It started around month two, and it's gotten more noticeable recently. I've had my blood pressure checked and it's normal. My doctor thinks it might be related to dehydration or electrolyte imbalance from eating less. Has anyone else experienced orthostatic hypotension (the woozy feeling when you stand up) on these meds? What helped?
I have been lifting for years and I am nowhere near where I want to be. I am cutting right now because I look pretty chubby, but it is just frustrating because I feel incredibly small. I am 24, 5'10, and 175 pounds. I would probably have to get down to 165 to even see my abs, but I already feel tiny at my current weight. When I was bulking at 185 I felt big, and I want that size back but at a lower body fat. It feels like I just have terrible genetics for building muscle.
I also want to move heavier weight. I see guys at my gym repping my maxes and I want to get to that level. My current numbers are a 385 squat, 300 bench, 185 overhead press, and 335 deadlift. I notice the guys pushing the biggest weight are always massive, so I need to put on size to get there.
I am planning to run LGD for 6 to 8 weeks depending on how my body handles it. I want to start at 2.5mg to see how I react before I raise it to 5mg. I got my bloodwork done at 8am. My total testosterone is 1000, free is 114, and estrogen is 32. Everything else looks normal, but my FSH is a little low. Even with high test numbers on paper, I still feel low testosterone symptoms pretty often. Does this sound like a decent plan? I am doing my research but I want to hear from people who have actually run it before.
I used to think I just had a big appetite. But since the constant food noise has quieted down on Wegovy, I've noticed there's this whole other layer of boredom, anxiety, and low-grade sadness that I was filling with snacks. Now that the snacks are gone, I actually have to sit with my feelings, and I'm not sure I'm great at it.
It's like the medicine turned down the volume on one channel, but now I can hear all the static on the others. For people who have been on these meds for a while, did you find that your emotional relationship with food changed? Do you feel like you've replaced eating with other coping mechanisms, or are you just more comfortable with the discomfort?
I have a specific question about social dynamics, so bear with me for a second.
I have been on Tirzepatide for about 15 months and I’m down nearly 75 pounds. The transformation is huge but some people I know are being really awkward about it. They aren’t being aggressive, but they are definitely acting cold. A friend recently joked that I found a cheat code and then tried to act like it was just a prank. My cousin used to always vent to me about her weight but now she stays completely silent. I even had to sit through a group of friends gossiping about people on weight loss shots while I was right there.
I am not asking for advice on how to handle them personally. I want to know if there is a specific way you explain being on these meds that stops the "cheating" talk before it even happens. Is there a way to frame this for skeptical people that actually makes sense to them?
hi everyone, i don't really know if posting this is allowed here.. But i need somewhere to put this because it feels too complicated to fully unload on my boyfriend right now. like this is happy news and i don't want to make it weird but i also have a lot going on in my head that i just need to get out somewhere.
my boyfriend and i have been trying for a while. like really trying, the kind where every month that passed felt heavier than the last. and somewhere in the middle of all of that i started reta and for the first time in years my body actually started cooperating. the progress came, i started feeling genuinely good in my skin, confident even, which is not something i say lightly. i was finally in a place where i actually liked what i saw and felt like i was heading somewhere real.
and then we found out. and i cried happy tears, genuinely, because we wanted this so much. but then a quieter feeling came in right after and i've felt guilty about it ever since. like i'm allowed to be scared right? i'm allowed to feel both things at once?
the part that's been sitting with me the most though is whether being on reta before finding out could affect the baby in any way. i stopped immediately obviously but i wasn't that far along when i found out and i can't stop wondering if those early weeks matter. are there any studies on this at all? has anyone actually looked into what glp1 exposure early in pregnancy does or doesn't do because i have been down so many rabbit holes and keep finding conflicting things.
