Women using peptides to build muscle — any experiences?

[henzvwry]

I'm on Tirz right now (2.5mg Monday, 1mg Friday), and I've dropped a significant amount of weight — I'm nearly at my target!

I've been strength training for 2 years, and through this year of fat loss I've mostly held onto my strength. The one area that's taken a hit is my glutes. I've been considering Ipamorelin to help rebuild that muscle, but I've struggled to find women (or anyone, really) sharing what it was like for them. I'm also unsure whether adding it would mean too many compounds at once. Honestly, I'm already over the nights where I have to do 3 pins back to back lol.

What I'm running right now:

Tirz

DSIP

Semax/Selank

GHK Cu

Starting 5 amino this week.

 

[Meritocrat]

My advice would be to hold off until you hit your goal weight, which you mentioned is not far off. After that, if a maintenance dose of Tirz can be maintained, then run the KLOW or GLOW stack alongside your training and make sure protein intake is sufficient. That said, when it comes to muscle growth, Ipamorelin may not be the ideal GH secretogoblin. Ibutamoren might work better, though I would not recommend MK-677, particularly following weight loss.

Plenty of other choices exist as well, actual GH among them. Even so, a solid thermogenic, protein powder, creatine, or KLOW/GLOW could still deliver a noticeable difference.

 

[wildweasel]

Lots of women bring this up, and honestly guys do too. If you aren't cautious, GLP-1s eat away at muscle, and the only real remedy for the intense catabolic effect that comes with a big calorie deficit is to eat more and shrink that daily deficit.

Back when I weighed 165 pounds, I spent roughly 60 days on a GLP-1 to clear out a stubborn bit of belly flab. My weight loss had begun around 200 pounds 3 years before that, and I'd gotten there through exercise, cardio and diet alone.

In my case the belly fat disappeared within 2 months, but of the 10 pounds I dropped, roughly half was muscle.

Now to what you actually asked lol

Secretagogues barely add muscle; they are not anabolic in any way. The knock-on effects on igf-1 signaling won't produce muscle growth unless you're already in an anabolic state...

So based on what you've described, a gh secretagogue won't help you rebuild muscle.

What I'd honestly suggest is eating more calories plus raising the intensity or frequency of your strength training, and joining a CrossFit class or something like it... in a serious calorie deficit you won't put on meaningful muscle without very high volume training and meticulous macro tracking.

If a muscle-building peptide is really what you want, skip ipa, cjc, hgh and all of those. Go with hCG. It prompts your ovarian cells to make a bit of extra testosterone, so the time and effort you spend in the gym pays off more, and your body naturally builds more muscle from the same work. Begin at roughly half a man's dose, 125iu every other day, stay there for about a month to see how you feel, then work up.

Side effects to expect: oilier skin, possibly some acne. As a female using hcg you'd have no expectation of virilization (masculinization), particularly at sensible doses, since it doesn't flood your body with hormones, it simply tells your ovaries to naturally produce a little more than they already do, moving your hormone levels from normal to high normal... unless the dose is larger, like the several thousand IU daily range, where it starts behaving completely differently in females, but you'd never get anywhere near that

 

[henzvwry]

wildweasel said:

Lots of women bring this up, and honestly guys do too. If you aren't cautious, GLP-1s eat away at muscle, and the only real remedy for the intense catabolic effect that comes with a big calorie deficit is to eat more and shrink that daily deficit.

Back when I weighed 165 pounds, I spent roughly 60 days on a GLP-1 to clear out a stubborn bit of belly flab. My weight loss had begun around 200 pounds 3 years before that, and I'd gotten there through exercise, cardio and diet alone.

In my case the belly fat disappeared within 2 months, but of the 10 pounds I dropped, roughly half was muscle.

Now to what you actually asked lol

Secretagogues barely add muscle; they are not anabolic in any way. The knock-on effects on igf-1 signaling won't produce muscle growth unless you're already in an anabolic state...

