Zepbound (tirzepitide) saved my life. PCOS (now PMOS) made me legitimately suicidal. I gained 50 lbs in a year in 2024. Lost my hair a little. Was prediabetic (it harms your insulin levels). It would yo-yo and back again. I tried surgery, peels, everything just to maintain. The drug is a miracle.
Concern about my vision was one of the reasons I stopped taking Zepbound. I had almost daily flashes of light in the corners of my eyes toward the end of those five weeks of using it.
Bad reaction5 weeks
tirzepatide (Zepbound); family history of retinal detachment
Strict case
Potent drugs with real serious-harm paths (pancreatitis, gallbladder, GI, heart rate, NAION). Worth it for obesity/diabetes under a doctor, but outside a 'clean general-health peptide' list.
Users report
Highest real-world sentiment of anything here ('saved my life', 100 lb lost, drinking urges gone). Under 10% feel nothing, though dose response varies. But ER physicians' threads list pancreatitis, gallstones, severe vomiting, AKI from dehydration and euglycaemic DKA, mostly from grey-market retatrutide and over-fast titration. Sleep disruption on reta is a common complaint, and r/Retatrutide carries a cluster of heart-rhythm reports (SVT needing adenosine, AFib after one dose, ER visits for tachycardia and low blood pressure), one of them inside a Lilly trial.
Best effects
Large fat loss · appetite and 'food noise' suppression · reduced alcohol craving · improved glucose, liver fat, BP, apnoea
Downsides
Nausea, vomiting, constipation · fatigue · loss of lean mass without resistance training · sleep disruption (reta)
Watch
Pancreatitis and gallbladder disease · Gastroparesis / severe GI events; dehydration-driven AKI · NAION (very rare, EMA 2025 for semaglutide) · Heart-rate increase; retatrutide is unapproved (phase 3) and sold grey-market with unknown dose/purity
Evidence
Approved drug — approved (semaglutide, tirzepatide) with large outcome RCTs; retatrutide in phase 3
Typical use
Sema 0.25 mg/wk up to 2.4 mg; tirz 2.5 mg/wk up to 15 mg; reta (grey) 1-12 mg/wk, titrated slowly. Users report 0.34–1 mg/day (median 430 mcg, n=11).
Getting it
Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) are prescription drugs; US telehealth also sells compounded versions. Retatrutide is still in phase 3 and is only available as grey-market research vials.
Stacked with
Resistance training and high protein intake: The standard advice across the GLP-1 subreddits to limit lean-mass loss during rapid weight loss. · Ondansetron (Zofran), stool softeners and electrolytes: Commonly prescribed or self-managed to get through nausea, constipation and dehydration during titration. · Ursodiol: Some doctors add it during rapid loss to lower gallstone risk; a two-year tirzepatide user took it until reaching goal. · TRT, HGH, MOTS-c, 5-amino-1MQ or tesamorelin: Common in r/Retatrutide and Biohackers stacks for lean mass and energy; untested combinations that confound any attribution. · Metformin: Tried by Mounjaro users to break stalls or by non-responders as a fallback.
Zepbound (tirzepitide) saved my life. PCOS (now PMOS) made me legitimately suicidal. I gained 50 lbs in a year in 2024. Lost my hair a little. Was prediabetic (it harms your insulin levels). It would yo-yo and back again. I tried surgery, peels, everything just to maintain. The drug is a miracle.
In 2022 I was given ozempic, I was on it for 2 years and not one pound lost. In mid 2024 I was given ozempic Mounjaro and in 2025 the weight finally started coming off so slowly that I didn’t even notice.
GlowingInjection · ~2 years
tirzepatide (Mounjaro) after 2 years of semaglutide (Ozempic) with no loss; type 2 diabetes
I've been trying Retatrutide for 3 weeks. It is insane. I experience zero "food noise" during the day. No desire to eat sugar or drink alcohol. Just don't want it. Food is just fuel. That is the extent of it. My mental clarity is v high.
I had prayed to a god I don’t believe in that this medicine would work for my alcoholism and for weight loss. Since that first shot, I haven’t had a single craving. I’ve also lost 110lbs.
GlowingInjection · 14 months
tirzepatide (Zepbound); 20 years of alcohol use disorder
I started in June of last year, and as of today, I am finally at my goal weight! I feel like an entirely new person. Side effects were minimal (mostly nausea in the very beginning, some constipation but that was managed with a general over the counter magnesium supplement.)
