Ep 265 – Peptides Explained: The Good, the Bad & the Hype

In this episode of Muscles by Brussels Radio, the Vegan Proteins coaching team sits down for their first-ever roundtable discussion to tackle one of the hottest topics in fitness right now: peptides. Ben, Dani, Sawyer, Alice, and Giacomo break down what peptides actually are, why they’ve become so popular on social media, and how the conversation around them has changed dramatically in recent years.

The coaches discuss the difference between well-studied peptide medications such as GLP-1 agonists and the growing number of unregulated compounds being promoted online for fat loss, recovery, muscle growth, and anti-aging. They explore why terms like “peptide” can be misleading, how influencer marketing has fueled the trend, and why many people underestimate the risks associated with injecting substances that have limited human research behind them.

The conversation also covers WADA regulations, natural bodybuilding, the appeal of quick fixes, the importance of blood work and medical supervision, and why foundational habits like nutrition, sleep, training, and stress management should come before chasing the latest performance-enhancing trend. The episode wraps up with a thoughtful discussion on GLP-1 medications, who may genuinely benefit from them, and why they’re not a substitute for addressing the underlying causes of overeating.

If you’ve been curious about peptides but feel overwhelmed by the hype, this episode offers a balanced, evidence-focused perspective from coaches who work with real clients every day.

🌱 Coaching Application

Take your fitness and nutrition goals to the next level with one-on-one coaching:

📖 Free 7-Day High-Protein Meal Plan:

https://bit.ly/4kab1Ll

💪 Muscles by Brussels Membership:

Try it free for one month:

✅ Membership Includes:

🔗 Follow Us Online:

MASS (Monthly Application In Strength Sport): MASS is one of our secret weapons and it continues to be an invaluable resource for us to keep up to date with the latest research. Don’t get swept up in fads or bogus info. Sign up and stay up to date with easy-to-consume journals and support the evidence-based fitness community.

=================================

TRANSCRIPT

Ben (00:00)
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Vegan Proteins and Muscles by Brussels Radio. My name is Ben, and I’m here with Dani, Giacomo, Sawyer, and Alice. Today we have a coaching roundtable podcast, which is, I think, the first time we’ve ever done this, which is exciting. so if you want to see more of these, please let us know in the comments or, you know, feedback to us personally that you are enjoying these kind of episodes. we want to try to mix it up a little bit more, mix and match the the coaches,

And get outside of just the usual pairs that we’ve been doing. So we’re able to coordinate it and get us all on the mic at one time. Today we’re going to be talking about a topic that is really hot right now, and that is peptides. so you may or may not have heard a lot or a little about peptides. We’re gonna be talking about a little bit about the science behind them and what they are, but more generally how you might be able to think about peptides, some things to be aware of, and

Giacomo (00:39)
No no we’re not then.

Ben (00:52)
all all the other juicy topics relating to to peptides. So as we kind of get going here into the discussion, I’d like to kind of just start by maybe more of like a pop culture sort of entrance. Like what have you guys been seeing in j the in terms of the general discussion around peptides these days? So obviously GLP ones are really like something that has skyrocketed in the widespread usage

And you know, if you think about the the GLP one glucagon like peptide, that is a a class of peptides. And so that’s a really popular one. But you may have heard of some other ones. you know, if you’re kind of adjacent to the bodybuilding space or injury prevention, you might have heard about something like BPC one five seven. That’s like a one that people talk about a lot for healing kind of tissues. but again, you know, some of these things maybe don’t have as much research as as

one would think behind them. So does anyone want to just start? Like have have your any of your guys’ clients asked you about peptides at all? I kinda wanna start there. Has that been a topic of conversation that’s come up at all? or is it mainly like social media where you guys are seeing this sort of thing?

Dani Taylor (01:55)
Say the first time somebody asked me about peptides was probably about six years ago. And it wasn’t GLP ones. And it was a friend of mine who competes in natural bodybuilding in a non-natural federation. And she was like, Hey, what do you know about peptides? All these girls I compete with are telling me that you gotta do peptides, you have to do this, that. And she was like, Is that natural? And I had to look it up because I didn’t know.

I didn’t I was like, I have no idea what you’re talking about. And then I looked it up on the list and I was like, look at that. No peptides. I was like, no, it’s it’s banned. So obviously she didn’t do it. But then I didn’t hear about it for a while and now I can’t get away from it. Like it’s everywhere. Have you guys experienced that?

