Acknowledging that I am overweight .... and starting the journey to recovery

[PepGladiator]

No blame, no shame. Let's start the acknowledgment with that.

Age: 50

Sex: Male

Height: 5'11

Start Weight: 225 lb

Body Fat % : 25.1

Current Weight: 219

Weight Loss: - 6 lbs

Dosage Regimen:

Tirz - 2.5 mg, once per week (x 4 weeks)

Tesa - 1.0 mg, 5 days per week (x 4 weeks)

Have been trying to lose weight and get in shape for the past 10 years. Have tried every diet, including intermittent fasting - but have never been able to get rid of the belly fat. I go to the gym 4 times a week, and have a good size muscle from years of lifting heavy. My cardio could do a whole lot of improvement. My biggest issues is with regard to not having self-control with my eating. Always can't say no to a larger portion, and this is something I have struggled with for a long time. I just love good food, and that has been the source of my lack of progress.

About 4 weeks ago, I started my GLP-1 journey. Obtained supplies for the first 6 weeks from a local reseller (Canada), but the prices are unsustainable. Saw many discussions about grey-market supplies on Reddit, and found my way to GPL1 Forum. It takes a leap of faith to order from a strange vendor - just on the basis of posts on a forum, not to mention the steep learning curve on crypto payments. But I guess we eventually stumble forward and learn how to do it. Waiting for a shipment of grey-market Tirz/Tesa/Reta to arrive.

So far, I have only lost 6 lbs over the first 4 weeks. Sometimes I get discouraged and think -- is that it? Is this really what the miracle that everyone is talking about? only 6 lbs in 4 weeks? But then when I do the math and see that this is 1.5 lbs per weeks so far, I extrapolate and think that I can reach my goal of 185 (weight in my 30's) by October. That gets me motivated to get to the gym.

What has changed:

Appetite suppression has kicked in, and I don't crave food as much. I am attributing this to Tirz.

Sleeping incredibly well. I have gone from 5-6 hour sleeps, punctuated with insomnia, to sleeping 8 hours nightly. The only thing weird has been my vivid dreams. I am attributing this to the Tesa.

Haven't had many side-effects. The main issue has been with skin dryness (ashy skin) that began in the second week. Searched online and it appears that this is a known effect of dehydration while on Tirz. So I am trying to increase my water intake to see if that makes a difference. Otherwise, it is lotion, lotion, lotion, especially on my legs and arms.

Fears and concerns:

Worried that my shipment from the vendor will not arrive.

Maybe it arrives, and it is not pure/contaminated etc etc... I need to learn how to filter, and figure out also how to get product tested.

Hoping that there aren't many long-term issues from using these products

Hopes and Excitement:

Can't wait to see where I will be 6 months from now

For now, I plan just to stick to the Tirz and Tesa, and see how far that takes me before I even try the Reta (assuming that I receive the shipments). A lot of posts here seem to be excited about the capabilities of what Reta provides, and I am curious too - and struggling whether to just simply change to that as well. But a part of me says that I should stick to one dosage regimen to see what it does for my body first, and that is currently what I am leaning forward to.

I will keep this post updated as I go through.

Let me know if you are in the same boat, or have different starting points.

 

[anhydrous]

Great post! Looking at it as lbs lost per week is a mature way to think about it. You could lose at a faster rate but with greatly increased risk of side effects that might disrupt your quality of life. I ran into it and it is not a worthwhile tradeoff at all. We are close to the same size, I'm at 6' 228.4lbs now but I started at 261.6lbs on January 7th. My first goal weight that I pulled out of my ass was 210lbs but I think that I'll be revising it downwards more in line with yours if things keep working well.

As far as fears and concerns they are normal. It seems like getting packages into Canada is a little harder than some countries but not as bad as others. Even if you get screwed over now and then you'll still come out so far ahead compared to single vial resellers or big pharma pricing so I suggest factoring that into the cost of doing business.

