Itankstuff
Explorer
My weight loss journey began in 2025. At that point I was depressed and anxious, and had just been put on antidepressants for the first time. Lexapro came first, and Bupropion was added later. On top of that, I had recently received a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea. Fatigue and lethargy dominated my days, and if I'm honest, I was simply watching life go by without participating in it.
I'm in my early 30's. Back in my college years I had been a fairly fit guy. My first year of college, at about age 17, is when I began lifting weights. It wasn't a consistent or frequent habit, maybe 2-3 times a week. Still, the noob gains were real; muscle seemed to come on fairly quickly for me, and I found the gym to be an excellent tool for my mental health. Looking back, it's so hard to understand how I had fallen so hard and ended up at my heaviest recorded weight (I stopped weighing myself out of embarassment, I'm sure some of you can relate) sitting at around 131-132kg, my height is 185.5cm.
Feeling so empty and depressed, while also managing a very stressful job, led me to "reward" myself with wine. Friday and Saturday nights became my reward for decompressing. Wine felt classy, or so I thought. But there was nothing classy when over the course of 4 years the Friday and Saturday nights were accompanied by the Monday night bottle of wine "because it was a stressful day", then the Wednesday drinking session to "get through the mid week".... I'm sure you get the picture. By the end of it I have to estimate I would probably have 10-15 standard drinks of alcohol 3-4 nights a week (a standard drink being 10g of alcohol).
Image 1: March/April 2025
Weighing around 131-132kg. Highest recorded.
For a long time I resisted GLP1’s, having read extensively about the side effects. Pancreatitis or gastroparesis were things I feared. I feared dropping weight too fast and being left with too much loose skin. All sorts of excuses were made. Eventually I reached a point where it felt like my way of living would put me in an early grave. So do you know what my rationale was for starting Tirzepatide? “Well, I’m going to die anyways, so why does it matter if it’s the Tirze that kills me”. It’s sad reflecting back on that mentality, but in many ways it kickstarted this whole journey. This realisation came to me in Jan/Feb, but looking at my Shotsy data, it turns out I didn’t muster the courage to start until April. Speaking to my Doctor was too embarrassing, since our initial conversation was met with, “well, why don’t you just try doing it the normal way first.” I had explained that I had lost weight before and had been, up until this point, a regular gym goer. Macros, calories, fasting, you name it — I understood them. But I didn’t understand how to do it with this black cloud hanging over me. After that experience I signed up to an online clinic. A phone call with a lovely Nurse Practitioner followed, and for the first time she made me feel that I could maybe, just maybe, take control back of my life.
Image 2: The GLP1 Journey via Shotsy
For those of you wondering what happened in January this year, don't worry, I can explain....
And so off I went, I started Tirzepatide, or Mounjaro as it's called around these parts. It was amazing. It was strange, I couldn't describe the feeling, but I just didn't thnk about food. It was weird, I didn't think or desire alcohol either. I mean, I still drank, because it was habit. The alcohol tasted funny, I enjoyed wine and I loved my gin and tonic, but they tasted funny. Despite this, I continued to drink, because I never thought I would never not drink, it's just what I did on a Friday. Without trying, it went down to 5 standard drinks 3-4 times a week. Sometimes I'd add a little chaos in to my life and thoroughly indulge myself when I could feel the Tirze wearing off, and let me tell you, I felt it the next morning. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I knew I was a little insane to begin with so it made sense for me to keep drinking despite not enjoying the taste, nor the feeling anymore.
By this time it was July, the 25th of July was a Friday, so you know what I did, Saturday was no different. I decided though on the 27th of July, why not continue the insanity for another day? It was on this day of insanity I said to my now fiance "I think I'm going to stop drinking next month" the expression on her face esentially read as "Oh, I'm sure you will, like the 15 other times you've said that." That expression sat with me. It may come as a surprise, but because July 27th was a Sunday, July 28th ended up being a Monday. On this auspicious Monday I poured out all the alcohol I had at home. I self excluded myself from Uber Eats and Doordash so I couldn't spontaneously order alcohol.