Alice Robeson (02:30)
I get clients asking about GLP ones often, I would say. just and I think it just comes up as a matter of like, you know, everyone has little bumps in the road and challenges and it’s like, well, so and so’s telling me that I gotta get on this GLP one or or they may not use those words, but they are the you know, someone has a good experience and they want to go, you know.

share the news, like shout it from the rooftops and the So they get they’re they’re like privy to that and feeling mm not pressure but just sort of like maybe that maybe when they when they feel stuck they think, is this the only like answer for me anymore? Is that like but I do think that for the most part my clients are like, that’s like a last resort. You know, everyone’s really interested in general in our community for the most part, in like the natural like

Okay, how can I do this without the help of of extra drugs? So the first time I think I heard about peptides at all, someone was talking to me about an injury and they like DM’d me on Instagram and they were like, you need to check out this BPC 157. I had no idea what the heck they were talking about, and I had to look it up and then

Thankfully, you know, my my Google history knows that I’m a natural athlete and it’s like this is banned by WADA. And I was like, I just had this stranger reach out to me on Instagram and try to get me to take this banned substance.

Coach Sawyer (03:51)
Mm.

Yeah, that’s

Dani Taylor (03:52)
Can we just

in case, just in case our people listening don’t know what a peptide is, I think we should just like explain it because I think that’s part of where it gets really confusing, is a peptide is just a chain of proteins. It’s a chain of amino acids, I should say. So I think it’s like two to fifty amino acids chained together. That’s a peptide. So amino acids, baby, that sounds totally fine and normal and natural, right? Like that’s what I think when I hear it, but

Most of them are taken via injection, which I think just hearing that alone makes people’s eyebrow raise a little bit like, what? how is it natural? So just wanted to put that out there in case people are like, I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Coach Sawyer (04:24)
Mm-hmm.

Alice Robeson (04:29)
It’s a small amino acid, so it’s not like a protein. It’s just like much, much, much smaller. Just to add on to that.

Coach Sawyer (04:35)
Mm-hmm.

And it, I think one thing that people don’t realize is that things like insulin is a peptide. Like there’s a lot of things that already are tested and trusted that are peptides. And so one one podcast I was listening to that my doctor friend, Dr. Angie, who’s been on the show, pointed me pointed me towards was talking about how the word peptide is kind of like a really

useless term when you’re trying to decide like it’s like a marketing term almost because it starts to have like this connotation with like I don’t know wellness spaces or something, but it’s kind of like using the word chemicals. You could be like, I don’t like taking chemicals, but it’s because it’s like, well some people need insulin or some people are on GLP ones that have been well tested and are are evidence to help them.

not just lose body fat, but like metabolically or like, you know, cardiovascularly, they’re getting a lot of help from these things and they’re they’re great.

So for us to come in and say, peptides, bad news, like it would be reductionist. It’d be it’d be flattening the whole thing. And I think that’s why the word peptides, I think, is just kind of a loaded term because there’s so much in that category of of drugs. and like you were saying, you know, they are short chains of amino acids. and they can range from things like this, these untested inhumans things that can

Be reacted to by your immune system, your autoimmune system can say, that’s a foreign protein and attack it, and then start to attack tissues of yours that have similar amino acids. so it’s they are very high risk, some of them, like you know, and and that’s why they need to be so rigorously tested. but that’s why things like insulin and GLP1s have been tested so rigorously. So I think it’s really important that people don’t just say,

Peptide’s good, peptides bad. They start to look into the specific compounds and say, okay, how much evidence does this have behind it? and what am I actually looking for here? Because if it’s a quick fix to something that a a calorie deficit would fix, then it’s probably not something you need to do or risk.

Giacomo (06:34)
Ben, can you be pr do you have to prescribe peptides or can you just like get them on the street? And first off, I’m still I’m still a little sad because we didn’t get a chance to talk about anything personally. I I was like, he’s not gonna do it, he’s not gonna go straight for the jugular, we’re gonna we’re gonna catch up. I but it’s wait a minute, no no. But it’s Alice’s birthday. We have we have to wish Alice a happy birthday. Okay, back to the peptides. Sorry, I I need to take it there. Sorry, but back on track, back on track. So

Dani Taylor (06:44)
stop.

Ben (06:47)
Giacomo, we can’t we can’t catch up with five people on a podcast. We’re gonna spend twenty minutes on the intro. Happy birthday, Alice. We can yes, yes, yes.