So based on what you've described, a gh secretagogue won't help you rebuild muscle.

What I'd honestly suggest is eating more calories plus raising the intensity or frequency of your strength training, and joining a CrossFit class or something like it... in a serious calorie deficit you won't put on meaningful muscle without very high volume training and meticulous macro tracking.

If a muscle-building peptide is really what you want, skip ipa, cjc, hgh and all of those. Go with hCG. It prompts your ovarian cells to make a bit of extra testosterone, so the time and effort you spend in the gym pays off more, and your body naturally builds more muscle from the same work. Begin at roughly half a man's dose, 125iu every other day, stay there for about a month to see how you feel, then work up.

Side effects to expect: oilier skin, possibly some acne. As a female using hcg you'd have no expectation of virilization (masculinization), particularly at sensible doses, since it doesn't flood your body with hormones, it simply tells your ovaries to naturally produce a little more than they already do, moving your hormone levels from normal to high normal... unless the dose is larger, like the several thousand IU daily range, where it starts behaving completely differently in females, but you'd never get anywhere near that

Thanks—this really helps.

The strange part is that I haven't seen any drop in strength; I'm even setting PRs. My upper body still looks full, but my glutes have clearly gotten flatter.

For context: I'm 28, 4'11", and 150lbs. My starting weight was 220. I usually train with weights 5x per week. My calorie target is 1200-1400, though tirz makes that tough. I never go below 80g of protein, and I try to reach 120. I use creatine and l-carnitine every day.

At that point, would microdosing testosterone be the better option, with less risk?

 

[henzvwry]

Meritocrat said:

My advice would be to hold off until you hit your goal weight, which you mentioned is not far off. After that, if a maintenance dose of Tirz can be maintained, then run the KLOW or GLOW stack alongside your training and make sure protein intake is sufficient. That said, when it comes to muscle growth, Ipamorelin may not be the ideal GH secretogoblin. Ibutamoren might work better, though I would not recommend MK-677, particularly following weight loss.

Plenty of other choices exist as well, actual GH among them. Even so, a solid thermogenic, protein powder, creatine, or KLOW/GLOW could still deliver a noticeable difference.

Thanks! Ibutamoren is new to me, so I'll do some research on it. Once I'm done with this ghkcu cycle, I'm also thinking about adding KLOW.

My daily protein intake sits at 80-120g, and I use creatine pills as well. Do you think powder would be a better option? I haven't checked out a thermogenic either so far. Thanks!

 

[wildweasel]

henzvwry said:

wildweasel said:

Lots of women bring this up, and honestly guys do too. If you aren't cautious, GLP-1s eat away at muscle, and the only real remedy for the intense catabolic effect that comes with a big calorie deficit is to eat more and shrink that daily deficit.

Back when I weighed 165 pounds, I spent roughly 60 days on a GLP-1 to clear out a stubborn bit of belly flab. My weight loss had begun around 200 pounds 3 years before that, and I'd gotten there through exercise, cardio and diet alone.

In my case the belly fat disappeared within 2 months, but of the 10 pounds I dropped, roughly half was muscle.

Now to what you actually asked lol

Secretagogues barely add muscle; they are not anabolic in any way. The knock-on effects on igf-1 signaling won't produce muscle growth unless you're already in an anabolic state...

So based on what you've described, a gh secretagogue won't help you rebuild muscle.

What I'd honestly suggest is eating more calories plus raising the intensity or frequency of your strength training, and joining a CrossFit class or something like it... in a serious calorie deficit you won't put on meaningful muscle without very high volume training and meticulous macro tracking.

If a muscle-building peptide is really what you want, skip ipa, cjc, hgh and all of those. Go with hCG. It prompts your ovarian cells to make a bit of extra testosterone, so the time and effort you spend in the gym pays off more, and your body naturally builds more muscle from the same work. Begin at roughly half a man's dose, 125iu every other day, stay there for about a month to see how you feel, then work up.

