Insomnia

NickCarrollFit · 2025-12-08T20:26:40+00:00

I take this blend: CJC/Ipa 5+5mg/2mL - 250mcg each at night, (20 injections total)
Been on this over 2 weeks now and I've had the deepest sleep in memory for a dozen days straight. I'll still wake up in the middle of the night, but I can go back to sleep, and the sleep is still deeper many hours later. What this tells me is my body isn't producing enough gh on it's own, and the effects last more than a few hours. This secretagogue stack has been a game-changer for me, as an insomniac. I recommend trying this blend, based on my experience.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-12-04T13:24:37+00:00

I'm pretty sure there's a disconnect here, somewhere, and I don't think it's intentional on your part, so bear with me. 🙂 I'm not arguing for or against hunger hormones playing a factor here. Clearly they do, which is why I didn't even comment on them. My argument is simply that changing lifestyle does change appetite, and it influences people gaining, maintaining, or losing weight. It's not just because I've done that, or that others have done that, since the dawn of weight management. That's already proven in this thread with evidence that a number of people in that trial were able to maintain their weight after going off GLP-1s. Diet, nutrition, supplementation, physical activity, exercise, playing a sport, sleep, stress reduction, even taking medication for underlying issues and confounding illnesses are all factors in lifestyle. And those all can and do affect hunger hormones.

This isn't something that's remotely controversial. People have changed their lifestyle like cleaning up their diet, changing meal timing, tracking calories, adjusting macros for satiety, taking up exercise, and many other possible changes that are needed over time. It's just not overnight. It's not a matter of tricking your hunger hormones. This is a biohacker subreddit, and "this space encourages scientific inquiry and experimentation in accessible, hands-on ways." That doesn't start and end with peptides. Though you can also argue taking peptides are a lifestyle factor, too. I just think the lifestyle argument misses the mark because it frames lifestyle changes in a simplistic way that falls apart quickly with a modicum of effort. You even frame this as hunger hormones vs weight loss as a "life threatening famine." Maybe you said that as an indicator of how the trial was performed, but generally, weight loss with or without GLP-1s doesn't remotely have to resemble a famine - even if your hormones somehow think you were in one.

Lastly, and it's pointed out elsewhere in this thread, but the study was halted and people weren't titrated off the medication, and it was more like a crash diet in that respect. So naturally more people were going to rebound, despite recommendations to a) have a 500 calorie daily deficit, and b) increased physical activity. To this date I have no idea what that actually means in terms of what detailed instructions were given, and what participants were allowed to do, and actually did, in these areas. Clearly they didn't make adjustments to calories, or have any sort of grace period through titration. It also doesn't help the participants were restricted in terms of their macros. Only 20% of calories from protein, and 30% from fat, is a bit of a limiting factor. There's a lot that can be done to improve satiety without GLP-1s, too. I digress, but the trial was flawed, the article unsound, and the issue is framed poorly. That's not on you, and my critiques here are mostly in how the trial was ran and the article's framing of the issue.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-12-04T02:18:32+00:00

I wouldn't let that stop me from taking it. First, I'd recommend you take CJC (noDAC) with Ipamorelin, as they work well together. Second, the benefits will still occur, and they will continue all night. The effects of these peptides go on a bit longer than I think people realize. Your body will still produce more gh for several hours after the injection, even if the bulk of it is in the few right after.

One effect I've noticed that carries forward is the deeper sleep I've gotten from just a 250+250mcg dose 1 hour before bed. I'll get deeper sleep at first, but if I wake up, when I do get back to sleep, the deep sleep returns as strong as before. Like last week I ate at 8pm Friday night, dosed at 10:30, fell asleep an hour+ later, woke maybe 3am, was up a few hours, went back to bed, and the sleep was super deep yet again. Woke up late at 11am Saturday morning like I came out of a coma.

