now I'll contribute one thing. Complete lifestyle change ought to be our aim, along with targeting body recomposition. Still, I've discovered that selecting an appropriate sport or hobby to take up can hugely affect how well we manage to stay consistent with the regimen. Which sport or hobby suits you, I can't say, but it needs to be one you can keep up even at home when nothing else is possible, meaning, practice at home as well. I have one such choice and it has helped me tremendously.
 
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