I was one of those people that felt it right away, like within hours. My food noise was no longer present, and I found myself forgetting about what snacks were in the pantry/fridge.
Fast forward 6 months and I’m now almost 65 lbs down. I’m currently taking 2.25 mg of reta and still making progress while also hitting the gym consistently.
From my 334lb starting weight, that's just over 35lbs lost since October. These drugs are a miracle, and once it's established they won't give us all cancer or something, they are Nobel Prize-worthy. The price stings for sure.
been on reta 10 months now and ive lost 54kg(120) going from 148kg(326lbs) to 94kg(207lbs) for a good few months now ive completely changed my relationship with food, i no longer use food as coping mechanism
Glowing1 mg/week rising 1 mg every 4 weeks, now 6 mg/week · Injection · 10 months
I've been on Ozempic for 3 years now. I'm almost 70 years old & have never felt so good in my life. if doctors allow, I don't plan to quit I still enjoy food but my approach is radically different: I can stop!
Ozempic gets a bad review and it saved my life. I’m not on it anymore, but it taught me how to eat good and healthy. I lost 110 lbs and It taught me how to control my appetite.
I've been taking semaglutide for ~4 weeks now and I can't believe how amazing it has been. I've lost 8lb so far, but even if I wasn't losing weight I think I would still take it just for the mental benefits.
I've been taking Mounjaro for 3 years now, at 15mg dose since April 24, and no stomach or other internal issues. My A1C is now 5.2 to 5.4 and I've lost 135 pounds. Though I did hit plateaus in weight loss that increased protein intake kicked off the weight loss again.
I've lost 60 lbs which I have never been able to do before and have tried so many things over the years. But more importantly-- and probably the reason I will stay on it long term even though I am at goal--is the freedom from food noise.
I was prescribed Mounjaro in August 2024 after my AIC came back as 10.6. I was terrified of the drug. Two years later I’m doing amazing and hope I can stay on it forever. I’ve lost 162 lbs to reach my ideal body weight and my AIC is 5.
GlowingInjection · 2 years
tirzepatide (Mounjaro); type 2 diabetes; took ursodiol during fast loss to protect the gallbladder
I tried Ozempic about 1.5 years ago because I love testing new things. 2 weeks in my immediate thought was: this will help cure alcoholism. Could feel it.
PositiveInjection
semaglutide (Ozempic); former alcoholic, tried it as an experiment
The side effect that effected me most was the nausea and diarrhea. When I would hit a certain dose level (I cant remember the number), I would get this horrible nausea and diahrea combo.
PositiveInjection · Aug 2023 to Dec 2024
semaglutide (briefly tirzepatide); stopped before goal
I've been injecting Zepbound weekly for 10 months and painlessly lost 30 pounds with zero negative side effects and many positive ones. Some people do have negative side effects.
A Long Covid true story: Almost 3 mos. ago I started tirzepatide (aka Zepbound, a glp-1 med) to lose 25 lbs. I'm not diabetic. The day after I started it my tremors disappeared. They've not returned.
I’m still in the lowest dose. I’m glad that I’m losing weight, but the food noise being gone is the best part. I would gladly stay at this level and not lose another pound for just that.
After seven weeks on Ozempic, I've lost 24 lbs. Despite unpleasant side effects such as nausea, fatigue, and heartburn, I've persevered and am thrilled with the outcome.
Half my hair is a bob just above my shoulders and the other half growing out into a pixie. I don’t take anything, it’s just coming back on its own now that my weight is stable.
Been on 6mg Reta for a while now. The effects started to dull recently, leading me to believe my current kit was a dud. Sunday I said fuck it, drew 8mg and pinned. Yesterday I threw up eating a PB&J, my first calories of the day.
Side effects: • RHR went up • HRV tanked • Diarrhoea during dose changes • Sulphur burps in the first 2-3 months ... Conclusion: Great results with considerable side effects This is the only GLP1 where I observed consistent fat loss
MixedInjection
retatrutide (grey-market), tirzepatide and semaglutide tried and combined
Semaglutide did nothing for weight loss but I'm no longer on BP medication and my blood sugar plummeted over the course of a year. Tirzepatide however, DID have a measurable effect on weight.
Switched over from tzt, and I haven't slept well in 8 months. Started at. 5. Moved up to 2.5 eventually. Wake up every night cannot sleep past 11pm-1am wake up like clockwork.