July 27th 2026 was the last time I had alcohol, hopefully for the rest of my life. At the time of writing this, my app says it’s been 7 months, 25 days and counting. I’ll be honest, I had tried plenty of “Sober Octobers” and “Dry Julys” before. But in all that time since quitting, there has only been a single moment where I had a genuine craving for alcohol.
For this to make sense, you have to understand that I’m on the spectrum and was recently diagnosed with ADHD, so I tend to become obsessed with obscure things. At that point in my life, it was North Korea. I was in bed watching this video on YouTube. It's essentially a video of a North Korean soldier describing how he used to dream of drinking whiskey, because it was something only royalty had access to. Watching him savour this cheap, bottom-shelf American whiskey, I suddenly wanted nothing more than to share a glass with him. Thankfully, my North Korea obsession has since taken a backseat, and for now, my sobriety is safe.
In a long-winded way, what I’m trying to say is that GLP1’s made it easy for me to abstain. It’s actually pretty funny looking at the Shotsy graph, because you can clearly see when I stopped alcohol, my sugar cravings briefly took over, and then the rapid weight loss followed. I’m starting to think the conspiracy theory that booze might be empty calories has some truth to it.
Anyways.... Mounjaro.... Not only did it make me not desire alcohol, a lot of dopamine seeking behviours reduced. I had been doing a lot of research and reading the literature and it turns out we don't quite understand the mechanism, but there's emerging evidence that the medication can help with ADHD. It all clicked. So, the alcohol, the binge eating, the risky behviours, the impulsivity... They aren't just weird quirks, but rather my dopamine starved brain looking for stimulation. I was diagnosed with ADHD, I now take Vyvanse and without a word of a lie, it's almost like I have been living life in black and white this entire time and now put on some colour vision glasses. Since starting I had reduced anxiety (though not zero, more on that later), reduced depression and I found it a bit easier to socialise. I used to get cripping social anxiety, but it was now tolerable.
Life was good. Work was good. I was going to the gym. I was trying to eat 200g of protein a day but usually hitting around 150g due to Mounjaro, but I was happy with how things progressed. I went for an overseas holiday in December, and because I wasn't working, rather than doing the normal things people do on a holiday, I read. I read and read and read, I educated myself. I spent about a month everyday reading more about peptides and peptide therapy, I read a lot about testosterone replacement therapy too. What prompted me to do so was though I felt really good, I noticed I wasn't holding on to my muscle like I used to. I had lost weight before, but this time was different. I felt flat, soft and weak. The gym was starting to become a struggle and.... I had noticed my balls started to shrink.
Image 3: January 2026. Before I went all in.
Recently returned from my overseas trip and ready to execute on the knowledge I had acquired.
So the cool thing about this whole reflection on the journey thing is that I get to look at photos, timestamps and dates. January 3rd is apparently the date I signed up to this forum. I think I was still overseas then but returned home shortly. I started CJC 1295/Ipamorealin and Retatrutide sometime in mid January. I'll post the January Pre Peptide photo and a photo taken in the last few days side by side as I think the effects speak for themselves. I was afraid of TRT, even though my balls were shrinking, I was scared to take TRT because I didn't want my balls to shrink (do you see a pattern here?). But because Tirze, CJC/IPA and Reta had already given me confidence in making these changes I just did it. I'm now taking TRT at around 150-175mg per week. I am still playing around with the dosages to try "dial in" my dose, but it's been 6-8 weeks on TRT so far and remember how I said treating my ADHD made me have almost no anxiety and depression? Well, it turns out having small balls and lower testosterone tends to do this, with TRT I feel like it was the missing piece of the puzzle. I still am trying to stabilise the dosage so there are some ups and downs, but I feel like I am very close to there. I feel fantastic 90% of the time.
Image 4: Before an after CJC/IPA for around 10-12 weeks and TRT for 6 weeks.
