#22

I agree with your statement. I would not trust the seller. It s too easy to submit a good sample, and sell something else, or produce a fake document, etc.
Some of the purchasing of research and compounded medications I have a hard time understanding. I buy Lilly Mounjaro 60 mg for about $800 a month. So, not a huge price difference and possibly more peace of mind. They do or did have coupons to get the price down to around $500 or less too.

#23

15mg per dose is pretty high (the max dose) of Mounjaro/Tirzepatide, none of my business of course but I’m curious, are you taking it for T2D?

I’ve only seen a very few people in my little sphere need anything more than 5mg per dose for weight loss. 3.5mg was all I needed and now down to 2.5mg of Retatrutide after switching.

In the US, folks get ripped pretty hard on prescription drugs. In most other countries that dose would be less than $200 a month. Maybe that is what is driving the “research chemical” market.

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#24

Another factor here is that a prescription from an MD will require ongoing monitoring and appointments. If you want that, great. If you don’t, it can be a waste of money and time.

Research chemicals are available without a prescription, typically at much lower cost. For $120, I can get 10 mg of semaglutide that is of equivalent or superior quality to what a compounding pharmacy sells. At a low dose of .25/week, it will last me almost a year. And the lack of a requirement for medical monitoring is a big plus. I can manage my own medications and know the science better than my doc.

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#25

I split it into 7.5 mg doses and use it mainly for weight loss, my blood sugar was never a problem. I was getting close to tachycardia, mainly due to stress, when I started, and my resting HR dropped 20-30 points very quickly. I had great results when I started at 2.5 mg and went as high as 10 mg, but at 10 mg the side effects were not worth it. Overall, it has helped improve several of the health markers I track.

You are right about US prescription drug costs. There is no way to justify 4X the costs of other advanced nations.

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#26
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#27

Did you mean to say your resting heart rate increased 20-30 points very quickly? Or do you mean it went up in the beginning but then dropped after you continued taking it?

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#28

Such a deal!!

Under the new pricing plan, a month’s supply of the lowest dose, 2.5 milligrams, will cost $399, while a month’s supply of the 5 mg dose will cost $549. That’s down from a monthly list price of $1,059, regardless of the dosage.

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#29

BG Pharma who is selling a lot of rapamycin to europeans, is selling non-pharma retatrutide from Qingdao Sigma at $70 for 15 mg here:
https://www.bgpharmadrugs.com/product/peptides/

Not something I would personally take, only pharma products for me.

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#30

Sorry, my statement was not well written. It was 90s before starting Tirzepatide and dropped to 60-70s resting within the 1st month or 2. When I tried the 10 mg dosage I did notice a HR increase and other side effects, so I dropped back to 7.5 mg. I was going to school year round for several years, taking additional credits and interim classes, along with working, home ownership, etc.

#31

Might be time to move to Japan. $94 per month might offset other costs.

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#32

Ah ok interesting. My RHR quickly increased by at least 10 with just the 2.5mg weekly dose of tirzepatide. Still waiting for it to come down after a month, despite decreasing to 1mg last week.

Interestingly, in Peter Attia’s podcast last week he revealed that he would “love to lose 10 pounds” but the reason he’s not taking a GLP is because he doesn’t like the increase in RHR and decrease in HRV that he sees virtually across the board in his patients who take them. He thinks it’s worth the trade-off for people who are obese, but is wary of the risk for those who just “need to lose a few pounds”.

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#33

Reta isn’t necessarily “better” than sema with respect to weightloss just because it binds to 3 receptor types. “Better” is dependent on the objective of a medication and how each person responds. Sema, Tirz, and Reta each outperform each other with respect to their overweighted targeted receptor.

Reta’s super power is its impact on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and halting the progression of liver fibrosis as shown in this study:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03018-2

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#34

Not sure what you mean by this. The reta phase 2 trial showed average 24% weight loss at highest dose, whereas it was 21% for tirzepatide and less for semaglutide.

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#35

Interesting, hope it comes down for you. Mine kept getting better, weight loss and removing some stress probably contributed, until 10 mg. Then, I had a similar increase to you of 5-10 bpm. The worst side effects for me were generalized malaise and feeling cold up to two days after administration.

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#36

I’m not challenging the outcome of the study. My point is that the number of targeted receptors has no bearing on a weight-loss drug being better than one with fewer targeted receptors. Each drug has an objective and each person has a goal. And that’s what will determine which drug is better for each person. Weight loss percentage over a given time is a single measure.

If my weight-loss goal included minimizing the loss of lean muscle mass, I would likely choose Pemvidutide, a 2 receptor agonist.

If I were a bodybuilder who had difficulty adding weight during a bulking cycle, I would choose Reta at a low dose to increase my appetite.

If I were “skinny fat”, I would choose Reta to obliterate my visceral fat.

This chart is 2 weeks old and shows weight-loss drugs by targeted receptor and trial class.

image
image1920×886 101 KB

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#37

Are you basing these recommendations on clinical data in humans? I’ve barely seen anything involving GLP/GIP/GCG agonists and body comp.

#38

The choices I would consider making for myself, given each of the scenarios, are based on clinical studies in humans. The second scenario is based on clinical studies and “research” completed by others that has been shared with me.

Edited to add “in humans”

#39

I hope you’re right that it has a lean mass sparing effect, but I haven’t yet seen any human clinical data for retatrutide’s effect on body composition (only on overall weight loss). Have you also seen/heard that reta often increases heart rate more than sema/tirz?

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#40

Not sure I understand the use of a weight loss drug during bulking phase?

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#41

My RHR has not changed since I started Tz or Rt and neither has my HRV been negatively affected, Same for the boss :slight_smile:

We measure both every day as soon as we wake up. I use the EliteHRV app and their finger clip (discontinued).

Been doing that consistently for 4 years as part of our vagus nerve stimulation program using a TENs unit and ear clip. I’ve posted a PDF with a DIY how to here, Might help those who do experience changes in RHR and HRV when taking these drugs.

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