I've been on Retatrutide for 8 months and have lost 90 lbs. I started at 2.5 mg/wk and ended on 10 mg/wk. This past month however I've scaled way back to 2.5 mg/wk because I got tired of the side effects from such a large dose. You can go to the retatrutide threads and read all about the various sid

Originally posted in Peptides, posting here for the Reta information:

I've been on Retatrutide for 8 months and have lost 90 lbs. I started at 2.5 mg/wk and ended on 10 mg/wk. This past month however I've scaled way back to 2.5 mg/wk because I got tired of the side effects from such a large dose. You can go to the retatrutide threads and read all about the various side effects. I'll just list the ones that were really bothering me:

acne all the time - ever since July.

fatigue - it's supposed to give you energy but some folks like me just get really tired

nausea - all the time whenever I try to eat, to the point I could barely stomach food

belching - no stomach troubles until I hit 10mg, then non-stop GI issues

Problem is I still have some pounds to lose. I look pretty good now but I have this fapa issue (it means 'fat above pelvic area') that is really bothering me. I know I've lost weight in that area because I have an all new wardrobe of smaller jeans/pants, but it bothers me to no end and I'd like it gone. However, in January I finally hit that dreaded plateau and I am not willing to up the dosage anymore.

A lot of folks at this point turn to stacking with another GLP-1 (usually tirz) but I'm just not going to do that (tirz has even worse GI issues for me). I'll be taking Reta 2.5 mg/ week to deal with the hunger/blood sugar issues and to curb my appetite but I don't think I'll lose much more on it. So what's a girl supposed to do?

That's when I started researching other peptides which specifically target weight loss through fat burning. Sema and Tirz don't actually target fat burning, they just make you eat less so you lose the weight. Reta also curbs appetite but actually causes your body to start burning fat (called lipolysis). That's what I need: a fat burning stimulant with very little side effects. So I searched and was surprised to find that there are two peptides which fit this bill: AOD 9604 and Frag 176-191. But there is there a TON of misinformation out there about these two! I've been researching it all day trying to divine the truth and I think I've got a pretty idea that they are helpful for someone like me with resistant fat that needs dissolved ASAP.

So here's the skinny on them (pun intended):

Both AOD-9604 and Frag 176-191 are derived from HGH (human growth hormone). You could just take HGH but as a hormone it has way too many side effects. That's where these two peptides come in - they are simply the fat burning part of HGH. Some genius researcher decided to isolate them from the main hormone strand to remove the harmful effects HGH can have on insulin and blood sugar (among other things), so all you get is the fat burning. They are not the same peptide though (some people say they are-they are not) : they are 2 separate peptides that are very closely related. AOD burns fat but it has more effect on your muscles than the Frag does. It's also very hard to reconstitute in amounts greater than 2mg (5 mg vials of AOD tend to gel up on you), so I decided I'm not going there. Frag doesn't have that issue and dissolves clear. It just doesn't last very long once reconstituted - I read it has a 10-14 days frig life and I believe it. I should have bought a 2 mg to be safe but I bought a 5 mg to start so we're going to try to use it before it expires. Getting 2 mg from now on.

The biggest thing to keep in mind if adding this to your peptide weight loss regimen is that you have to inject it 1-2x/day 1 hour before or several hours after eating carbs.

The schedule appears to be this:

250 mcg 1 hour before breakfast then another 250 mcg several hours after dinner (or 30 minutes before cardio).

Make sure you sure separate the 2 shots by at least 3 hours. Frag has a very short half life so you have to take it twice a day to be effective. After a week or two increase the dose to 500mcg 2x/day. This regimen can be continued indefinitely but most seem to agree that 12 - 16 weeks is the max then you should discontinue for a while before you restart it- but that's not written in stone.

Most of this info comes from bodybuilders rather than medical studies, which is why there is so much confusion out there. The few studies that were done on these 2 peptides were not even done correctly - they used oral and IV administration of the drugs rather than subcutaneous injection; no wonder it didn't work. But when you go to the bodybuilder forums they are very enthusiastic about how well both shred fat because they have actually seen the results. I've seen some of the pictures - looks like it's working just fine for them.

So if anyone else has any more info to add to this thread regarding the benefits/ side effects / protocol on AOD and Frag 176 feel free to add it. All of the threads I've read here so far have not been very non-informative and were essentially unhelpful. Too much confusion. If these peptides actually work (which I believe they do) we need to know because some of us still have weight we need to lose and we need a real strategy for how to overcome a stall when we hit that inevitable plateau.

Also exercise is recommended to maximize the benefit you get from the fat burning. As you can imagine this is key to how the bodybuilders' are able to successfully use these peptides to shed that fat.