Airborne Daddy
Explorer
At first my wife refused anything from China... until her sister mentioned dropping 56lbs thanks to the stuff I'd given her 12 months earlier.
Gf is asking about trying peptides — how do I handle it?
- Thread starter JohannesSweden77
- Start date
JohannesSweden77
Explorer
For tirz that dose is far too small, though she did begin at the same starting dose prescribed to everyone on Mounjaro. Could you have meant 2,5mg?desinr-gal said:
Begin at .25 so you can confirm she won't react badly and then hold you responsible.Increase the amount gradually after that. For me, .5 Tirz was enough to get a response, so there's no reason to burn through peptides when it isn't necessary.
Absolutely safe and effective. My own start wasn't as effective as hers, as far as I recall, but once I reached 5mg things picked up. I'm glad for her.
desinr-gal
Explorer
Nope, sweetie.JohannesSweden77 said:
For tirz that dose is far too small, though she did begin at the same starting dose prescribed to everyone on Mounjaro. Could you have meant 2,5mg?desinr-gal said:
Begin at .25 so you can confirm she won't react badly and then hold you responsible.
Absolutely safe and effective. My own start wasn't as effective as hers, as far as I recall, but once I reached 5mg things picked up. I'm glad for her.
A 2.5 starting dose gives a lot of folks really rough side effects — nausea, stomach trouble, that sort of thing. My own start was .5, and I truly mean .5. Micro dosing was the approach we tried. It did work, by the way, and I moved up in tiny steps. After quite a few months I reached 2mg, and then I brought in Reta the same gradual way.
On either one, my ceiling stayed under 3mg, so under 6mg combined. I'm acquainted with people who topped out at 4mg of Tirze and still dropped every pound they were aiming for.
29% of my body weight came off.
that's my take
JohannesSweden77
Explorer
Oh wowdesinr-gal said:
Nope, sweetie.JohannesSweden77 said:
For tirz that dose is far too small, though she did begin at the same starting dose prescribed to everyone on Mounjaro. Could you have meant 2,5mg?desinr-gal said:
Begin at .25 so you can confirm she won't react badly and then hold you responsible.
Absolutely safe and effective. My own start wasn't as effective as hers, as far as I recall, but once I reached 5mg things picked up. I'm glad for her.
A 2.5 starting dose gives a lot of folks really rough side effects — nausea, stomach trouble, that sort of thing. My own start was .5, and I truly mean .5. Micro dosing was the approach we tried. It did work, by the way, and I moved up in tiny steps. After quite a few months I reached 2mg, and then I brought in Reta the same gradual way.
On either one, my ceiling stayed under 3mg, so under 6mg combined. I'm acquainted with people who topped out at 4mg of Tirze and still dropped every pound they were aiming for.
29% of my body weight came off.
that's my take
That's news to me. My mistake — apologies. Ignorance really is bliss. What you're talking about sounds like an even smarter approach than the lowest possible dose I'd read about; it's the reverse of jumping straight to the maximum. Micro dosing tirz. Wow, you really do pick up something new daily.
lessthanhalf
Explorer
I'm not saying your results at those tiny doses aren't real, but only a fairly narrow slice of people will ever react that strongly to doses that low — super responders are probably just 5-10% of the population. Losing 29% of body weight from 6mg of reta / tirz is far above what the typical person sees.desinr-gal said:
Nope, sweetie.JohannesSweden77 said:
For tirz that dose is far too small, though she did begin at the same starting dose prescribed to everyone on Mounjaro. Could you have meant 2,5mg?desinr-gal said:
Begin at .25 so you can confirm she won't react badly and then hold you responsible.
Absolutely safe and effective. My own start wasn't as effective as hers, as far as I recall, but once I reached 5mg things picked up. I'm glad for her.
A 2.5 starting dose gives a lot of folks really rough side effects — nausea, stomach trouble, that sort of thing. My own start was .5, and I truly mean .5. Micro dosing was the approach we tried. It did work, by the way, and I moved up in tiny steps. After quite a few months I reached 2mg, and then I brought in Reta the same gradual way.
On either one, my ceiling stayed under 3mg, so under 6mg combined. I'm acquainted with people who topped out at 4mg of Tirze and still dropped every pound they were aiming for.