Coach Sawyer (06:47)
Mm-hmm.

That’s true. It was Alison’s birthday, is it was yesterday.

Dani Taylor (06:54)
It is Alice’s birthday.

Alice Robeson (06:56)
Thank you,

Dani Taylor (06:57)
Happy

Alice Robeson (06:57)
thank you.

Dani Taylor (06:57)
birthday. Okay, all right.

Giacomo (07:01)
Can you get on the street? Can I like can I go to the corner and like, yo, I need my peptides? Or do I have to get go to a doctor?

Dani Taylor (07:06)
Yes.

Ben (07:06)
Well well

that’s that’s that’s the thing. You you pretty much can. and like like a lot of drugs these days, you can just buy them online. You don’t even have to get a prescription, even if it’s like let’s use testosterone as an example. Like let’s say you need some replacement therapy or something like that. You theoretically could just buy it yourself online and administer it to yourself. even though technically it’s something that you should be getting a prescription for your doctor from. A lot of these things a doctor would never prescribe, and that’s part of the issue because there isn’t enough evidence.

surrounding them to prescribe them. They’re kind of like some other, like, you know, you might have heard of SARMS, which is like another class of like it’s kind of like steroids light, except it actually has like more side effects if if if if anything. People just like them because you can find them, they’re cheap. They you could take them orally. So a lot of like teenagers and stuff will take that as a a a quick thing. But you know a lot of these things they are research chemicals or they’re used in certain clinical applications, but they don’t have enough research to be like FDA approved or whatever it is.

so these independent labs, if we want to call them labs, I know Dani, you probably have some thoughts on this, basically, you know, people making them in their basement, making these things. And I always remember I think it was I think it was Berto talking about how he had like bought these things and he was going to take them and then he like saw like the label and he looked at it and he’s like, This looks like it was like just some paper label slapped on it. He’s How am I how am I about to be putting this in my body?

And I think it’s a kind of a similar thing if you just don’t know where these things are coming from. And the problem is like influencers will have like discount codes and link in my bio to buy these things and discounts. And unfortunately, I think that they are being marketed as here’s something where that can give you a performance enhancing impact without any or you know, any major side effects. They’re not, you know, they’re not steroids, they’re peptides. And so it’s like this kind of like light lighter thing, quote unquote. But actually, you know

Ironically, y you know, even though the steroids, you know, that might be a little bit of scarier term to people, there’s probably more research on a lot of the steroids than there is on some of these things.

Dani Taylor (09:02)
Yeah. So I I cannot tell you how much I love what you said, Sawyer, about like it’s like saying chemicals are good or chemicals are bad, because I was trying to think of a way to say exactly what you were just saying, that you can’t there’s there’s at least hundreds of these peptides being made, probably thousands at this point, and they all have absolutely whack names that you couldn’t possibly

memorize like CJC1295 and TB500 and it’s all like names like that. So to just be like, all bad or all good, I don’t think that that’s fair. There are ones that are prescribed by doctors that are really helpful.

But I wanna make it clear that that’s I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about today, is those ones. I don’t think we’re talking about insulin or even semiglutide and terzepatide and the other GLP ones. I think we’re talking about peptides as like a social experiment is what I feel like I’m seeing right now.

everywhere online. Like soccer moms are like, check out my peptide stack. And it’s like, what is happening? You guys are talking about this like it’s vitamins and you’re injecting weird shit you bought from China into your ass once a week. And we’re talking about it like it’s totally normal and you don’t even know what you’re

Coach Sawyer (10:05)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (10:08)
getting and then you’re getting all your friends to do too. Like you’re the Avon lady. Like it’s just I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I never thought this would be so commonplace. And it’s I personally think that when we’re talking about that, like it’s actually pretty scary because of how little research there is on

Coach Sawyer (10:12)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (10:24)
Most even the ones that seem promising, which I do want to say there are some that seem like if we do research them more, they might be very promising and they could be very helpful, but we just don’t know right now. So everybody’s just their own experiment of n equals one and sharing their anecdotes with people. And that’s scary.