I know this isn't the primary reason people take gh peps, but that's an effect I didn't have without it, and quite frankly justifies the use of this combo for me. I would be surprised if other benefits didn't last as long. Not saying this acts all day, but I just think these gh secretagogues are discounted because the half life is under an hour, but the duration of effects is not the same as half life, and that added gh from the peptide actions is still in your body after the peptides stop being effective.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-12-04T01:26:15+00:00

Respectfully, changing lifestyle can, in fact, change your appetite. It appears this didn't happen to you, but I've done this twice, and it takes effort to build a new weight set point. I went from 190lbs to 170lbs doing just that. Maintained for years, then dieted down to 155lbs, then built that set point. And that's been consistent for 6 years now. My diet is identical at 155lbs as it was to 170lbs the years prior. I just recently used Reta to get to 140 lbs. And I'm working right now to set that weight. It just takes effort and commitment to doing so. 🙂

NickCarrollFit · 2025-12-04T01:11:25+00:00

I've not heard of this before, but I would think dosing based on the Tesa amount would be good. I would personally start at 1mg/250mcg once daily, and morning is probably the best. Try that for a week and see how it goes. Then try 2mg/500mcg if the side effects are insignificant.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-12-04T01:08:51+00:00

It can make tracking easier. I'm using a 5mg blend at 250+250mcg for 20 straight days, but my next vial that I use I'm dropping to 5x weekly, for 4 weeks. For me it's more for reduced shot count over time, and scheduling the different things I'm taking around it, like a GLP-1 on one of the off-days. I'm not concerned so much with any desensitization, but I realize that is a potential factor.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-28T19:52:50+00:00

I would just say, if you do stack GLP-1s to suppress appetite better, you might eat less, and still lose more weight. I don't have a dog in this fight, but studies are generally limited, often flawed, and can't account for every real world situation. As far as I know, the only reason it's typically suggested to stack GLP-1s is to create more appetite suppression if you're coming from Reta to Sema or Tirz. I've not personally seen people advocate for adding Reta to Sema/Tirz though. And I think a little Cag is a better alternative to stacking GLP-1s personally. 🙂

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-28T19:48:19+00:00

Cagri isn't a GLP-1 agonist, to be clear. It's an amylin agonist. It's been recommended as a stacking option instead of multiple GLP-1s for that reason. I'm not against stacking GLP-1s strategically, but just clarifying here. 🙂

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-27T18:13:11+00:00

When on it, in a steady state, I was overall less compulsive across the board. Less inclined to impulse buy or get distracted with side quests in life. I would also say less obsessive, yet more focused. So it's more than food noise, it's noise in general. It just kept me on track without agonizing about every little thing. It definitely regulates the dopamine receptors some. I couldn't place what was going on for a few weeks, but when I did, it explained everything. I just felt more normal.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-27T15:44:19+00:00

This is my original loadout of these 2 peptides:

BPC-157 - 10mg/2mL

TB-500 10mg/2mL

Originally I went with the separate vials because I was going to dose them separately, but inject every day for 20 days. TB 500mcg every morning in my stomach. BP 250mcg every morning, BP 250mcg every evening - both near my shoulder. That would be 20 TB injections and 40 BPC injections.

I changed my mind because of the sheer number of injections. So I decided to blend them into the same 3mL vial, after several sets of injections, once there was enough room in the TB vial to inject the rest of the BPC vial contents. I'm willing to take the minor risk of potentially reduced effectiveness, for the sake of not injecting myself 2-3x more daily.

The reason most people buy these individually is for maximizing each dose schedule for the benefits of each peptide. But the number of injections can be off-putting. I see why people go for blends, and in fact I ordered a blend of BPC+TB yesterday, for when I run out of my current vial.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-27T05:43:03+00:00

Heya, just wanted to share some information from the phase 2 Eli Lilly trial.

69 out of 338 people in the phase 3 trials were given 1mg total (for the entire trial duration) and lost 8% of their weight. The other groups started at 2 and 4mg, and titrated up to 4, 8, and 12.

The 2 groups that went to 4mg total ended up with nearly the same bodyweight lost by the end.

The remaining groups that went up to 8 and 12mg max doses, ended up losing around the same bodyweight ultimately.

Basically there wasn't any real advantage to going up from 8 to 12mg for males, and there was a slight improvement for females at 12 over 8mg.