Side effects to expect: oilier skin, possibly some acne. As a female using hcg you'd have no expectation of virilization (masculinization), particularly at sensible doses, since it doesn't flood your body with hormones, it simply tells your ovaries to naturally produce a little more than they already do, moving your hormone levels from normal to high normal... unless the dose is larger, like the several thousand IU daily range, where it starts behaving completely differently in females, but you'd never get anywhere near that

Thanks—this really helps.

The strange part is that I haven't seen any drop in strength; I'm even setting PRs. My upper body still looks full, but my glutes have clearly gotten flatter.

For context: I'm 28, 4'11", and 150lbs. My starting weight was 220. I usually train with weights 5x per week. My calorie target is 1200-1400, though tirz makes that tough. I never go below 80g of protein, and I try to reach 120. I use creatine and l-carnitine every day.

At that point, would microdosing testosterone be the better option, with less risk?

The glutes carry a lot of fat, so when weight comes off they tend to shrink fast — that tracks.

For your situation, I'd steer you away from microdosing testosterone. If you went that route, you'd need blood work to track your test levels and make sure the dose isn't too high; otherwise you'd be looking at masculinization, which I doubt is something you want.

Hcg doesn't masculinize anyone, male or female. What it does is signal the body to make more of its own testosterone, which keeps hormone levels in the physiological range — just toward the upper end of normal. The result is that your body directs nutrition toward building and keeping muscle, and it also boosts glycogen and water storage inside the muscle you already have, like your glutes, so they look fuller and rounder even if no new muscle is built.

 

[wildweasel]

henzvwry said:


Thank you! I have not heard of Ibutamoren, I will look into it. I also plan on adding KLOW after this cycle of ghkcu.

I eat 80-120g of protein a day, I also take creatine pills. Would you suggest a powder instead? I have also not looked into a thermogenic yet. Thank you!

Click to expand...

Ibutamoren brings on a huge amount of water retention. You'll likely appear as though you put on a large amount of subcutaneous fat within 1 week of using it.

My own data from it can back this up: while on ibutamoren I put on 10lbs over 5 days, which works out to exactly 1 pound per day of water I was holding. Human trials were stopped by researchers because the water weight patients were accumulating was so severe that it triggered congestive heart failure in elderly people.

On top of that, it's simply yet another gh secretogoblin, and it genuinely won't move you toward your goal in any way unless you're already in an anabolic state and building muscle, which based on what you've described, you are not

 

[wildweasel]

henzvwry said:

wildweasel said:

Lots of women bring this up, and honestly guys do too. If you aren't cautious, GLP-1s eat away at muscle, and the only real remedy for the intense catabolic effect that comes with a big calorie deficit is to eat more and shrink that daily deficit.

Back when I weighed 165 pounds, I spent roughly 60 days on a GLP-1 to clear out a stubborn bit of belly flab. My weight loss had begun around 200 pounds 3 years before that, and I'd gotten there through exercise, cardio and diet alone.

In my case the belly fat disappeared within 2 months, but of the 10 pounds I dropped, roughly half was muscle.

Now to what you actually asked lol

Secretagogues barely add muscle; they are not anabolic in any way. The knock-on effects on igf-1 signaling won't produce muscle growth unless you're already in an anabolic state...

So based on what you've described, a gh secretagogue won't help you rebuild muscle.

What I'd honestly suggest is eating more calories plus raising the intensity or frequency of your strength training, and joining a CrossFit class or something like it... in a serious calorie deficit you won't put on meaningful muscle without very high volume training and meticulous macro tracking.

If a muscle-building peptide is really what you want, skip ipa, cjc, hgh and all of those. Go with hCG. It prompts your ovarian cells to make a bit of extra testosterone, so the time and effort you spend in the gym pays off more, and your body naturally builds more muscle from the same work. Begin at roughly half a man's dose, 125iu every other day, stay there for about a month to see how you feel, then work up.