Coach Sawyer (10:41)
Mm-hmm. People want to be on the cutting edge of that, I think. And and I do think it’s it’s just like marketing did they did a great job with like making it just seem like, it’s like injectable B twelve or something. Like it’s just like a vitamin, like a little pick-me-up or you know,

Alice Robeson (10:42)
Absolutely.

just to be clear, like, you know, I was talking about off as far as the athlete like s landscape, anything any of these peptides that are not approved by the FDA, they do fall under like the S0 of like the Wada banned substance list. So like

As an athlete, like it’s so interesting to me to especially something like BP 157, which is explicitly banned by Wada. And I wish that it wasn’t because I feel like to recover from an injury, like, how is that like I feel like that’s almost like borderline, like ethically wrong to keep that from this group of people? but it’s shocking to me. It’s really shocking to me. And so I, you know, as a

as a athlete who competes in drug tested federations, like I can’t try any of these. Not a single one. They all fall under that unapproved general status. So

Giacomo (11:47)
Well, I think hypothetically if I wasn’t competing in a Wada drug tested organization as a natural bodybuilder, I think I’d still have a giant dose of skepticism. And I personally don’t feel like my perspective would be any different in terms of whether it’s I don’t know what I don’t know. And it’s it looks too good to be real. It typically is. That’s like the logic that I’ve been using. And I wanna see what I mean, with I was like twenty years old and

I was taking a pro hormone again because it was the next flashy thing. I’d be like, this is cool. But PS it’s been six it’s been two months later and this is a kind of weird side effect. My muscles are growing incredibly large, like as if I’m taking steroids. Maybe I should stop and think about this for a second. But like this late in the game in my forties, even without being an athlete, I’d still be really, really concerned about what I would be getting with something that’s so new, it just seems so flashy that everyone’s just like

crazy and being, Hey, this is the new coolest thing. Well I don’t I don’t really know how I feel about it just yet, or or what where’s the evidence?

Alice Robeson (12:46)
Most of the evidence is in animal research, by the way. So anyone that’s like on the internet and being like, we’ve got research. No, we don’t. Not really. Because animal studies most of the time, the vast majority of the time, as horrible as it is testing on animals, most of the time it’s completely like useless because it doesn’t even translate into human studies.

Coach Sawyer (12:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (13:06)
So I think BPC one five seven specifically is an interesting one because you can get this stuff prescribed by it. Like there are doctors that will prescribe it, but I’m pretty sure they’re prescribing it off label. I don’t remember what the I think the original reason was because it helps with healing in the gut, but then they also found that it might help with healing in like joints and things like that. but there’s not a lot of human research on it.

Coach Sawyer (13:06)
Mm-hmm.

Alice Robeson (13:10)
Yes.

Dani Taylor (13:28)
So you can’t just like go buy this stuff willy-nilly legitimately through a doctor, which is why so many people are buying it through gray markets online. and when you do that, one, you have to buy it with the thing that says this is for research purposes only. So I don’t know, you can buy it and inject it into your own lab rat at home. Like obviously, people are buying this to inject it into themselves. But because they have that on there, it’s not regulated. Dose to dose, the dosing is very inconsistent from vial to vial. They could be contaminated.

And you could have buildup of certain contaminants in your system. So even if you get the quote unquote potential benefit, there could be negative side effects. And one of the things with BPC 157, which stands for body protective compound, which sounds wonderful, right? Is it helps build more vasculature to in your body and to injuries, but

When we’re building new vasculature in our body, if you have any kind of tumor or cancer or anything like that, and it builds new vasculature to that, it could also have that grow more quickly as well. So would that happen? We don’t know. We don’t have enough evidence to find out. But like that is not a risk I personally would be willing to take, even though I hope there’s more research on this in the future. And like Alice said, I hope it’s legit because being able to take something that would help people heal faster, that sounds amazing.

I also don’t think something like that should be gate kept, but I’m also not willing to be the human lab rat to find out how it works.

Coach Sawyer (14:55)
That

that reminds me of things. two very smart people said to me, one is in this chat room as Ben said one time, we were talking about supplements or something. He was like, you know, this is really cool and really interesting, but like I’m okay being a late adopter because the risks are very high. Like, and I really like how he said that. He was like, like, I’m not closed off to this.

Like it’s it’s not like a never because there’s no amount of evidence that could ever convince me of this kind of thing. It’s it’s I’m gonna wait for the evidence before I make a take a a solid stand. Dr. Angie was telling me.

Is that she will have people? This is more just like a shock thing for her, I think, and and for just kind of to show us where we’re at societally. She said that she will have people who come into her clinic and will, you know, she’ll she’ll try to put them on, you know, insulin or she’ll try to put them on statins. And they’ll be like, no, no, no, I’m not doing those things. But they’re on peptides, she finds out. And it’s like, she’s like, what is happening right now? She’s so

She’s so like frustrated with it, I think.

