Hi there! I'm continuing to use reta as part of my weight loss plan. So far I've dropped more than 10kg, and I'm aiming to shed another 15-20kg by August, because I want to land between 46-55kg. Even though I'm just 24, the thought of loose skin bothers me. If I use CU by itself, will that be enough to help my skin bounce back, or do I need to look into additional peptides? At the moment I'm dropping 1-1.5kg each week.
Skin elasticity concerns with GHK-CU?
- Thread starter Valyra
- Start date
sfkid
Explorer
At 24 years old... there's nothing to worry about. Keep going 
high-tide
Explorer
Steady wins 
That's really reassuring to hear! Some things I came across online had me pretty anxious and scared. Still, besides reta and cutting back on food, I plan to put in some effort on my body too.sfkid said:
At 24 years old... there's nothing to worry about. Keep going
Would you say 1-1.5kg weekly counts as slow enough? I'd rather stick with this pace, because I'm desperate to be skinny by my birthday, but if my skin would do better, I'll aim to take in a few more calories on average so it slows down a bit.high-tide said:
Steady wins
sfkid
Explorer
Valyra said:
That's really reassuring to hear! Some things I came across online had me pretty anxious and scared. Still, besides reta and cutting back on food, I plan to put in some effort on my body too.sfkid said:
At 24 years old... there's nothing to worry about. Keep going
Would you say 1-1.5kg weekly counts as slow enough? I'd rather stick with this pace, because I'm desperate to be skinny by my birthday, but if my skin would do better, I'll aim to take in a few more calories on average so it slows down a bit.high-tide said:
Steady wins
Go beyond that amount and muscle loss becomes likely.
Make protein a priority in your meals, and do heavy resistance training 3 to 4 days each week.
Rolltide61
Explorer
But what about her question?
randompersonrandom
Explorer
Truthfully, there's no solid answer. That's the reason a lot of us turn to KLOW—we can't be sure whether it does anything, or how much, yet quitting feels too risky because maybe things would be far worse without it. So in the end, you wind up with a freezer packed with KLOW and zero certainty about whether it's doing anything, since none of us has a twin who's dropping weight while skipping it.
Rolltide61
Explorer
I get why that would be a worry.
Makoto
Explorer
I dropped roughly 30 kg during my 20s over about 6 months (that was some time ago, prior to using peptides), so my advice is to pace yourself. Rushing the process—which is what I did—can leave you with loose skin, and that's exactly what happened to me: sagging skin. CU might certainly be beneficial, but I wouldn't take the chance. Better safe than sorry!
I train with weights and my protein intake is high, so muscle loss isn't something I'm expecting to be a big issue. The problem is that a fairly serious health condition means I can only manage 1 workout per week at the moment, so I have to be careful about how hard I push myself and take things slowly.sfkid said:
Valyra said:
That's really reassuring to hear! Some things I came across online had me pretty anxious and scared. Still, besides reta and cutting back on food, I plan to put in some effort on my body too.sfkid said:
At 24 years old... there's nothing to worry about. Keep going
Would you say 1-1.5kg weekly counts as slow enough? I'd rather stick with this pace, because I'm desperate to be skinny by my birthday, but if my skin would do better, I'll aim to take in a few more calories on average so it slows down a bit.high-tide said:
Steady wins
Go beyond that amount and muscle loss becomes likely.
Make protein a priority in your meals, and do heavy resistance training 3 to 4 days each week.
That's a fair point! Pinning CU every day is something I genuinely dislike, even though it doesn't really sting in my case. Still, I'm scared that if I quit, I'll end up having to deal with loose skin down the road. Overall, CU hasn't seemed to do a lot for me up to now, but then again my skin was never really bad to start with, so spotting any change is probably harder for me.
deleted.user.16
Explorer
I keep hearing the claim that losing weight slowly protects your skin, yet I've never come across any proof for it. What the reasoning behind that would even be, I have no idea.
As far as what OP asked, I've dug into this quite a bit, and there's research supporting skin thickening and tightening for Amlactin/lactic acid, microneedling, retinol, and GHK-Cu.
Another idea out there is that fasting eliminates loose skin by speeding up autophagy (cell death). The thinking goes that when protein intake is too low, your body turns on its own skin (and sadly muscle too) just to stay alive. I haven't found any scientific studies on this, so don't take it as gospel, but it seems convincing enough to me that I'm going to try fitting a 3-day fast into each week and see whether it does anything. Assuming I can stick with it, ha. Should you try this, keep in mind that electrolytes have to be consumed daily! And be extremely careful if diabetes is a factor for you; your risk profile could differ from mine. Gallstones are another thing to watch out for.
On top of that, my plan is to dip a bit below my goal weight down to 100lb so my skin shrinks/cannibalizes further (then come back up to my 120lb goal weight). I'll also be microinfusing GHK-Cu (that means microneedling with a liquid) on my neck and the areas giving me trouble. And for collagen, Vitamin C tablets plus a cup of bone stock every day.
