My X feed is overwhelmed with peptide posts, but this one caught my eye today because of what looks like an Aggie ring. Which one of you is this?

Is this our boy Moses?

Maintenance/Recomp phase is going well 😎 pic.twitter.com/LLAiZswH3D

— 9th Life (@_9th_Life_) June 25, 2026

No bro I'm a ghost on socials. This is my only little vice. No tattoos for me either.

MosesHallEnforcer said:

---

No bro I'm a ghost on socials. This is my only little vice. No tattoos for me either.

---

Haha, I didn't really think it was you.

Got caught. That's me at 56. Peptides work! I hardly ever go to the gym! Need more tats now that I see myself. Also need to clench harder for pics. Glad I invested in just for men for my beard!

When cycling off Tesa is there anything people cycle on? Cycling off in two weeks

Tesa can be taken long term with no desensitization unless you are taking with Ipamorelin, which does need to be cycled off. CJC1295 hits the same receptors as Tesa but at a much lower dose and cost but is often blended with Ipa which needs the cycle off

Peptira has BOGO 10mg retatrutide through midnight. Only applies to single vials

Works out to $54.50 per vial of 10mg

A little confusing on the checkout process but if you were wanting to buy 5 and get 5 free, add 10 single vials to the checkout and the automated coupon should cut your order cost in half

Good chance to try out reta for the first time if youre interested in just buying a couple

I was given two unopened bags of collagen peptide drink mixes. One is from VivaNaturals and the other is SkinnyFit. Reviews are all over the place from "they work great" to "worthless as can be".

Anyone ever tried any brand of collagen peptide drink mixes and notice any positive results?

Average Joe said:

---

I was given two unopened bags of collagen peptide drink mixes. One is from VivaNaturals and the other is SkinnyFit. Reviews are all over the place from "they work great" to "worthless as can be".

Anyone ever tried any brand of collagen peptide drink mixes and notice any positive results?

---

It won't do you any harm but if it has an effect will depend on other things such as your diet. Fine to take since theyre free but not a need to have if youre eating right. To notice any difference in collagen levels, if increased notably, it'd likely take 6 weeks to get there at minimum

Interesting. The protocols I have seen has said to take breaks. One was 4 weeks one was 8 weeks.

The original HIV trials ran something like 18 months or so, and I think that's where the thought that tesa can be run longer comes from. But remember those were people in a trial and whose health greatly depended on aggressively attacking their visceral fat (and they weren't necessarily using it for GH purposes).

I'm not saying you can't run it longer; you're obviously free to do as you wish. But based on all the protocols and research I've seen usually 12-16 weeks is the top end for mostly healthy adults using tesa as a GH secretagogue and/or to burn visceral fat.

Edit to add: There isn't any health negative or risk running it longer. As I understand you just may see a decrease in effectiveness over time (although some people argue that receptor attenuation isn't really a thing).

There was also a Phase III Trial which ran 2mg subq daily for 52 weeks, which showed IGF-1 levels elevated and stayed elevated for the entire duration of the trial, indicating no desensitization. Again, when stacked with Ipamorelin, it needs to be cycled because Ipa does desensitize at ~90 days and needs 14-30 days off to reset.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3218714/

"The rapid reversal of the tesamorelin effects on body fat and lipid levels upon discontinuation of therapy is probably explained by the reversal of IGF-1 increases. Among patients maintained on tesamorelin for 52 weeks, the IGF-1 levels remained at the levels achieved at week 26, but they returned to baseline for patients switched to placebo at week 26.84,85"

Nice. Good info to know!

Curious why you say ipamorelin should be cycled, the somatostatin suppression?

Here's a good tweet for our TRT guys and why you need to get your Free T check also.

A nice real-world example showing the importance of checking a Free Testosterone level.

New patient - personal trainer in incredible shape - with nutrition and workouts on point. Ex-athlete who still dabbles in Olympic lifting competitions.

He was experiencing the typical… pic.twitter.com/0uH7t52DPE

— Dr. K, M.D. (@DrKERMD) June 30, 2026

I got that guy beat. Check out my ratio from January before I started any peptides, TRT, or general optimization...

AgEng06 said:

---

I got that guy beat. Check out my ratio from January before I started any peptides, TRT, or general optimization...

---

But he said ex-athlete.

Just kidding. That's a wild gap.

Well, my doc did say I had one of the highest SHBG levels that he had seen in 20 years of practice.

This is interesting. New blends


GLP3-RT (40mg) / GLP1-T (20mcg)
Designed for researchers looking to study two innovative compounds in a single formulation.
BPC-157 (5mg) / TB-500 (5mg) / Cartalax (10mg)
A powerful three-compound blend created for advanced regenerative research applications.
Selank (5mg) / Semax (5mg) / Dihexa (1mg)
An advanced nootropic-focused research blend combining three highly researched compounds into one convenient vial.

You get Alpha Labs emails too huh?

Yes for research purposes only of course.

Huberman's routine bloodwork showed his blood lipids were out of range.

He decided to start supplementing NATTOKINASE, and in a follow-up test, his blood lipids were back to normal.

Is NK the best supplement for heart health?

Let's look at the evidence: (1/16) pic.twitter.com/CzkoosoAd8

— Patrick Sullivan Jr. (@realPatrickJr) July 1, 2026

Has anybody tried NATTOKINASE. I wouldn't know where to look for it.

Yeah it's part of my daily supplement routine. I also take citrus bergamot.

