Energy Peptides Question
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My very sweet husband‘s rat is very worn out. He has lost 20 some pounds on Reta and is doing great on his wolverine for the various peaks and pains. He is ready to add another protocol and want something to get his energy back.
Do you all recommend SS-31 with MOTS-c or NAD + buffering? Or something that I haven’t heard of?
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Been there!!! Unfortunately, this is the first law of thermodynamics previaling! Calories are units of energy. If your rat is not taking energy in, it will not have any energy to put out.
For me, I started to get more/good quality sleep at night. I also bumped up my caloric intake a bit. I was still running at a deficit but not a 1000 calorie/day deficit which was kicking my butt!
I did add SS-31 and MOTS-C and I did see an uptick in energy. Then recently added NAD+ and this helped even more. Everyone's different, but I think doing these things might help.
I'm now tappering off from 4mg/week (2mg twice a week) to 1mg twice a week and in 2 more weeks I plan to be off entirely. As I taper, my hunger is coming back so I'm eating more which is also helping but I'm being meticulous about the "calorie counting" to ensure I'm not taking in more than I'm burning (I err on the low side).
Good luck and tell him to hang in there!!!
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Thank you! He’s getting enough calories, I believe. Lots of protein. His weight loss was fast the first two weeks, but now is about 2 pounds per week.
I’m really leaning on starting him on the SS-31/MOTS-c first, then the NAD+ after that.
@jackiewatson My pleasure! I’d be willing to bet the SS/MOTS/NAD will help!
“Technically” 2lb/week is still pretty crazy (assuming he’s gotten past the water weight phase). Rule of thumb is it takes a 3,500 calorie deficit to loose 1 pound. Not scientific by any means, but a widely accepted “general” understanding.
Does he weigh his food before tracking?
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100% agree with whats written above. As a washed up athlete who is on week 7 of Reta (not for weight loss), your quality of sleep and proper food quality / quantity are your first fixes. Reta in my experience struggles on Keto. Reta apparently hates fat due to the slow gastric emptying or something like that. Once I started adding clean carbs I felt so much better and my fatigue started to fade. That means sweet potatoes and similar, not junk food.
Now thats out of the way, SS-31 and Mots-C should be run together. Give that 2-4 weeks and then you can add NAD. Go for buffered NAD which stings way less and lasts longer. If you are under 40yo, I would skip the SS-31 entirely.
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@jasonburkart It’s an interesting chicken and egg study to see the improvements that come with peptide use. Certainly, some or a lot of it is from the peptides directly, but as you adapt to them and start changing things in your lifestyle, those other things (exercise, diet, sleep) also contribute a lot. I have seen a few videos recently along the lines of ‘before you start reta…’ and they all said the same thing: fix your diet, exercise regularly, get off your phone, go to bed, etc.’
The peps make doing all that a lot easier, of course.
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I've been testing mots-c and nmn powder sublingual. I have tons of energy. But of late I've been feeling a little sluggish (but I bet it is still higher than my pre-mots level). I can't afford to run ss-31,so I've ordered some 5 amino. My problem is I can't eat more than 1200-1400 cal a day (mostly protein)(I'm on tirz/survo). I usually lose 2-3 pounds a week, and last week I lost 5. I'm down 62 pounds now, with lots to go. But the combo of nmn and mots has gotten me lifting weights now.
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How old is this rat? What do his labs look like, specifically testosterone and IGF-1?
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How old is this rat? What do his labs look like, specifically testosterone and IGF-1?
@Neil-McCauley said in Energy Peptides Question:
How old is this rat? What do his labs look like, specifically testosterone and IGF-1?
He is 67. I have no idea what either is. I’m sure his testosterone is tanked. We had a discussion last night about messaging his doctor to have a Harmon panel added to the bloodwork that they ordered for him to have done in June. I know nothing about procuring hormones for men. I am in a clinical trial for the triple negative breast cancer that I had and I am on a testosterone cream as part of the trial. would he need to go to a different doctor to get testosterone or is that something I could source online like I do Peptides, after get his tested?
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I already have a large stock pile of MOTS-c, so I ordered one vile of SS – 31 to try it out. I will shop around for the NAD+ buffering. I saw it on Nexaph, but I noticed they did not have SS-31.
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@Neil-McCauley said in Energy Peptides Question:
How old is this rat? What do his labs look like, specifically testosterone and IGF-1?
He is 67. I have no idea what either is. I’m sure his testosterone is tanked. We had a discussion last night about messaging his doctor to have a Harmon panel added to the bloodwork that they ordered for him to have done in June. I know nothing about procuring hormones for men. I am in a clinical trial for the triple negative breast cancer that I had and I am on a testosterone cream as part of the trial. would he need to go to a different doctor to get testosterone or is that something I could source online like I do Peptides, after get his tested?
@jackiewatson said in Energy Peptides Question:
@Neil-McCauley said in Energy Peptides Question:
How old is this rat? What do his labs look like, specifically testosterone and IGF-1?
He is 67. I have no idea what either is. I’m sure his testosterone is tanked. We had a discussion last night about messaging his doctor to have a Harmon panel added to the bloodwork that they ordered for him to have done in June. I know nothing about procuring hormones for men. I am in a clinical trial for the triple negative breast cancer that I had and I am on a testosterone cream as part of the trial. would he need to go to a different doctor to get testosterone or is that something I could source online like I do Peptides, after get his tested?