Mixed0.5 mg up to 2.5 mg/week · Injection · 8 months
I have kept going, with a feeling of mild nausea most days plus a feeling of wanting to burp. Weight loss has slowed significantly but down 10 pounds in 16 weeks.
its insane how people are on this Ozempic fad kick, like its a miracle drug. it literally did nothing for me. i dropped 50 pounds as soon as i started doing fasting/ one meal a day regularly.
Nothing
semaglutide (Ozempic); later lost 50 lb with fasting
(Yes I already tried semaglutide and tirzepatide, along with two dozen other things that didn't work. I am currently eating 700cal/day for 1 out of every 3 months to counteract the weight gain from eating enough to think in the other 2 months.
I (36F) started Wegovy 8 months ago and worked up to the highest dosage and stayed there. I have weeks where I’ll maybe lose a pound here or there, but then I’ll gain it back, ultimately a net zero loss.
NothingWegovy maximum dose · Injection · 8 months
semaglutide (Wegovy); MCAS and POTS, unable to exercise, reports under 1200 kcal/day
Same thing for me, I was on Mounjaro for 2 years and and loat a significant amount just existing, switched over to ozempic and nothing. Eating the same, exercise the same, it just doesn't work for some people.
NothingInjection
semaglutide (Ozempic) after 2 years of tirzepatide
I’m stuck in bed with severe fatigue, muscle pain, dizziness and when I stand up, I can’t support my own body weight. I don’t think it’s my lupus kicking off anymore. I suspect it’s the mounjaro. I hope not…because it’s controlling my pcos.
Negative2.5 mg/week after stepping down · Injection · 6 months
I would have to "sleep" 12 hours to get 7.5 hours of actual sleep. And even then, the quality was not there. 20 sleep disruptions in a span of 6 hours of sleep.
Negative0.5 mg up to 2 mg/week · Injection · 6 weeks
On Ozempic in four months, I lost 18 pounds but my doctor forgot to give me the protein protocol so when I came in for my weighing, he also did a muscle analysis and said that 12 pounds out of the 18 that I lost was muscle.
Concern about my vision was one of the reasons I stopped taking Zepbound. I had almost daily flashes of light in the corners of my eyes toward the end of those five weeks of using it.
Bad reaction5 weeks
tirzepatide (Zepbound); family history of retinal detachment
Last Thursday, with slight forgetfulness on my side, I jabbed 14mg of Reta .... well I've had a few side effects, sickness, unable to eat ANYTHING, itchy skin that feels like sunburn and it's still ongoing now.
Bad reaction14 mg once by mistake · Injection
retatrutide (grey-market); dosing error after mixing two vials into one
Took myself to the ER at 3 am assuming this was constipation again and I’d be embarrassed for even going. Turns out, it was not constipation. It was my gallbladder that was super inflamed, and now I need emergency surgery to remove it.
Just got my living room couch cleaned because I projectile vomited all over it yesterday after taking a 4mg Reta dose (first time taking any GLP, 8x the recommended starting dose)
Bad reaction4 mg first dose (8x the usual start) · Injection
Was just hospitalized for severe palpitations/ blood pressure spikes and drops after taking Reta , put me in svt and was administered adenosine 2x to knock me back . Didn’t work , I’ve been on beta blockers and haven’t taken it in weeks nor do I intend to .
Bad reaction0.5 mg/week · Injection
retatrutide (grey-market); four others on the same batch had no problem
It worked in so much as I lost 30lbs in a month. Why? Because I did nothing but vomit the entire month. After a few months of this, my endo and I decided to move on.
Bad reaction
semaglutide (Ozempic), prescribed for type 1.5 diabetes
Results? Amylaze levels over 2000 U/L. So I'm here, IV'ed since yesterday with painkillers, hydration and other stuff. So this is the end of MJ journey
Bad reaction2.5 mg/week (second dose) · Injection · 2 weeks
tirzepatide (Mounjaro); commenters raised undiagnosed gallstones as the likelier trigger
Safety
Tier by safety barStrict ExcludedBalanced ExcludedEvidence only Excluded
Personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN 2 (label) · History of pancreatitis · Pregnancy (label) · Upcoming surgery under anaesthesia without telling the anaesthetist
Each bead is one amino acid in the peptide's chain, coloured by its side chain: grey for non-polar, cyan for polar, blue for positively charged and fuchsia for negatively charged. Length and mix tell related peptides apart at a glance, from a two-residue dipeptide like carnosine to a 43-residue protein like thymosin beta-4. The colours describe chemistry only and predict neither effect nor safety.
non-polarpolarpositivenegative
Report grades
Every first-hand Reddit or X report is graded on its own, from glowing through positive, mixed, nothing and negative to bad reaction, and the bar shows how those grades split. Posts that look vendor-adjacent stay on the peptide's page but are left out of the counts.