You can get it on Amazon.

AnyOtherName said:

---

Just received my order from Peptira (flawless process, TY for posting that in here). I was doing some independent research on peptides and glad I found this board to give me the confidence to pull the trigger.

Been taking Wegovy for the last few months with little benefit and paying $300/month through HIMS so giving this a go. I will post updates, mostly as accountability to myself.

Beginning tonight after fasting:
Reta
Tesa
Ipa

Current stats 6/10/26
Age: 37
6'2 228.0 lbs
BP: 128/92
HR: 64

The Why: Feel like crap. Ready to turn my physical health around. Just lost my dad to Prostate Cancer a month ago and he didn't do anything to take care of himself. (diabetes, 5-CABG, list goes on and on) My wife has alluded to that physical touch is correlated to how well I take care of myself too, hah!

---

Baseline after 1st Dexa Scan on 7/1/2026 and blood work on 6/16/2026 (I AM ***** PISSED, disappointed, embarrassed, whatever you call it for letting myself get this out of shape.) Hard to describe the feeling but I am swallowing nothing but pride.

Weight
225.1 lbs per dexa at 1:00p (223.6 lbs this morning when I woke up and when I routinely measure)
Body Fat
34.8% (I guessed 20% and my wife guessed 25.) I was only about half off... ****
Fat Mass
78.2 lbs
Lean Mass
138.6 lbs
Bone Mass
8.3 lbs
Blood Pressure
120/83 (best it has been since I can remember)
Resting Heart Rate
69 bpm
Total Cholesterol
184 mg/dL
HDL
38 mg/dL
LDL
118 mg/dL
Triglycerides
163 mg/dL (Lowest it has been since I can remember)
Non-HDL
146 mg/dL
Chol/HDL Ratio
4.8
Total Testosterone
235 ng/dL (6/16) second check 311 ng/dl (6/18) - TRT started through Rise Men's Health

Regimen:
Tesa .75mg m-f (6/15 start)
IPA: .25 mg m-f (6/15 start)
Reta: .50mg x Tues and Fri (appetite is suppressed.) (6/12 start)
TRT: 100mg/ml week (6/22 start)
Intermitent fasting (ongoing)
Not drinking (6/12 start)
Gym 4x week (6/15 start)

Life style change: I have been on peptides for about 2.5 weeks now. TRT for 2 weeks, stopped drinking 3 weeks. Fogginess is gone, energy up. Desire to go to gym is high. Down 4.5 lbs.

I will be posting periodic updates after retests because I am doing it ALL. According to Dexa I am in the 92% for body fat for ages 34 to 40. Unbelievable. All I can say is thank you for this forum because I have started to turn it around.

Great start! Managing the costs and the pokes will be the hardest part. Feeling better and looking better will motivate you more and more.

Don't want to go back and search. Where does everyone go for bloodwork.

I do the at home one with rhythm. But have done private md before.

The time we tried to go through insurance it was a nightmare. Much easier just to go out of pocket.

Hey man, congrats you're on the right track and there's no doubt in my mind that you're going to succeed in a big way.

One thing to note we have no idea what your doses are. mL measure liquid and we have no idea how many mg are in the liquid you are taking.

Get your mind wrapped around the math and reach out if you need help. Let us know how many mg you're taking of each of the compounds in your stack. mL tells us nothing

Good call out. Fixed

The thing that has had the single biggest impact on my health is stopping drinking. I am six months sober. Not that I was drinking much maybe a couple of times a month but when I did I went hard. Then my diet and workouts would suck for the next few days. I have never felt better and to be honest I do not miss it one bit.

Diet is so important and go on instagram and it's so easy to find healthy meals. Insanely healthy and insanely easy. I never get bored with eating because I am always eating something new.

Good deal man, conservative doses, but hopefully you can bump that test up some and same with the ipa and tesa once you know you are tolerating well.

Also, consider maybe adding some daily metformin, armour thyroid, and citrus bergamot and nattokinese.

Not trying to throw too much at you, but those are some solid staples.

Use telerx for the metformin and armour thyroid and the other stuff you can get on amazon.

The metformin and thyroid will def help with your weight loss and fix some of your inflammation, gut issues etc.

Yup conservative doses on all to start, wanted to find a rhythm since I had no baseline on any of it. Feeling good. Just shocked by the facts of the numbers. It's the wake up I needed and a reminder that this is a marathon as much as I hate that term.

In my mind I was 20-25% body fat and going to 10-15 in the next 6 months. Thought process was just allll wrong and unrealistic

Yup. I have flirted with sobriety many times. Made handful month stints and usually come back harder when I do drink again. Leads to eating more etc.

A good berberine supplement over the counter can help if you don't want an Rx for metformin, there are clinical trials showing almost exact results.
I got very similar blood test and dexa results a few weeks back. I'm also coming off a major surgery 4 months ago which led to a 25lb weight gain which spurred me to check on everything and it really opened my eyes also. I've been digging deep into all of this stuff since then and have started Reta, Tesa/Ipa, KLOW, Berberine, Red Yeast Rice, and a few other supplements to keep vitamins and minerals in balance on a restricted calorie diet. Also started upper body lifting 2x / wk in addition to 2x / wk lower body PT sessions and as much walking as my knee will put up with. So far I'm down 22lbs in the first month, have way more energy, am sleeping much better, and the rehab seems to be moving along better. Still can't believe I let myself get to this point...