29% of my body weight came off.
that's my take
There's a rationale behind the standard starting doses: they keep the chance of meaningful side effects reasonably low, while not stretching the ramp-up phase out by another 3-4 months. That's exactly how long it would take to reach 2.5mg if you began at 0.5 and increased by 0.5mg every 4 weeks. Under that approach, most people would burn the first 3, maybe even 6, months just getting to a dose that actually suppresses appetite and starts the weight loss — too long, in my view, and plenty would lose motivation when nothing happens. To me it's more reasonable to take on a few percent risk of an unpleasant side effect by starting at 2.5mg, rather than waiting months for any effect at all. At 2.5mg, side effects beyond mild nausea aren't very common, and if one does show up, you simply lower the dose.
desinr-gal
Explorer
What I was getting at is that the very first injection should be a really small dose, so if she turns out to be super sensitive or allergic, the reaction won't be severe.lessthanhalf said:
I'm not saying your results at those tiny doses aren't real, but only a fairly narrow slice of people will ever react that strongly to doses that low — super responders are probably just 5-10% of the population. Losing 29% of body weight from 6mg of reta / tirz is far above what the typical person sees.desinr-gal said:
Nope, sweetie.JohannesSweden77 said:
For tirz that dose is far too small, though she did begin at the same starting dose prescribed to everyone on Mounjaro. Could you have meant 2,5mg?desinr-gal said:
Begin at .25 so you can confirm she won't react badly and then hold you responsible.
Absolutely safe and effective. My own start wasn't as effective as hers, as far as I recall, but once I reached 5mg things picked up. I'm glad for her.
A 2.5 starting dose gives a lot of folks really rough side effects — nausea, stomach trouble, that sort of thing. My own start was .5, and I truly mean .5. Micro dosing was the approach we tried. It did work, by the way, and I moved up in tiny steps. After quite a few months I reached 2mg, and then I brought in Reta the same gradual way.
On either one, my ceiling stayed under 3mg, so under 6mg combined. I'm acquainted with people who topped out at 4mg of Tirze and still dropped every pound they were aiming for.
29% of my body weight came off.
that's my take
There's a rationale behind the standard starting doses: they keep the chance of meaningful side effects reasonably low, while not stretching the ramp-up phase out by another 3-4 months. That's exactly how long it would take to reach 2.5mg if you began at 0.5 and increased by 0.5mg every 4 weeks. Under that approach, most people would burn the first 3, maybe even 6, months just getting to a dose that actually suppresses appetite and starts the weight loss — too long, in my view, and plenty would lose motivation when nothing happens. To me it's more reasonable to take on a few percent risk of an unpleasant side effect by starting at 2.5mg, rather than waiting months for any effect at all. At 2.5mg, side effects beyond mild nausea aren't very common, and if one does show up, you simply lower the dose.
On top of that, I don't think the once-a-week protocol makes sense. That schedule exists because of participation concerns.. since people dislike needles, the goal was to keep injections to a minimum. Smaller doses given more often make it easier to sidestep unpleasant side effects.
My wife is in the same boat, which shifts how I think about risk. If I'm the only one pinning and hoping, any bad outcome lands on me alone — but once another person is involved, I'm not willing to gamble as much. That's why I began sending the peps we both use for third-party testing, so I can feel at ease and know I've cut the chance of harm as much as I can.
lessthanhalf
Explorer
Splitting doses into more frequent administrations is something I fully back as a way to keep side effects manageable or as low as possible. Personally, I inject every other day. Starting with a very small first dose could lower the odds of side effects, though an allergic reaction right at the first dose is incredibly rare — your body typically needs repeated exposure to a substance before an allergy develops, so reactions tend to show up after weeks or months rather than immediately, and on the initial dose it is practically unheard of.desinr-gal said:
What I was getting at is that the very first injection should be a really small dose, so if she turns out to be super sensitive or allergic, the reaction won't be severe.lessthanhalf said:
I'm not saying your results at those tiny doses aren't real, but only a fairly narrow slice of people will ever react that strongly to doses that low — super responders are probably just 5-10% of the population. Losing 29% of body weight from 6mg of reta / tirz is far above what the typical person sees.desinr-gal said:
Nope, sweetie.JohannesSweden77 said:
For tirz that dose is far too small, though she did begin at the same starting dose prescribed to everyone on Mounjaro. Could you have meant 2,5mg?desinr-gal said:
Begin at .25 so you can confirm she won't react badly and then hold you responsible.
Absolutely safe and effective. My own start wasn't as effective as hers, as far as I recall, but once I reached 5mg things picked up. I'm glad for her.
A 2.5 starting dose gives a lot of folks really rough side effects — nausea, stomach trouble, that sort of thing. My own start was .5, and I truly mean .5. Micro dosing was the approach we tried. It did work, by the way, and I moved up in tiny steps. After quite a few months I reached 2mg, and then I brought in Reta the same gradual way.