Side effects to expect: oilier skin, possibly some acne. As a female using hcg you'd have no expectation of virilization (masculinization), particularly at sensible doses, since it doesn't flood your body with hormones, it simply tells your ovaries to naturally produce a little more than they already do, moving your hormone levels from normal to high normal... unless the dose is larger, like the several thousand IU daily range, where it starts behaving completely differently in females, but you'd never get anywhere near that

Thanks—this really helps.

The strange part is that I haven't seen any drop in strength; I'm even setting PRs. My upper body still looks full, but my glutes have clearly gotten flatter.

For context: I'm 28, 4'11", and 150lbs. My starting weight was 220. I usually train with weights 5x per week. My calorie target is 1200-1400, though tirz makes that tough. I never go below 80g of protein, and I try to reach 120. I use creatine and l-carnitine every day.

At that point, would microdosing testosterone be the better option, with less risk?

--OP--

Honestly, the most useful thing I can do is talk about your training and your food, because in your situation adding more compounds won't do anything for you — that's just the plain truth.

Female, 28, 4'11", 150lbs, lifting 5x per week... that puts your TDEE somewhere around 1900-2200. Because of tirz, hitting 1200-1400 cals a day is a struggle for you.

At 1200-1400 cals a day you're sitting in a huge calorie defict (roughly -1000 every day). Muscle loss is going to happen, and no peptide or supplement is going to prevent it until you change how much you eat. Even a bodybuilder running testosterone and gear constantly would still drop muscle on the kind of deficit you're describing

This comes down to basic human physiology and what the dietary science says, and I'll be blunt: no magic peptide is going to solve this for you.

Lower your tirz. Give yourself permission to eat more. Set your daily intake so the deficit is no bigger than -15% to -20% (so no more than -250 to -500 cals a day). That means adding several hundred calories to what you eat now. 1g protein per pound body weight. 0.3-0.5g fat per pound body weight. carbs make up the remainder. Aim for a 30%/25%/45% split of protein/fat/carbs.

You've got two paths: keep spinning your wheels, injecting a pile of things, waiting a month, and quitting when nothing shows up — or eat a bit more, hold a smaller deficit, and watch everything fall into place, your butt fill back out, and your PR's keep climbing.

Your call. I'm speaking from experience here.

 

[Meritocrat]

henzvwry said:


Would you suggest a powder instead? I have also not looked into a thermogenic yet.

Click to expand...

A better option would be creatine powder. Combine it with collagen powder and you get a genuinely helpful shake. My own approach is to mix it into a large protein shake and drink it slowly across the day, which helps me hit my nutrition targets while on Reta.

henzvwry said:


I have not heard of Ibutamoren, I will look into it. I also plan on adding KLOW after this cycle of ghkcu.

Click to expand...

The only reason Ibutamoren came up is that you mentioned Ipa. GH or any of its secretagogues are not something I would suggest. wildweasel is correct and I back that view. GH secretagogues are a no, and pinning Test is also a no, particularly for someone just beginning. Keep in mind that building muscle depends on nutrition, and anything that affects hunger can put your weight loss progress at risk. HCG sounds very useful. It also lines up with what I would genuinely suggest.

KLOW came up because the BPC and TB500 inside it may speed up recovery, which means you could train more often. On top of that, the thermogenic plus a solid NO preworkout might deliver a huge energy lift in the gym, making a session feel far more productive.

After you have everything settled into a steady routine, if a real boost is still needed, Var is always an option, but I would not even consider it at this point and, sadly, this public space is not the right place to discuss that.

 

[CNCCurrency]

henzvwry said:

wildweasel said:

Lots of women bring this up, and honestly guys do too. If you aren't cautious, GLP-1s eat away at muscle, and the only real remedy for the intense catabolic effect that comes with a big calorie deficit is to eat more and shrink that daily deficit.

Back when I weighed 165 pounds, I spent roughly 60 days on a GLP-1 to clear out a stubborn bit of belly flab. My weight loss had begun around 200 pounds 3 years before that, and I'd gotten there through exercise, cardio and diet alone.