 

[ambot88]

good for you - starting is the hardest part and you'll get there in no time - like you said, you can be at your by October and that's not really very far away. I started with Reta in October 2024 and am now 70lbs down and at my goal. Also a fellow Albertan, kind of tricky shipping here but I've managed. Good luck!

 

[gimmeshelter]

Great post and great progress. I too am researching Tesa for the belly fat function although I think I will wait until a plateau.

I do want to mention something you did not mention. Are you tracking food? I use MyFitnessPal paid version, free works fine too. You have to do this. If not, you will not really know or understand why u are losing or gaining. I even stated using my ebay scale to weigh foods by the gram. I do that for breakfast and lunch and try to do it for dinner but not as consistent.

Originally I thought tracking would be annoying and make me go crazy but it kinda has a gamification feel to it. So, tracking is kind of a challenge. Anyway, if u are tracking, disregard and again, congrats keep pushin.

 

[FartfulCodger]

Your story is similar to mine: 5'9" male, 60 years old, loved food and couldn't make the dieting stick. Part of it was being demoralized about how long the weight loss was taking, and those awful days where your weight somehow shows an increase even though you suffered yesterday.

Tirz is nothing short of a miracle drug, as far as I'm concerned. I started in November at 230 lbs. I'm now down to 170 lbs., a few pounds from my goal. I believe I lost very little muscle, if any, as the strengh in my arms and legs seems to be the same as always. My loss was relatively fast because I followed a fairly aggressive titration schedule. I was impatient. I know I also didn't eat enough protein. I really wanted to exploit the appetite reduction, so there were days where I consumed under 1000 calories. I'm not sure I'd recommend losing fast--it puts a lot of stress on your body and causes some inflammation that was reflected in my blood test earlier this week. It should even out over time.

Enjoy your journey. Recognize that those pants you've saved for years--the ones that are too tight to fit right now--are only going to fit for a few weeks before you'll need a belt!

 

[gimmeshelter]

Your story is similar to mine: 5'9" male, 60 years old, loved food and couldn't make the dieting stick. Part of it was being demoralized about how long the weight loss was taking, and those awful days where your weight somehow shows an increase even though you suffered yesterday.

Tirz is nothing short of a miracle drug, as far as I'm concerned. I started in November at 230 lbs. I'm now down to 170 lbs., a few pounds from my goal. I believe I lost very little muscle, if any, as the strengh in my arms and legs seems to be the same as always. My loss was relatively fast because I followed a fairly aggressive titration schedule. I was impatient. I know I also didn't eat enough protein. I really wanted to exploit the appetite reduction, so there were days where I consumed under 1000 calories. I'm not sure I'd recommend losing fast--it puts a lot of stress on your body and causes some inflammation that was reflected in my blood test earlier this week. It should even out over time.

Enjoy your journey. Recognize that those pants you've saved for years--the ones that are too tight to fit right now--are only going to fit for a few weeks before you'll need a belt!

wow that is aggressive. I am low and slow. .5mg 1-4 weeks / .8mg week 5. Down 12 lbs. Combining tracking, lifting and good amount of cardio has me in a decent cal deficit. My thought process is to re train my brain on foods to eat, when to eat and tracking. I am not per say vastly overweight but goal is to lose 20-25 this yr slowly. Also, I seem to be a super responder. Weeks 1-4 even at .5mg I could take or leave food so calorie control was easy. My 10mg vial gonna go bad before I finish it lol

 

[Smiter]

My story is also similar to yours. 44 year old male, 6"3, started this round of Obesity Kombat at 263lbs. I started Reta around 8 days ago. Took my 2nd dose today. All the comments here are superb. I'll add one bit for now. Our goal should be full lifestyle modification and we should aim for body recomposition. But I have found that picking the right sport or hobby to get into can make a huge difference to our ability to stick to the regimen. I don't know what sport/hobby will be good for you, but it has to be something that you can pursue even within your home when there is no other option available, as in, train at home too. I have one such option and it has enabled me enormously.