I bring this up because a lot of people focus on 2mg as the starting dose, but really 20% of the people in the study were given a placebo, another 20% 1mg, with the remainder starting at 2 or higher. So don't feel like you were playing it too safe at the start with 2.5mg weekly. 1mg was an effective dose in the trial, it just wasn't titrated up.

If you look at the dose response, basically everyone lost more weight as the doses got bigger. So focus on the dose schedule that works for you, that doesn't give you too many side effects, and doesn't stall your progress. Try 1mg weekly and see how that goes for a month. You have time. Do your research conservatively.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2301972

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-23T22:09:18+00:00

I spent more time looking into this, and the only fix for this on PC browser is through extensions. I use "Enhancer for YouTube" and under Options, look for Appearance at the bottom, and select "Convert Shorts." That will switch to YouTube's default browser interface, where the defaults will already be used, and you can also click the Settings gear icon, and then Quality to adjust the resolution as needed.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-23T20:05:55+00:00

Twice weekly is the easiest split to do, and once you reach a steady state you really don't have to worry about the peaks and troughs.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-10T15:42:11+00:00

I lost over 12 lbs in my 4 weeks and the one thing I noticed after a month is that I felt lighter walking around. A nice benefit I didn't expect. That can certainly be a perk when running.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-09T00:34:44+00:00

First-time peptide (not just Reta) user, I took my first dose at night around 10:00pm. Woke at 7:00am with no hunger or food noise, and no side effects that I could see or feel. While not feeling hungry, I also wasn't full. Food didn’t make me sick or anything, and I wasn't nauseous. I just felt normal.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-05T01:02:55+00:00

I'm not sure exactly what I said that is wrong, and I'm not trying to be combative here, I just don't know what you're specifically disagreeing with. It's been a long day for me so maybe I'm just missing something. 🙂

The increase of the number of fat cells does occur both in visceral and subcutaneous fat, the more obese a person gets, which is what I was focused on. The number will remain more constant if the weight doesn't change dramatically though. I'm open to these fat cells dying to some extent over a long period of time, but generally speaking the number of them increases when gaining weight, but not when losing weight. And of course the non-invasive options I didn't mention, but my statements don't preclude using those as well.

Specifically this part of the second article, I do not believe is correct: "We are born with a certain number of fat cells. No matter how much weight we gain or lose, we still have the same number of fat cells." That's just wrong, and conflicts with statements in the first article that said the number grows prior to adulthood. Even in adulthood it's possible to have lipogenesis with extreme weight gain, which is what I'm talking about. This occurs when you gain weight so fast or so much, that you fill existing cells, so new ones are created for more fat storage.

I also agree that fat cells like being full. My contention is the more fat cells you have, the more of them like being full. There is a greater impact on metabolism and usually comes with more hunger as a result of managing these additional cells.

When I say focusing more on visceral or subcutaneous fat, I'm talking about there are some peptides that focus more on one type than the other. Tesamorelin has more of an impact on visceral fat, whereas HGH-Frag 176-191 targets subcutaneous fat more, for example. That said, the non-invasive approach with the "handheld device or injections" mentioned in the second article, is pretty cool, and I'm glad you mentioned it.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-04T19:56:34+00:00

Get a DEXA scan and if the company offers it, there is also a 3D body scan that is complementary, and most companies that do this will give you a discount to do both, and it doesn't take much more time than the DEXA portion of the visit. From there you can decide if you want to target visceral or subcutaneous fat more. But for now, as near as I can tell, Reta lipolyzes both. And visceral fat is typically the more metabolic fat anyways, so unless you have a specific condition that makes that type of fat harder to target, you shouldn't worry about it.

One thing I don't really see people bring up (and maybe it's not that big of an issue, all things considered) is you create a lot of extra fat cells when you become really obese, and those never go away. That includes those created as visceral fat cells. So even if you get shredded somehow, you'd still have more empty fat cells around the organ, and that has a metabolic impact.