On either one, my ceiling stayed under 3mg, so under 6mg combined. I'm acquainted with people who topped out at 4mg of Tirze and still dropped every pound they were aiming for.
29% of my body weight came off.
that's my take
There's a rationale behind the standard starting doses: they keep the chance of meaningful side effects reasonably low, while not stretching the ramp-up phase out by another 3-4 months. That's exactly how long it would take to reach 2.5mg if you began at 0.5 and increased by 0.5mg every 4 weeks. Under that approach, most people would burn the first 3, maybe even 6, months just getting to a dose that actually suppresses appetite and starts the weight loss — too long, in my view, and plenty would lose motivation when nothing happens. To me it's more reasonable to take on a few percent risk of an unpleasant side effect by starting at 2.5mg, rather than waiting months for any effect at all. At 2.5mg, side effects beyond mild nausea aren't very common, and if one does show up, you simply lower the dose.
On top of that, I don't think the once-a-week protocol makes sense. That schedule exists because of participation concerns.. since people dislike needles, the goal was to keep injections to a minimum. Smaller doses given more often make it easier to sidestep unpleasant side effects.
pearbear48
Explorer
My wife began using reta 1 week after I started. However, she leaves all the sourcing and mixing to me because she trusts me. Since we got going, she has done plenty of research on her own, and now she's even asking me about other peptides too!
The strongest case you can present requires no talking at all. Simply showing results speaks for itself. When someone is clearly succeeding, it's tough to dispute that.
In my view, the absolute worst approach (and I'm not pointing at anyone in this community) is pressuring or guilting a person about weight loss. That typically backfires, creating resistance and bitterness. Nobody likes feeling forced into a decision. If your goal is to influence someone, just focus on your own progress quietly — they'll draw their own conclusions in time.
BNLFL
Explorer
Pretty much the same situation in our home. I let my wife know I'd be sourcing from a different place instead of the US vendor we'd been overpaying — 4 vials at crazy prices. She wanted to know where, and once I said China she flipped out. That lasted until I showed her that everything traces back to China, and that even the large companies, Lilly included, may well be getting raw materials from there. Once she heard about the testing, she calmed down. Everything's been fine since the weight started coming off and she felt no different.
Seasonal1
Explorer
At first my wife couldn't believe I'd get Tirz from a 503A compounding pharmacy. Her view was that prescriptions come from Walmart, CVS, or Walgreens. After I told her I'd bought Reta and walked her through a few videos about what it can do, she was at least willing to hear me out. She also noticed my weight loss plan was producing results.
Not long ago she saw a doctor, and they told her her cholesterol was elevated. The doctor brought up statins. She told me she'd pick Reta over a statin. She's at a normal weight, so we agreed to repeat blood work in a month or two. Still, her remark made me smile.
Not long ago she saw a doctor, and they told her her cholesterol was elevated. The doctor brought up statins. She told me she'd pick Reta over a statin. She's at a normal weight, so we agreed to repeat blood work in a month or two. Still, her remark made me smile.
Airborne Daddy
Explorer
I'm confident that vendors such as bff and nexaph undergo more testing than pharma does. When it comes to bff, stg runs tests on it roughly 12 times each month.
bamagirl26
Explorer
that seems like a huge amount of effort!HouseCat said:
It’ll be a project. Water is how I’ll force the stoppers out; new autoclave bags, vial and stopper pulled apart but kept in the same bag, and once sterilization is done I’ll wiggle the stoppers back in while still sealed. Next time the quality option is simply paying up at goodlifesupplies.BNLFL said:
Going to be able to get the stoppers out and back in again?HouseCat said:
Yes VIP treatment!! A happy her means a happy you.JohannesSweden77 said:
HouseCat said:
My assumption is that whatever you take is what she would get, and that you've looked into the safety side properly...which makes the risk very low. Anything she doesn't already know about side effects and possible reactions, you can talk her through. Dating a dummy seems unlikely, so trust her - she's grown, she does or will understand the risks, and the decision is hers to make. Plus you'll get bonus relationship points!
Withhold it and leave her to handle her own transactions from jump, and you may also collect negative relationship points
Yes, identical to what I use, except that by now the filters and the extra sterile cartridges are fully stocked. Me, I couldn't wait around for the filters and the nice cartridges, so for my first pen I grabbed the Alibaba cartridge and filled unfiltered. She gets the filtered, nice cartridge VIP treatment. Looks like I'm the dummy in this relationship
Yeah, that one you misread. I'd genuinely been hoping she would take an interest, and now that she has, I'm a bit scared — that is the whole of it. A nice journey together is how I see it, same as you said. Cravings and food thoughts are a real struggle for her, and the more she wants to do something about them, the happier I am.