Dani Taylor (15:59)
I I hate

to be that person, but the Venn diagram of people who wouldn’t get the COVID vaccine and the people that are taking peptides is a circle. So that is wild to me that people were like, I’m not taking that. There’s no research behind this. But I have a special fridge for my 37 vials of peptides I’m having for dinner tonight. And that’s totally normal and natural, and I feel empowered. So, you know, to each their own, but it makes no sense to me.

Coach Sawyer (16:06)
It is it is.

Yeah.

That’s that’s scary.

Mm-hmm.

Alice Robeson (16:28)
People being more comfortable with like the fact that there’s like zero evidence yet versus like all the good science we have proving all the good these things like vaccines do. Yeah, it’s

Coach Sawyer (16:39)
psychological phenomenon where they have like like a like where you if you stand to gain something, it’s like gambling, you stand to gain something, even though it’s a risk, you’re like, Well, what the heck? What do I have to lose? kind of thing, right? And we all kind of take our health for granted anyway. But then if you stand to lose something, right? So if you’re like, statins are well studied and I’ve heard they cause this, or I heard they can still be problems with that. and I’ve been warned a million times by my doctor they might need to

do other stuff too. They’re probably like, well, it just sounds like a d all downsides, you know?

Dani Taylor (17:10)
Well,

you know, there’s no free lunch. And all of these medications and and possibly the peptides, if they have positive effects, that’s cool, but there are gonna be side effects of everything. And we just don’t know what those are going to be yet. And that’s why it needs to be better studied.

Coach Sawyer (17:29)
Mm-hmm. Agreed.

Alice Robeson (17:30)
I think people are a lot more comfortable taking peptides rather than like hormones. I heard it described like hormones, like they’re gonna replace your natural hormones. And so when your body detects that your hormone levels are too high, your body can shut that down. And that’s the scariest thing about say like male bodybuilders, and it’s so common for them to be taking a lot of testosterone and not cycling it and then

the real risk of one day stopping that and then it’s like your body is not going to continue making it. You’re just gonna have to keep injecting it the rest of your life, right? whereas with the peptides, you know, they’re gonna be speaking to your pituitary gland, basically telling it to release more of our of your actual hormones. So while there’s still risks that come with that,

I guess because we don’t understand them as well, people are feeling more like apt to like jump for the especially like the growth hormone type of peptides.

Dani Taylor (18:27)
And my understanding with the growth hormone ones is there’s kind of like two kinds, and I don’t want to butcher the vernacular here, but like one kind tells your body to secrete more of the hormone that tells your body to secrete the hormones, right? So it like makes it send more of the signal that says, Hey, we need more growth hormone. And then there’s other ones that just kind of skip that first step. And again, I’m I don’t want to butcher this, but my understanding is as of right now, one of them is actually close.

closer to the hormone replacement therapy where it’s like if you do it for long enough you might actually kind of adapt to it and stop producing your own hormones as much. But again, like we just don’t know. So just taking these all willy-nilly and the way that we talk about them like they’re

Kind of like they’re nothing, like they’re supplements or protein powder, or you’re taking vitamin C. They’re not. You said before you even started recording, Ben, you know, this is this is a lot closer to taking steroids than I think most people are willing to admit. And that’s one of the reasons that they’re banned.

Ben (19:26)
I feel like it’s just a cultural perception. Like people associate steroids with big, like juiced up bodybuilders and they’re like, I don’t want to take steroids. but they’re like, peptides, I you know, I don’t you know, I’ve heard a little bit about those. those could, you know, I wanna know more. I had a client yeah, exactly, right? Right? It’s gotta be positive. I had a client talk to me about a friend of hers who competes in the NPC and I think it was in the NPC or maybe she’s just a trainer, I don’t remember.

Coach Sawyer (19:41)
It’s got Pep in the name. How could it be bad?

Dani Taylor (19:44)
Ha ha ha.

Coach Sawyer (19:45)
Pep.

Giacomo (19:46)
Yeah,

right.

