Tobias Rieper
Explorer
Hello, everyone! Joining the community to help with my weight loss is why I'm here. Obesity has been my situation since a young age, and diets to shift the weight have been tried for over 30 years. Nearly 400 pounds was my heaviest. Then, before peptides, diet and exercise alone got me down to about 190 pounds. That didn't last long, and normally my weight fluctuated between 215 and 230 pounds. Any time I'd slip under that, a slow creep back into the same range would follow within a few months. About 10 years were spent in that range.
On the subject of weight loss, medication was something I was very much against — doing this without help felt like something I should be able to manage. A friend of mine never stopped telling me to look into GLP-1s, and I was stubborn about it. "Earning" it myself was what I wanted. Considerable effort got me grinding down to 200 pounds once more, then a couple of months later 230 was where I ended up — and finally I decided medication was the way. An online telehealth provider was where I talked to someone, and a prescription for Tirzepatide came out of it.
My first dose (2.5mg) went in during Sept 2025 and it was eye opening. That week was the first time in my life I'd ever felt "normal". Before it, hunger was constant regardless of how much I ate, and full was a feeling I never got. Healthy, whole foods or junk foods — it made no difference, satiation never arrived. Thinking about food simply never stopped. Once Tirzepatide went in, that noise went quiet. Food only entered my mind when it was time to eat, a reasonable amount would go down and I'd stop naturally, without effort. All of this on the first dose, too. Feeling what it's like not to be obssessed with food or wanting to eat endlessly was seriously life changing, and that was only dose one. The disbelief I felt about it was such that my lean friends had to be asked whether this is what life was like for "normal" people who never had weight problems.
By the time my second dose came around, Retatrutide had been mentioned to me by the friend who'd pushed me toward GLP-1s. Research online produced a few posts from people who'd moved over from Tirzepatide. The impression was that many people, particularly those coming off higher doses of Tirzepatide, didn't seem to get the benefits of Retatrutide as strongly as those who'd never taken a GLP before. Having done only 2 doses of Tirzepatide, I decided to switch across to Retatrutide, which I've been on ever since. On Retatrutide my weight has gone from 235 pounds to 175 pounds today. About 15 pounds above healthy is where I still sit, but this is the closest I've ever come to a healthy body fat percentage.
Stalled out at the 175 weight is where I've been for months now, though. Steps are being taken to expand my exercise regimen and help bust the plateau. Biking on the Zwift indoor biker has been taken up, so a solid amount of weekly cardio should be the result. Diet has been solid for many years: whole foods at home, and eating out rarely. When eating out happens, a steakhouse is typical, and meat plus vegetables is the order. Even on whole foods, endless eating would still be possible without the medication, but my portion sizes have shrunk considerably since it went in. Not being hungry and not thinking about food all day has helped tremendously. The food noise creeping back over the past few months has been noticed, however.
Widening my understanding of peptides is what I'm after, and that's the reason I've joined up. Talking to other people with experience in the area will be useful.
On the subject of weight loss, medication was something I was very much against — doing this without help felt like something I should be able to manage. A friend of mine never stopped telling me to look into GLP-1s, and I was stubborn about it. "Earning" it myself was what I wanted. Considerable effort got me grinding down to 200 pounds once more, then a couple of months later 230 was where I ended up — and finally I decided medication was the way. An online telehealth provider was where I talked to someone, and a prescription for Tirzepatide came out of it.
My first dose (2.5mg) went in during Sept 2025 and it was eye opening. That week was the first time in my life I'd ever felt "normal". Before it, hunger was constant regardless of how much I ate, and full was a feeling I never got. Healthy, whole foods or junk foods — it made no difference, satiation never arrived. Thinking about food simply never stopped. Once Tirzepatide went in, that noise went quiet. Food only entered my mind when it was time to eat, a reasonable amount would go down and I'd stop naturally, without effort. All of this on the first dose, too. Feeling what it's like not to be obssessed with food or wanting to eat endlessly was seriously life changing, and that was only dose one. The disbelief I felt about it was such that my lean friends had to be asked whether this is what life was like for "normal" people who never had weight problems.
By the time my second dose came around, Retatrutide had been mentioned to me by the friend who'd pushed me toward GLP-1s. Research online produced a few posts from people who'd moved over from Tirzepatide. The impression was that many people, particularly those coming off higher doses of Tirzepatide, didn't seem to get the benefits of Retatrutide as strongly as those who'd never taken a GLP before. Having done only 2 doses of Tirzepatide, I decided to switch across to Retatrutide, which I've been on ever since. On Retatrutide my weight has gone from 235 pounds to 175 pounds today. About 15 pounds above healthy is where I still sit, but this is the closest I've ever come to a healthy body fat percentage.
Stalled out at the 175 weight is where I've been for months now, though. Steps are being taken to expand my exercise regimen and help bust the plateau. Biking on the Zwift indoor biker has been taken up, so a solid amount of weekly cardio should be the result. Diet has been solid for many years: whole foods at home, and eating out rarely. When eating out happens, a steakhouse is typical, and meat plus vegetables is the order. Even on whole foods, endless eating would still be possible without the medication, but my portion sizes have shrunk considerably since it went in. Not being hungry and not thinking about food all day has helped tremendously. The food noise creeping back over the past few months has been noticed, however.
Widening my understanding of peptides is what I'm after, and that's the reason I've joined up. Talking to other people with experience in the area will be useful.