In my case the belly fat disappeared within 2 months, but of the 10 pounds I dropped, roughly half was muscle.

Now to what you actually asked lol

Secretagogues barely add muscle; they are not anabolic in any way. The knock-on effects on igf-1 signaling won't produce muscle growth unless you're already in an anabolic state...

So based on what you've described, a gh secretagogue won't help you rebuild muscle.

What I'd honestly suggest is eating more calories plus raising the intensity or frequency of your strength training, and joining a CrossFit class or something like it... in a serious calorie deficit you won't put on meaningful muscle without very high volume training and meticulous macro tracking.

If a muscle-building peptide is really what you want, skip ipa, cjc, hgh and all of those. Go with hCG. It prompts your ovarian cells to make a bit of extra testosterone, so the time and effort you spend in the gym pays off more, and your body naturally builds more muscle from the same work. Begin at roughly half a man's dose, 125iu every other day, stay there for about a month to see how you feel, then work up.

Side effects to expect: oilier skin, possibly some acne. As a female using hcg you'd have no expectation of virilization (masculinization), particularly at sensible doses, since it doesn't flood your body with hormones, it simply tells your ovaries to naturally produce a little more than they already do, moving your hormone levels from normal to high normal... unless the dose is larger, like the several thousand IU daily range, where it starts behaving completely differently in females, but you'd never get anywhere near that

Thanks—this really helps.

The strange part is that I haven't seen any drop in strength; I'm even setting PRs. My upper body still looks full, but my glutes have clearly gotten flatter.

For context: I'm 28, 4'11", and 150lbs. My starting weight was 220. I usually train with weights 5x per week. My calorie target is 1200-1400, though tirz makes that tough. I never go below 80g of protein, and I try to reach 120. I use creatine and l-carnitine every day.

At that point, would microdosing testosterone be the better option, with less risk?

A low dose of test along with hgh isn't a terrible thought.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Anavar and DHEA come to mind, though they are not peps.

 

[rkbleddyn]

Creatine isn't a peptide, but it could help, and Ipamorelin is likely the least risky option among peptides that boost GH. Some folks suggest stacking it with CJC, or simply using Tesamorelin instead. HRT is another route. Naturally, every one of these comes with potential side effects—except for the Creatine.

 

[henzvwry]

wildweasel said:


--OP--

Let me actually just address your diet and fitness because honestly, that’s the best answer for you, don’t stack additional drugs they arent going to help you in your case, thats the simple truth

4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs lift weights 5x a week female... your TDEE is between 1900-2200 or so. You are having trouble targeting 1200-1400 cals daily because of tirz.

You are eating 1200-1400 cals daily. Thats a massive fkn calorie defict ( ~ -1000 daily). you are going to lose muscle and no peptide or supplement will stop that until you adjust calorie intake. If a body builder blasts testosterone and gear all day long they would still be losing muscle in this sort of calorie deficit you've described

This is simple human physiology and dietary sciency, brutal honesty: theres no magic peptide thats going to fix this for you.

Reduce tirz. Let yourself eat some more. Adjust daily calorie intake to be no more than a deficit of -15% to -20% daily (no more deficit than -250 to -500 cals daily). this means increasing your daily intake by several hundred calories. 1g protein per pound body weight. 0.3-0.5g fat per pound body weight. the rest carbs. 30%/25%/45% ratio of protein/fat/carbs is what you should aim for.

you can either spin your wheels injecting a bunch of stuff and waiting for a month and moving on when you dont see results, or your can maintain a smaller calorie deficit by eating some more calories and suddenly everything will fall in place and your butt will fill back out and your PR's will continue.

its really up to you. speaking from experience here.

Click to expand...

I appreciate it! For 10 weeks now I've been running a deficit without a break. My pattern is normally 4 weeks in a deficit, then 1 week at maintenance. Probably a good moment to take a full maintenance month.