i'm happy, i really am. i just have a lot of feelings living next to each other right now and i don't know what to do with all of them. has anyone been through something like this
thank you to anyone who actually read through all of this, i know it's a lot and i appreciate it more than i can say 💗
tl;dr got pregnant after trying for a long time, was seeing real progress on reta and finally feeling good about my body, stopped immediately after finding out but now i'm worried about whether early glp1 exposure could affect how the baby develops. happy but scared and looking for anyone who's been through something similar or knows if there's any actual research on this
It has been almost a year since I began taking Rybelsus and nausea attacks have been totally unpredictable. Sometimes I can have several weeks in a row when I don't feel sick at all. And sometimes I am nauseous without knowing why. I came across this article in the Journal of Controlled Release about an effect I did not know anything about previously, which is the action of the absorption enhancer known as SNAC. This is exactly the substance that allows Rybelsus work as a drug.
However, this research was carried out on rats and, thus, its findings should be taken with a grain of salt. It turns out that SNAC by itself (regardless of any medication combined with it) leads to a substantial alteration in microbiota composition. There is a decrease in several species responsible for fiber fermentation and the production of the so-called butyrate, which is crucial for normal intestinal function.
Besides, the treatment was linked to elevated levels of inflammatory biomarkers, lowered concentration of BDNF and increased liver weight while cecum mass decreased. This is still in rats and not in humans; it is also associative and not causative. But it poses an interesting question that had not occurred to me before: Could some of the GI side effects of semaglutide be caused by the absorption enhancer and not the drug?
The 2024 shortage taught me a lesson: never run out. So here's my stockpile strategy:
How I did it:
What I learned:
I know stockpiling is controversial. Some people say I'm hoarding. I say I've been without my meds for 6 weeks before and I'm not doing that again.
It feels like everyone is suddenly talking about Retatrutide as the ultimate fix for cutting weight. I also see a ton of fitness influencers pushing it right now. I cannot tell if these people are just getting paid to promote the compound or if they actually stand behind how well it works. Is the hype around it actually legit?
Fourteen years ago I developed severe Ulcerative Colitis. I lost 40 pounds in two months, constantly threw up my food, and was dealing with bloody diarrhea while the hospital just gave me IV fluids and morphine. Out of pure desperation to gain weight and stop looking like a skeleton, I decided to run a low dose cycle of Test and Tren. Within two weeks my appetite was completely back and by week four the bleeding stopped entirely. I finally had the strength to stand up and start rebuilding my body.
I later read about Nandrolone being used for inflammation, so when I had another flare up a couple of years later, I ran that instead of Tren and it worked just as well. I have kept an emergency cycle on hand ever since. I finally saw a specialist who diagnosed me and prescribed actual medication, but it barely works compared to the gear. I told him how I treat my flares and he refused to monitor me or prescribe it, even though I had already been doing it for a decade. I am not even massive, just a normal guy who works out, but anabolics absolutely saved my life.
A retrospective cohort study just published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology looked at over 25,000 patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease (eGFR 25-60). The study compared three groups: GLP-1 alone, SGLT2 alone, and GLP-1+SGLT2 combination. Follow-up was 18 months.
The findings: the combination reduced the composite kidney endpoint (40% eGFR decline, kidney failure, or death) by 38% compared to GLP-1 alone and by 35% compared to SGLT2 alone. The combination also reduced the rate of eGFR decline by about 2 mL/min/year more than either alone.
The protective effects were additive, meaning they work through different mechanisms. GLP-1s reduce inflammation and intraglomerular pressure. SGLT2s reduce sodium reabsorption and blood pressure.
I thought I had food noise under control but then I had a really stressful week. Just a bunch of stuff like a family crisis, a bunch of work deadlines, and no sleep. That got the cravings roaring back even though I was on my full dose of 10mg.
At first I panicked since I thought the medication stopped working. But then my therapist pointed out something I hadn't considered. That the stress eating isn't hunger, rather It's a different neural pathway. GLP-1s quiet the biological hunger signal, but they don't erase years of learned emotional eating.
The good news is that the cravings were easier to manage than before. I noticed them and I acknowledged them but I chose not to act on them. So that's progress.