UGH...100ct steam sterilized vials just arrived from Temu...and naturally they turn up UNsterilized. So now I have to dig out the pressure cooker given to me as a wedding gift 10+ years ago, work out how to operate it, and autoclave these GD unsterilized cartridges.
@JohannesSweden77 Even when I was only talking about it at the start, my wife was all in favor. Two vials get reconstituted at once usually, one for each of us, and they've been the same. Now that different doses come into play starting this morning, the vials will need our names on them if the concentrations differ. I fill her syringe, and blast her. Not the good way. Whatever I decide is fine by her. No side effects for her either, and currently on 10mg.
Keep her start simple — Reta or Tirz, nothing from some wild stack.
bamagirl26
Explorer
HouseCat said:
Yes VIP treatment!! A happy her means a happy you.JohannesSweden77 said:
HouseCat said:
My assumption is that whatever you take is what she would get, and that you've looked into the safety side properly...which makes the risk very low. Anything she doesn't already know about side effects and possible reactions, you can talk her through. Dating a dummy seems unlikely, so trust her - she's grown, she does or will understand the risks, and the decision is hers to make. Plus you'll get bonus relationship points!
Withhold it and leave her to handle her own transactions from jump, and you may also collect negative relationship points
Yes, identical to what I use, except that by now the filters and the extra sterile cartridges are fully stocked. Me, I couldn't wait around for the filters and the nice cartridges, so for my first pen I grabbed the Alibaba cartridge and filled unfiltered. She gets the filtered, nice cartridge VIP treatment. Looks like I'm the dummy in this relationship
Yeah, that one you misread. I'd genuinely been hoping she would take an interest, and now that she has, I'm a bit scared — that is the whole of it. A nice journey together is how I see it, same as you said. Cravings and food thoughts are a real struggle for her, and the more she wants to do something about them, the happier I am.
UGH...100ct steam sterilized vials just arrived from Temu...and naturally they turn up UNsterilized. So now I have to dig out the pressure cooker given to me as a wedding gift 10+ years ago, work out how to operate it, and autoclave these GD unsterilized cartridges.
A week back, I was in the same spot, attempting to keep it under wraps. The labels I received appear completely legitimate!JohannesSweden77 said:
Yeah, that's wild. That said, I haven't shared with everyone that I've moved over to gray. As far as they know, I'm still on the prescribed stuff. Not their concern anyway. So I do have to "hide" the supply and accessories.laansasa said:
Thank goodness we aren't stuck concealing them inside a butter container at the rear of the fridge the way others do. I also recall a different tale about going to see the in-laws and being unsure how to account for them, and a person proposed claiming a dog bite and that the injections were for rabies!JohannesSweden77 said:
Be sure to do that, and I'll do the same for my better half. He'll soon be even betterlaansasa said:
I agree, only a matter of time. Super expensive oral NAD and a ton of other supplements are what he takes. The great results I have gotten are visible to him, so intrigued he must be. If and when he bites the bullet, I shall report back!JohannesSweden77 said:
Oh, for a male specimen that is nowhere near enough time. Our side is where he seems headed, judging by this. Not the dark side but the gray. How easy needles are to get used to will become clear to him. Getting past that is what delayed my own start. Scary needles turn out to cause no fright at all — needles to say. Pun intended.laansasa said:
Very true...we shall see! March is when peps began for me... but supplements I take that I suggested have definitely been added by him, plus the whole ivermectin rabbithole, too. Time will tell, I suppose. Needles are what I think keeps him at bay (for now...)
The testing we rely on is basic next to what pharma does. It serves as affordable, essential harm reduction rather than strict oversight. On top of that, this overlooks how much of pharma's safety comes from supply-chain quality controls that simply aren't there in gray.
Airborne Daddy
Explorer
Yeah, but didn't they just find an eyelash in a pharma product not long ago? As far as I know, anything with state and/or federal testing requirements only gets checked once a year. It beats gray, sure — but am I convinced? Not remotely.
bamagirl26
Explorer
At times I find myself asking whether compounding pharmacies operate the same way we do. For instance, what is the origin of the raw materials they use?
oldrunnerguy
Explorer
I've brought this up on here before. My Reta journey began right at the close of 2025, and I was quite reluctant to let my wife in on it. Come February, when I did finally explain my reasons (metabolic gains, not shedding pounds), her response was, "Why aren't you injecting me?" If she's curious, your plan for a starter dose is a great method to gently enter GLP1 therapy. You had the interest — so why shouldn't she?