Reading about other people's wins makes it tempting to believe that tossing in one extra thing will let me have it both ways lol.

 

[DunningKruger]

Your protein intake looks solid, and hitting that 120g target is great. You're running slightly low on calories, but since you're still in a cutting phase that's acceptable — just make sure you do a reverse diet once you reach your goal.

For me, Tesa beat Ipa. Because Ipa acts through the ghrelin pathway, my hunger cues went way up. On top of that, Ipa seemed to bring on tendon problems (carpal and knee) that never showed up with Tesa. I also had neurological effects — parasthesia in both arms each morning when I woke up, lasting 5-10 minutes. Luckily those faded within a few weeks after I stopped. The tendon problems, though, are still around months afterward.

As a fit woman at goal who wants strength & density rather than size, my own next experiment will be Test C. from my GP, paired with a small dose of HGH. Should those bring side effects, I'll happily return to Tesa, since it helped me add lean mass while dropping fat mass.

 

[henzvwry]

DunningKruger said:

Your protein intake looks solid, and hitting that 120g target is great. You're running slightly low on calories, but since you're still in a cutting phase that's acceptable — just make sure you do a reverse diet once you reach your goal.

For me, Tesa beat Ipa. Because Ipa acts through the ghrelin pathway, my hunger cues went way up. On top of that, Ipa seemed to bring on tendon problems (carpal and knee) that never showed up with Tesa. I also had neurological effects — parasthesia in both arms each morning when I woke up, lasting 5-10 minutes. Luckily those faded within a few weeks after I stopped. The tendon problems, though, are still around months afterward.

As a fit woman at goal who wants strength & density rather than size, my own next experiment will be Test C. from my GP, paired with a small dose of HGH. Should those bring side effects, I'll happily return to Tesa, since it helped me add lean mass while dropping fat mass.

From what I've read, Ipa can lead to joint problems, and my joints already give me enough trouble.

With tesa, did bloating hit you hard? That's the main reason I never gave it a shot. Tirz sorted out the terrible bloating I used to have, and the thought of going through that again honestly frightens me.

Test c is actually something I ran on and off for a few years! My ex husband was a powerlifter and talked me into giving it a try. My energy was high, I dropped a lot of weight and put on muscle, and my jaw and chin both became sharper and more defined. There were plenty of negative effects too, of course lol. I was younger then and didn't run it very responsibly. Everything has gone back to normal since. Microdosing it in shorter cycles is something I've seriously thought about.

 

[wildweasel]

henzvwry said:


Thank you! I've been in a deficit for 10 weeks straight. I usually do 4 weeks on, 1 week maintenance. I think it might be time for a maintenance month.

It's easy to read success stories and think if I just add one more thing, I'll get to have my cake and eat it too lol.

Click to expand...

Honestly I dealt with the same situation. When there's a lot of fat to shed, glp1 works wonders, but once the body no longer has much fat left to give up, it fights back against big calorie cuts by clinging to fat and burning through muscle instead.

It's tempting to assume your stack is missing some magic ingredient, when really it's the fundamentals that are slipping.

Speaking from my own life: I'm 38 and male. As I approached my goal weight, I was still running big calorie deficits and still training extremely hard, yet I looked flat as a board.

Even worse, the scale kept dropping, but the fat stopped coming off and my strength in the gym kept declining. I couldn't make sense of it... over two months went down the drain that way...

Once I brought my deficit down to roughly 250 calories/day, the remaining fat began to disappear and I started seeing visible tone come back.

Then my goal shifted to gaining muscle, and for a long stretch I was too scared to eat above maintenance. Honestly it was a massive mental hurdle, I was convinced I'd end up fat again... When I finally got past that fear and ate around a 400 cal daily surplus while sticking to my training, I put on no fat at all and ended up quite toned with real muscle growth.