Image 5: DEXA Scan Results before and after CJC/IPA for around 10-12 weeks and TRT for 6 weeks.
I'm in my early 30's. Back in my college years I had been a fairly fit guy. My first year of college, at about age 17, is when I began lifting weights. It wasn't a consistent or frequent habit, maybe 2-3 times a week. Still, the noob gains were real; muscle seemed to come on fairly quickly for me, and I found the gym to be an excellent tool for my mental health. Looking back, it's so hard to understand how I had fallen so hard and ended up at my heaviest recorded weight (I stopped weighing myself out of embarassment, I'm sure some of you can relate) sitting at around 131-132kg, my height is 185.5cm.
Feeling so empty and depressed, while also managing a very stressful job, led me to "reward" myself with wine. Friday and Saturday nights became my reward for decompressing. Wine felt classy, or so I thought. But there was nothing classy when over the course of 4 years the Friday and Saturday nights were accompanied by the Monday night bottle of wine "because it was a stressful day", then the Wednesday drinking session to "get through the mid week".... I'm sure you get the picture. By the end of it I have to estimate I would probably have 10-15 standard drinks of alcohol 3-4 nights a week (a standard drink being 10g of alcohol).
Image 1: March/April 2025
Weighing around 131-132kg. Highest recorded.
For a long time I resisted GLP1’s, having read extensively about the side effects. Pancreatitis or gastroparesis were things I feared. I feared dropping weight too fast and being left with too much loose skin. All sorts of excuses were made. Eventually I reached a point where it felt like my way of living would put me in an early grave. So do you know what my rationale was for starting Tirzepatide? “Well, I’m going to die anyways, so why does it matter if it’s the Tirze that kills me”. It’s sad reflecting back on that mentality, but in many ways it kickstarted this whole journey. This realisation came to me in Jan/Feb, but looking at my Shotsy data, it turns out I didn’t muster the courage to start until April. Speaking to my Doctor was too embarrassing, since our initial conversation was met with, “well, why don’t you just try doing it the normal way first.” I had explained that I had lost weight before and had been, up until this point, a regular gym goer. Macros, calories, fasting, you name it — I understood them. But I didn’t understand how to do it with this black cloud hanging over me. After that experience I signed up to an online clinic. A phone call with a lovely Nurse Practitioner followed, and for the first time she made me feel that I could maybe, just maybe, take control back of my life.
Image 2: The GLP1 Journey via Shotsy
For those of you wondering what happened in January this year, don't worry, I can explain....
And so off I went, I started Tirzepatide, or Mounjaro as it's called around these parts. It was amazing. It was strange, I couldn't describe the feeling, but I just didn't thnk about food. It was weird, I didn't think or desire alcohol either. I mean, I still drank, because it was habit. The alcohol tasted funny, I enjoyed wine and I loved my gin and tonic, but they tasted funny. Despite this, I continued to drink, because I never thought I would never not drink, it's just what I did on a Friday. Without trying, it went down to 5 standard drinks 3-4 times a week. Sometimes I'd add a little chaos in to my life and thoroughly indulge myself when I could feel the Tirze wearing off, and let me tell you, I felt it the next morning. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I knew I was a little insane to begin with so it made sense for me to keep drinking despite not enjoying the taste, nor the feeling anymore.
By this time it was July, the 25th of July was a Friday, so you know what I did, Saturday was no different. I decided though on the 27th of July, why not continue the insanity for another day? It was on this day of insanity I said to my now fiance "I think I'm going to stop drinking next month" the expression on her face esentially read as "Oh, I'm sure you will, like the 15 other times you've said that." That expression sat with me. It may come as a surprise, but because July 27th was a Sunday, July 28th ended up being a Monday. On this auspicious Monday I poured out all the alcohol I had at home. I self excluded myself from Uber Eats and Doordash so I couldn't spontaneously order alcohol.