KLOW would be on my list too if I had money to burn, but the price is pretty high and I figure other options have stronger evidence lol.
As far as what OP asked, I've dug into this quite a bit, and there's research supporting skin thickening and tightening for Amlactin/lactic acid, microneedling, retinol, and GHK-Cu.
Another idea out there is that fasting eliminates loose skin by speeding up autophagy (cell death). The thinking goes that when protein intake is too low, your body turns on its own skin (and sadly muscle too) just to stay alive. I haven't found any scientific studies on this, so don't take it as gospel, but it seems convincing enough to me that I'm going to try fitting a 3-day fast into each week and see whether it does anything. Assuming I can stick with it, ha. Should you try this, keep in mind that electrolytes have to be consumed daily! And be extremely careful if diabetes is a factor for you; your risk profile could differ from mine. Gallstones are another thing to watch out for.
On top of that, my plan is to dip a bit below my goal weight down to 100lb so my skin shrinks/cannibalizes further (then come back up to my 120lb goal weight). I'll also be microinfusing GHK-Cu (that means microneedling with a liquid) on my neck and the areas giving me trouble. And for collagen, Vitamin C tablets plus a cup of bone stock every day.
KLOW would be on my list too if I had money to burn, but the price is pretty high and I figure other options have stronger evidence lol.
HereKittyKitty
Explorer
Your way of looking at this really resonates with me.
SITHRE
Explorer
Losing weight gradually is among the strongest ways to avoid ending up with saggy skin. Still, it's important to remember that each person's body responds in its own way. Since November I've been using GHK, and in that period I've shed 30 pounds. Because of that, I do have some loose skin, and I honestly can't say how much the GHK has made a difference (if it has at all).
My honest view is that if I had been able to exercise while dropping the weight and either kept or built muscle, the loose skin wouldn't be there. At your age, your skin remains elastic and firm. Adding a bit of muscle will help "fill you out" and stop extra loose skin from forming in the first place!
FarmgirlRebel
Explorer
At 24, you'll likely have an easier time with this than someone much older, like me.
GHKcu might assist in some remodeling of remaining fat and in the skin's tone.
I adore how it makes my skin feel, but at 61, only a surgeon's scalpel will remove loose skin
GHKcu might assist in some remodeling of remaining fat and in the skin's tone.
I adore how it makes my skin feel, but at 61, only a surgeon's scalpel will remove loose skin
randompersonrandom
Explorer
At my job, the entire team has recently started practicing a kind of blunt, offhand honesty, and honestly it's been great. Like: "Hey, sorry, when you brought up XYZ it sent my brain to that other project and I completely checked out; I missed everything after that, can you repeat it?" Or: "Jenny suggested something about the trigger mechanism. At first I wasn't into it, mainly because it wasn't my idea, but she's actually right about..." And: "I could use five minutes of your time if you're free, because I'm trying to run the accessibility checker and I have no clue what I'm doing. I swear I won't be a bitch about it if you start getting In the weeds" — which gets answered with "Oh, ok, then I promise to try to ONLY look at what you're asking to look at and not hold you for six more to tell you a thing you don't care about today but will next week"
What we like about it is that it cuts down on wasted time and confusion and takes away the need to seem flawless every single moment, but it also has us all cracking up constantly, because some of the younger folks have never seen anyone in a workplace drop the act of always knowing what they're doing.
HereKittyKitty
Explorer
I had planned to answer yesterday evening.... I really wish my workplace would adopt this method. It sounds fantastic.
randompersonrandom
Explorer
We got lucky. Five years back, management assembled our team practically overnight, and nobody was informed — not even the woman who shifted from PM to leading the group. She learned about it while in her car, when I phoned and told her it seemed she was my boss now, and asked whether I'd skipped a meeting. After that, they basically left us alone for the first 12 months. That gave us the chance to construct our own house and choose what it would look like. It was a total freak occurrence, and we're fortunate they selected a group of people who cared about blameless culture and psychological safety.
HereKittyKitty
Explorer
That's wonderful news. I'm really pleased for you. What a wonderful setting in which to build up trust and self-assurance. The team's level of performance must be quite high.
Perhaps I'm a touch jealous.
Perhaps I'm a touch jealous.
LabRatts
Explorer
Picture yourself at your 70th birthday, still looking fantastic... This is a marathon, not a sprint. Build solid routines at this stage and keep at them, and you'll be way ahead of people like us who only got the message much later in life... plus you'll be the most stunning birthday guest for the long haul, not only "this birthday"! Have fun!Valyra said:
That's really reassuring to hear! Some things I came across online had me pretty anxious and scared. Still, besides reta and cutting back on food, I plan to put in some effort on my body too.sfkid said:
At 24 years old... there's nothing to worry about. Keep going
Would you say 1-1.5kg weekly counts as slow enough? I'd rather stick with this pace, because I'm desperate to be skinny by my birthday, but if my skin would do better, I'll aim to take in a few more calories on average so it slows down a bit.high-tide said:
Steady wins