Hey everyone,
I’m 25 years old, 185 cm tall, currently sitting around 167 lbs. According to my InBody scan I’m around 9% body fat, and skinfold/pinch testing put me closer to 7.8%. (I know those are not accurate only using for info)
First pictures are from a month ago 170-172 Ish LBS and last picture was in August at 212 LBS
Over the last year I went from 252 lbs down to 174 lbs completely naturally through fixing my habits, diet, and training. Since then, I’ve gone from 174 to 167 while continuing to lean out further and experimenting with Reta. I used to be extremely skinny growing up, then suddenly gained a lot of weight when my lifestyle and eating habits caught up to me. (140-160 of skin and bone)
Right now my main goal is no longer just weight loss. I recently hired a coach because I want to focus on building quality lean muscle mass and developing a more athletic physique while staying relatively lean. The goal is to work back up to around 180-190 lbs over the next few months in a controlled lean bulk/recomp phase.
Current diet/training approach:
Consistently hitting 200–220g+ protein daily
Tracking macros closely
Was eating 1800-2200 the last few months (2450-2550) in the last week. My coach is creating a new meal plan on Monday.
Structured training program
Focused heavily on recovery, consistency, and adherence
Food noise/cravings are currently very manageable
I’ve also been researching peptides/compounds and trying to better understand:
What combinations make sense together
Which ones are actually worth it vs hype
What people have genuinely noticed from them
Recovery vs muscle-building vs sleep/recomp benefits
Best practices for structuring research long term
The compounds I’m currently researching are:
Retatrutide (1.2 MG weekly ) 12 units 10Mg 1ML Bac
(First week was 5 units then 10 units and found my sweet spot at 12 units where I’m still able to reach my target macros and manage food noise throughout the day)
GHK-Cu (2MG, 12 units 3ML bac 50MG Vial) (first week was 0.5MG per day)
Also have that I’m planning on researching soon
Tesamorelin
Sermorelin
Ipamorelin
BPC-157
TB-500
MOTS-C
Thinking of getting IGF1LR3 soon thoughts ?
(Quantity for dosing is not an issue I have enough)
For GHK-Cu and Retatrutide specifically, I’ve been researching moderate dosing protocols for roughly the last 9 weeks, and GHK-Cu on an 8-days-on/1-day-off style structure. I’ve tried 5 on 2 off and found that 8 on 1 off works best with me.
I’m not looking for “magic shortcut” answers — I already understand diet/training are the foundation. I’m mainly trying to hear from people with real-world experience and research knowledge on: I train 5X a week.
Which of these actually provided noticeable benefits
Which compounds pair well together
Which ones weren’t worth continuing
Recovery/sleep/body composition effects
Whether some are redundant
Any bloodwork or health markers worth monitoring
Anything I should be cautious about long term
How to dose and cycle lengths ?
I’m not looking at jumping on Full blown gear or test at my age. That’s a route I’ll consider after I hit 30 😅
Would appreciate insight from people who have genuinely researched these extensively rather than just repeating marketing claims. Thanks in advance !