July 27th 2026 was the last time I had alcohol, hopefully for the rest of my life. At the time of writing this, my app says it’s been 7 months, 25 days and counting. I’ll be honest, I had tried plenty of “Sober Octobers” and “Dry Julys” before. But in all that time since quitting, there has only been a single moment where I had a genuine craving for alcohol.
For this to make sense, you have to understand that I’m on the spectrum and was recently diagnosed with ADHD, so I tend to become obsessed with obscure things. At that point in my life, it was North Korea. I was in bed watching this video on YouTube. It's essentially a video of a North Korean soldier describing how he used to dream of drinking whiskey, because it was something only royalty had access to. Watching him savour this cheap, bottom-shelf American whiskey, I suddenly wanted nothing more than to share a glass with him. Thankfully, my North Korea obsession has since taken a backseat, and for now, my sobriety is safe.
In a long-winded way, what I’m trying to say is that GLP1’s made it easy for me to abstain. It’s actually pretty funny looking at the Shotsy graph, because you can clearly see when I stopped alcohol, my sugar cravings briefly took over, and then the rapid weight loss followed. I’m starting to think the conspiracy theory that booze might be empty calories has some truth to it.
Anyways.... Mounjaro.... Not only did it make me not desire alcohol, a lot of dopamine seeking behviours reduced. I had been doing a lot of research and reading the literature and it turns out we don't quite understand the mechanism, but there's emerging evidence that the medication can help with ADHD. It all clicked. So, the alcohol, the binge eating, the risky behviours, the impulsivity... They aren't just weird quirks, but rather my dopamine starved brain looking for stimulation. I was diagnosed with ADHD, I now take Vyvanse and without a word of a lie, it's almost like I have been living life in black and white this entire time and now put on some colour vision glasses. Since starting I had reduced anxiety (though not zero, more on that later), reduced depression and I found it a bit easier to socialise. I used to get cripping social anxiety, but it was now tolerable.
Life was good. Work was good. I was going to the gym. I was trying to eat 200g of protein a day but usually hitting around 150g due to Mounjaro, but I was happy with how things progressed. I went for an overseas holiday in December, and because I wasn't working, rather than doing the normal things people do on a holiday, I read. I read and read and read, I educated myself. I spent about a month everyday reading more about peptides and peptide therapy, I read a lot about testosterone replacement therapy too. What prompted me to do so was though I felt really good, I noticed I wasn't holding on to my muscle like I used to. I had lost weight before, but this time was different. I felt flat, soft and weak. The gym was starting to become a struggle and.... I had noticed my balls started to shrink.
Image 3: January 2026. Before I went all in.
Recently returned from my overseas trip and ready to execute on the knowledge I had acquired.
So the cool thing about this whole reflection on the journey thing is that I get to look at photos, timestamps and dates. January 3rd is apparently the date I signed up to this forum. I think I was still overseas then but returned home shortly. I started CJC 1295/Ipamorealin and Retatrutide sometime in mid January. I'll post the January Pre Peptide photo and a photo taken in the last few days side by side as I think the effects speak for themselves. I was afraid of TRT, even though my balls were shrinking, I was scared to take TRT because I didn't want my balls to shrink (do you see a pattern here?). But because Tirze, CJC/IPA and Reta had already given me confidence in making these changes I just did it. I'm now taking TRT at around 150-175mg per week. I am still playing around with the dosages to try "dial in" my dose, but it's been 6-8 weeks on TRT so far and remember how I said treating my ADHD made me have almost no anxiety and depression? Well, it turns out having small balls and lower testosterone tends to do this, with TRT I feel like it was the missing piece of the puzzle. I still am trying to stabilise the dosage so there are some ups and downs, but I feel like I am very close to there. I feel fantastic 90% of the time.
Image 4: Before an after CJC/IPA for around 10-12 weeks and TRT for 6 weeks.
Image 5: DEXA Scan Results before and after CJC/IPA for around 10-12 weeks and TRT for 6 weeks.