GlowingPositiveMixedNothingNegativeBad reaction
% positive
The share of a peptide's graded Reddit and X reports that are glowing or positive, vendor-adjacent posts left out. A peptide with few reports is pulled toward the average of all reports, as if it had eight average ones besides its own, so two glowing posts cannot top the list. Kept peptides rank by the same reports' mean grade, shrunk the same way, and excluded ones follow in that order.
Researcher estimate
No first-hand report of this peptide has been graded yet, so the figure is the researchers' own rating out of 10 from what they read about it. It ranks alongside the computed scores until reports arrive.
Safety tier
Each peptide is tiered clean, caution or excluded from its five risk axes under the chosen safety bar. An excluded peptide has a plausible route to serious harm, so it stays listed with the reason but ranks behind every other entry, however good its reviews.
Safety bar
The safety bar sets how much risk it takes to exclude a peptide. Strict: out on any serious mechanism with little human data, or any documented serious harm. Balanced: out on documented serious harm (unless it is obvious, reversible and from a regulated product), or a serious mechanism whose harm would be silent with no human data at all. Evidence only: out only on documented serious harm in humans that is lasting, delayed or from grey-market product.
Seen harm
Documented serious adverse events in humans, from 0 for none despite real exposure to 3 for deaths or several well-documented serious harms. Serious means a hospital or emergency visit or harm lasting weeks, so a headache or a bad night does not count.
Mechanism
A plausible biological route to serious harm at the doses people use, such as growth-factor signalling, hormone-axis suppression, heart or blood-pressure effects or immune activation. It runs from 0 when none is known to 3 when a dangerous pathway has been shown in living animals.
Data gap
How little human safety data exists for the molecule actually sold, from 0 for an approved drug with large trials and years of use to 3 for no human safety data at all. A modified analogue does not inherit its parent's trials.
Silent harm
Whether the feared harm would show quickly or stay hidden, from 0 when it is obvious and goes on stopping to 3 when it is silent and delayed, like tumour promotion or slow organ damage. User reports cannot reveal a harm that takes years to appear, so a high score here limits what good reviews can tell you.
Product
The risk of what people actually buy, from 0 for a regulated pharmacy or supplement product taken by mouth or on the skin to 3 for a grey-market injectable. In one dataset of 6,441 grey-market samples, 42–71% failed basic quality criteria and 15% carried endotoxin.
Evidence
The strongest kind of study behind the peptide's effects, from an approved drug through human controlled trials and small human studies to animal work or nothing of its own. Animal results often fail to carry over to people.
Access
How people get it: as an approved drug, a compounded prescription, an over-the-counter supplement or from the grey market, where nobody checks the vial. The channel decides both the legal position and the risk of a bad batch.
Price per month
Thirty days of the typical dose, from its low end to its high end, priced at the listing a careful buyer would choose: in stock, from a shop scoring 4 of 5 on trust (third-party tested where no score is set), failing that 3, a pure pack before a blend, a European shop first, then the cheapest per mg. The range is the dose's, not the shops'. A per-dose amount counts once a day unless the dose says otherwise. Prices are in euros at ECB rates of 2026-10-29, before shipping; the shop table keeps each listing's price per mg, per gram for bulk supplements. Where no listing can be priced the researchers' own estimate stands in, and says so.
Dose users report
The middle half of the daily doses stated in at least five first-hand reports, vendor posts left out. Where its middle sits more than twice above or below the declared dose, the month is priced at it as well, since what people take is what they pay for.
Testing
Whether the shop publishes lab results: third-party tested means an independent lab checks each batch, own COA means the shop's own certificate of analysis, and no public tests means neither. A certificate shows purity, not safety.
Added peptide
Some packs sold under one peptide's name hold a second one, such as 5 mg GHK-Cu in a nasal kit, stated only in the description. Sprayed in the nose or injected it reaches the blood like an injection, so it carries the risk of that route and is tiered as the injectable form, whatever its tier on the skin. A pack whose page gives no contents list may hold more than its name.