i wish someone had handed me this list before my first cycle. ✅ 1. Starting dose too high will end your first week I went straight to 2.5mg because someone on reddit said it was fine. I lost three days to nausea and almost quit. 👉 Start at 0.5mg. Stay there 2-3 weeks. Boring works 👉 More dose does not mean faster results. It means worse sides and the same fat loss 👉 The ramp up is not optional. It's the whole point ✅ 2. The day after your pin is worse than the day of. Nobody tells you this. Day 2-3 is when nausea, fatigue and constipation actually hit hardest. 👉 Pin friday night. Saturday you'll feel rough, sunday you bounce back 👉 Plan zero social events 48 hours after a pin 👉 Sides get easier every week if you don't titrate up ✅ 3. You will lose muscle if you don't force protein My appetite was so suppressed i was eating 800 calories a day by accident. By week four i looked smaller, not leaner. 👉 200g of protein minimum. Every single day. No exceptions 👉 Liquid calories save you on bad days. Shakes, greek yogurt, cottage cheese 👉 If the mirror looks worse but the scale is dropping, you're doing it wrong ✅ 4. Tracking is what separates the people who get results from the people who restart. I didn't track anything cycle one. By week six i couldn't remember what dose i was on or when sides peaked. 👉 Log every pin, every side effect, every weight change. Your memory is garbage at slow change 👉 I use PepKit — built specifically for peptide cycles with a reconstitution calculator inside 👉 Search PepKit on the app store. Takes 30 seconds, saves your entire cycle ✅ 5. Alcohol will end your week Your digestion is at a standstill on r3ta. One drink hits like four. The hangover lasts 48 hours. 👉 Multiple people throw up on their first drink back. This is not a warning to be cute 👉 If you have to drink, clear spirits, no carbonation, eat protein first 👉 Honestly just don't. You'll lose 3 days for a saturday night ✅ 6. Cardio is not the move. I added daily cardio thinking it would speed things up. It just made me lose more muscle and feel worse. 👉 You're already in a deficit. Excessive cardio on low food burns muscle, not fat 👉 Walk daily, lift heavy 3-4x a week. Let r3ta do the work 👉 Save the cardio for off-cycle when you're eating more ✅ 7. Weeks 5-8 is when the mirror actually starts shifting. Before week five you're mostly losing water and adjusting. The real visual change starts later than you think. 👉 Photos every two weeks in the same lighting. Your eyes adjust to your body too fast 👉 Your clothes will tell you the truth before the scale does 👉 The before/afters you see online are usually 8-12 weeks in, not 3 ✅ 8. The cycle ending is not the goal. Maintaining at month 6 is the actual flex. Anyone can look good while pinning. 👉 Most people lose 30-50% of their results in the first 60 days off because they coast 👉 Train and eat like you're still on. That's how you keep it 👉 The next cycle is always better if you logged cycle one properly save this before you start. you'll want it at week three when you're doubting everything. - @sara.pepkit