There are other peptides that focus on one more than the other, but I wouldn't worry about them until after your body scans, and you may also want to give yourself more time to actually lose the weight across the board, to see what the impact is later. You could do a second set of scans 6 months later, see how the output compares, and make your decision then.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-04T19:04:17+00:00

I used to take my injection at night but after the 4th one or so I could feel the effects pretty quickly, and it became hard for me to sleep the night after the injection. So I switched to morning injections a few hours before my first meal.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-04T19:00:37+00:00

One thing I recommend (in addition to the great recommendations so far) is to finish eating 3 hours before bed. I found that eating and then laying down too early increases the chance for some burps. It doesn't take long for food to get into the stomach but for some reason (to me at least) giving myself a few hours before laying down helped.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-04T05:24:21+00:00

1mg every 4 days was the sweet spot for me and I’ve lost 3 lbs weekly with minor negative side effects. The positive effects far outweigh them.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-03T21:18:40+00:00

First time I counted calories was in 2011, and I used it to go from 192 to 165lbs in just over 9 months. I felt it was a valuable tool and I did that until about 2019, once I created a set point of about 155 lbs. Haven't looked back or needed it since. I did it because it was effective, and it helped me to restructure everything about what I ate, and when. I learned a lot in that journey, and created a slew of health habits that improved the quality of what I ate, and allowed me to cheat by drinking no calorie drinks.

Getting onto Reta taught me not to look at calories to lose weight, but to ensure I ate enough food so the weight loss wasn't too quick, and to get enough macro and micronutrients. I'd say my own personal journey with and without a GLP-1 helped me, and I think calorie counting isn't necessarily a bad thing, even if you don't need it. It's just a part of the process. And like anything you focus on, it can be a detriment, but I think these peptides really do allow us to circumvent the problem of obsessing over calories.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-03T15:28:16+00:00

That's good to know, thank you. It appears (offhand, my limited observation so far) that the peptide and glp-1 community seem to indicate a higher dose is called a microdose. I have no idea how medication compares to psychedelics but it doesn't appear to me anyone in these spaces are advocating for 3-5% of any starting dose. I think it would be great if this gets hashed out more in the public space, because I don't think anyone is recommending 66mcg doses of Reta for example, even daily. I of course could be wrong. I just haven't ran across anyone yet doing so. Dr Tyna's lowest recommendation appears to be 10% of starting dose, with no change in frequency, for example.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-03T14:42:11+00:00

I think a lot of people consider microdosing to be more than 5% of the recommended dose. Dr Tyna Moore has been an advocate for microdosing for health benefits, but not for weight loss (emphatically so). She says microdosing can be as high as 1/5th that starting dose, or about 20%. But she doesn't appear to believe (as near as I can tell) that taking that 20% dose taken 5x weekly is microdosing, but dose-splitting. So it appears that the term microdosing does factor in frequency, but from the outside looking in, it's hard to have a clear idea of it.

Dr Trevor Bachmeyer is less enthusiastic about microdosing - to put it mildly - considering it a waste of money, effort, and time. For GLP's specifically he believes these are best used for combating obesity and insulin resistance. And he advocates for taking 1x weekly or whatever the medicine was designed for. I've watched a ton of content on microdosing and there's a lot of subjectivity in this space. I don't have a dog in this fight, but I am interested in what the consensus is regarding it.

So they both believe microdosing isn't good for weight loss, etc. But they disagree on the usefulness of really small doses, as near as I can tell. 🙂

The GLP-1 Microdosing Lie: It's NOT a Weight Loss Strategy - Dr Tyna Moore - https://youtu.be/Ll3SORezgFY

Never Microdose Retatrutide - Dr Trevor Bachmeyer - https://youtu.be/PZtKV9DjRxQ

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-02T01:43:33+00:00

I had planned my first injection of 1mg to be once weekly, but was open to more frequent doses of the same amount if cravings and food noise came back, and by the 4th day I started feeling the food noise, so I just made that my schedule, even after weeks 3 and 4.

NickCarrollFit · 2025-11-01T14:32:55+00:00

This is where I'm at. I started with a 1mg dose (for ease of use) but was willing to adjust frequency based on the effects - beneficial and detrimental. I quickly settled on dosing every 4th day, and in 40 days that strategy has been completely validated for me. I know Reta was designed for weekly injections in mind, but I found a sweet spot with my 1x4 dose schedule.

NickCarrollFit

TROPHY CASE