I wouldn't even consider any of those other peptides before getting his testosterone level up to par. That will have a much more positive effect on his overall health and energy levels, at his age, than any peptide that's on the market right now, considering he's 67 and it's very likely his T levels are low.
There's two ways you can go about it. You can go the cheaper route and self manage/direct it through a general practice doctor and use them as a vehicle for getting scripts. If you have more resources, you can shop around and find an anti aging clinic. You'll pay more but you can also pretty much offload the entire process and operation to them, if that makes sense.
There is no reason to go completely black market in 2026 for testosterone replacement therapy. At his age he'll have no problem getting a script, and compounded T injects are pretty cheap, and generally covered by insurance.
The real decision to make is what I mentioned above, i.e. Just going to your family doctor and self directing the process or paying the extra money and going to a specialty TRT/anti aging clinic. Again, depends on your resources - if you have the money, by all means the latter is the preferred route. However, for many, the former is the only realistic route. It requires a little more work on your part but it can be done.
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@Neil-McCauley said in Energy Peptides Question:
How old is this rat? What do his labs look like, specifically testosterone and IGF-1?
He is 67. I have no idea what either is. I’m sure his testosterone is tanked. We had a discussion last night about messaging his doctor to have a Harmon panel added to the bloodwork that they ordered for him to have done in June. I know nothing about procuring hormones for men. I am in a clinical trial for the triple negative breast cancer that I had and I am on a testosterone cream as part of the trial. would he need to go to a different doctor to get testosterone or is that something I could source online like I do Peptides, after get his tested?
@jackiewatson I would highly recommend considering simply ordering your own labs directly via Ulta Labs. For me its usually cheaper than what I pay with insurance when ordered through my Doctor - and I can get them whenever I want and the results come back fast (within 24 hours for many tests, and few tests more than a few days).
I run my own labs for tracking roughly monthly.
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Okay, I sent a message in the patient portal to his GP asking him to run Test and IGF-1 and that I will call in the morning and make an appointment to come in next week, after he has his bloodwork. I agree that this is the correct first step.
@jackiew1 said in Energy Peptides Question:
Okay, I sent a message in the patient portal to his GP asking him to run Test and IGF-1 and that I will call in the morning and make an appointment to come in next week, after he has his bloodwork. I agree that this is the correct first step.
Sounds good. Ideally he's going to want to shoot for a T level that is at least 600 to 900. Avoid the temptation to go higher, more isn't necessarily better and lead to issues down the road. This will likely require a dosage of 100mg of test in a weekly injection. Many split that into 2 injects, some will go ultra small daily injects and do it subQ with an insulin pin, like we do with peptides. You can cross that bridge when you get there.
Get the blood draw first thing a.m. fasted. Post it up here, im sure many here are quite experienced in this arena. There is a plethora of information on TRT online, I am sure you can find great forums and message boards. TRT is a lot easier to navigate than peptides given its all legal, through a doctor with a script, and done through a compounding pharmacy.
I'd get the Testosterone thing worked out first before igf-1, but its good to get the marker now so you'll have a baseline. His igf-1 level is likely tanked as well. TRT will raise his igf-1 by approx 10 - 20%, but it won't be enough given his baseline will be so low. Many options for that, you can start at CJC-1295/IPA but again I'd put that off as a future project perhaps in early 2027.
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Thank you! All great info! I’m pretty well versed in women’s hormones, but no very little about men’s. Personally, I feel best with my test level around 100. But, I am very fit and active.
@jackiew1 said in Energy Peptides Question:
Thank you! All great info! I’m pretty well versed in women’s hormones, but no very little about men’s. Personally, I feel best with my test level around 100. But, I am very fit and active.
As a rule of thumb women have 10% of the testosterone as men. This would mean a range of 60 to 90. At 100, you're at the top of the range. This is great, but definitely don't go any higher. For your hubby, this means 600 to 900.
Your hubby can try the Testosterone gel first. There's a few hurdles to clear getting that covered by Medicare, much easier if either of you are still working and have traditional insurance. I think its worth trying that first. If insurance says no and your paying out of pocket, I'd probably steer you away from that and towards injects as gels can be quite expensive and in terms of bang for your buck, injects are better if you're paying out pocket and he's already well versed given the GLP research.
If you have the resources though, you can't beat the convenience of a transdermal gel over pinning.
I'd also look into DHEA for him as well. Transdermal gels are best bet and they can be quite affordable at a low dosage (25 mg/day). You can find them OTC, but also can be obtained via script and compounded at a pharmacy. If insurance covers it, even better. Small daily dosage goes a long way. Not strong enough to replace low T, but still worth it as an ancillary to TRT.
Main things to look for with both men and women using testosterone are blood lipids and blood pressure. Make sure your blood pressure stays at a healthy number. Make sure your red blood cells stay at a healthy number. Using a conservative T dosage and keeping numbers below range (100 for women/1000 for men at the absolute highest) helps this tremendously.
Maintaining a healthy weight and exercising goes a LONG way to keep blood pressure and weight in line. So does a little help from our beloved GLPs.
Getting testosterone and DHEA replaced will go a long way towards restoring energy and QOL. It will take months to restore some of that after having subpar levels of both for what was probably at least 10 to 15 years in his case. I'd work on that, and give it time, and tackle the IGF-1 issue down the road.
Good luck and feel free to fire away any questions you might have.
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Thank you for the info! I am a healthy weight, low body fat (16% per Hume, 17% per dexa). I am a fitness instructor and have always lifted weights I actually have low blood pressure. I get bloodwork done quarterly thru the Cancer Center
I appreciate all of the great info!
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