When you've got plenty to lose, glp1 is fantastic for weight loss, but honestly, both from my own experience and from what so many people around me have said, the less fat you have left, the more it starts consuming muscle. At that stage, your diet turns into the single most critical factor for the physique you're after. The GLP1 honestly becomes an obstacle at a certain point, because in a big calorie deficit your body will tear down muscle rather than fat, yet the moment you shrink that deficit, it keeps stripping fat while preserving muscle and tone.

Maybe it's been doing that all along and you just can't see it when a lot of body fat is hiding everything else, I really don't know

 

[wildweasel]

henzvwry said:


I actually ran test c for a few years on and off!

Click to expand...

Honestly that's pretty based — I didn't expect you to just drop the idea of microdosing t like that, but now it all makes sense lol

 

[henzvwry]

wildweasel said:


Pretty based tbh I was surprised when you casually suggested microdosing t, now I know why lol

Click to expand...

Honestly, it didn't bother me! The majority of the effects were actually things I enjoyed lol. The only downsides were the acne and having a harder time keeping my emotions in check, but aside from those, everything else ranged from pleasant to just neutral lol.

 

[henzvwry]

wildweasel said:


I went through the exact same thing tbh, glp1 are great at losing large volume of fat, but when human bodies don’t have significant fat to lose, they respond to large calorie deficits by holding onto fat and eating muscle.

It’s really easy to think you’re missing something in your stack and overlook the basics.

My own experience, I’m a male, 38, and when I got near to my target weight I still kept large calorie deficits and kept working out hard af and I stayed looking like a washboard.

Worse, I was losing weight on the scale, but my fat wasn’t disappearing anymore and my lifts were getting weaker, I didn’t understand it… I wasted over two months doing this…

When I reduced my deficit to around 250 calories/day, the little bit of fat I had started melting off and I suddenly began building visible body tone again

Later when my goal changed to building muscle, I was afraid to eat above maintenance for a long time, it was a huge psychological barrier honestly, I thought I would get fat again… Eventually I broke that psychological barrier and ran about a 400 cal daily surplus and kept my workout routine and I didn’t gain any fat whatsoever and I became very toned with significant muscle growth

Glp1 is great losing weight when you have a lot to lose, but honestly, not just for myself, but from what I’ve heard from so many people around me as you have less and less fat to lose, it really starts eating into muscle and at that point, your diet becomes the singular most important thing to getting the physique you want the GLP1 honestly starts to get in the way at a certain point because your body will start destroying muscle instead of fat if it’s in a large calorie deficit, but as soon as you make that calorie deficit small, it will keep removing fat and maintaining muscle and body tone.

Maybe it does that the whole time it just can’t be seen when there’s a lot of body fat covering up the rest of someone’s body I don’t know

Click to expand...

That mental hurdle is something I completely get. These days I'm no longer carrying extra fat, yet I'm also not really at an average or slim build, which means my goals need to be reworked from scratch. Whenever I go past 1400, it makes me anxious.

Last Summer I was on a glp1, but I stopped a few months in because my lifts dropped off. This time I've stuck with it far more consistently, since getting back into shape has taken serious effort. Between 18 and 22 I was in great shape, then I let things slide and a few years back I had to begin again from zero.

 

[wildweasel]

henzvwry said:


I for sure understand the psychological barrier. I'm at a point where I'm not fat anymore but not quite average or skinny, so I'm having to reset my goals. I get nervous when I eat over the 1400 threshold.

I took a glp1 last Summer but quit after a few months when my lifts tanked. I've been much more diligent this time around because I've worked really hard to get fit again. I was super fit when I was 18-22, but let myself ago and had to start all over a few years ago.

Click to expand...

I get nervous when I eat over the 1400 threshold.

Click to expand...

I had a comparable situation, and honestly it worked against me. Say I showed you photos of myself after 9 months spent trying to add body tone and shed fat while eating in a big calorie deficit, next to photos from only 2 months of maintenance or a slight surplus with nothing changed in my routine — you'd likely laugh. I shift from a washboard look to a manly chest and veiny biceps, which is pretty wild honestly