Ben (19:53)
And she was talking about how, you know, she’s in her fifties or whatever and she looks and fantastic. And she said, you know, I’ve been taking these peptides just like very casually. and like you were talking about with like the, you know, the soccer mom stereotype, Dani, I think people are just looking to take something that is going to be kind of like what Giacomo is getting at, like a quick fix or quick solution. But I like really like the saying, like for every for every gimme there’s a gotcha, like there’s no free lunch, like there’s always

going to be some sort of trade-off when you’re putting something exogenously into your body most of the time. And again, like I’m not anti-medication. Obviously medications have their application and you know, a lot of them have side effects, but for most of people taking these medications, the side effects are well worth or well tolerated compared to the effect that you’re getting. The thing is with these peptides, first of all, we don’t even know if the effects are that robust. Second of all, we don’t know any we really don’t know much at all about the side effect profile. It’s like the people who are taking these things

are the, you know, I I hate saying this, the guinea pigs because obviously we don’t like the idea of animals being tested, but they’re they’re kind of trying they’re the ones who are on the front lines trying these things out. And I just think like what you were saying, Sawyer, like the risk to reward ratio for me is just so not there. like I I really think that people need to if they’re considering, like if you find yourself thinking, hmm, I wonder if those things could give me an edge. I think you

Giacomo (20:53)
Right.

Ben (21:13)
My recommendation would be catch yourself with those thoughts and really like look to see at your current routine and say like, am I truly doing everything right now that I could be within my control to get the results that I want out of my efforts? Because most people I think are taking these for body composition or or health. and really I would say ask yourself like, are you really maximizing, you know, all of these va variables and these vectors before you’re considering exploring this route? Because if you’re not, I think that there are there’s a lot more low-hanging fruit.

and you know, you might just be looking for a shortcut. And again, that’s human nature to do that because we’re, you know, as humans I think we’re generally just like lazy and like low effort stuff. but that’s that’s not, you know, conducive to to long term health and and fitness for sure.

Giacomo (21:55)
Yeah, exactly. People are looking for shortcuts when there’s so many basic things that they can do through trial and error to see if they can get their body. I feel like the longer you go at it, the more likely you’re sh you’re gonna build up stress when it comes to focusing on fitness, when it comes to making more of a marathon s than a sprint, meaning like you’re what, start exercising when you’re twenty, now you’re forty or fifty or sixty or whatever, or you’ve

Been exercising for 10 plus years straight, or you have more responsibilities on your plate now than you did in the past, but you’re still trying to make this thing work. You’re still trying to get results, you’re still trying to recover and train harder, and it’s not working. And so there’s this shiny object in front of you that could potentially help you recover faster and maybe in s in ways it could. And you’re like, you know what? I don’t care about the risks. I’m willing to take the risks. I’m gonna be that person. But then I say to myself,

You’re using this thing as a tool, as a fix, but the root of the problem is still gonna be there. And where are you gonna be after the fact? So that’s kind of the way that I see it. It’s like, are you basically enabling a lifestyle where you don’t find solutions, even though this is a solution and you don’t care about the risks? Or or are you auditing your life and figuring out how you can make things work better? Are you sleeping well? Are you managing your stress well or considering what you could take off of your plate if this is

If health and your fitness are more of a priority for you, are you doing those things? And if you’re not, are you willing to accept what you’re gonna feel like and what your recovery is gonna be like and and know that that is what your body is capable of instead of trying to take this path and potentially cause other problems or get you, as Ben said, in a low effort kind of scenario where you and I hate to use the word because it’s it’s negative, but like you’re lazy about what you could be doing to better yourself as an athlete or to become healthier.

Alice Robeson (23:38)
I think the second most common thing that I’ve had people come forward me f with me about like GLP ones is like how many people have tried it now and it actually hasn’t worked for them. and now that we’ve got I won’t I don’t want to say like the data, but at least like enough like anecdotal, maybe maybe physicians have a little bit of understanding, like the messaging is getting better about how like

Yes, these are going to be super helpful in moving the needle for your weight loss, but you still need to have the underlying like good habits. You still need to be eating regular meals. You still need to ideally be lifting weights. You still need to be getting good sleep, just like you’re saying, Giacomo. And if you just inject these GLP1s without all of those things, chances are it’s not going to work for you. Or or

Your doctor might give you some massive dose that literally strips away all of your appetite. And so you literally can’t eat anything. And so, okay, duh, we’re gonna start having weight loss. It’s gonna be crash diet 101. And bam, there definitely there goes your muscle, like all your hard-earned muscle. So no, that’s that’s it, that’s what I want.

Dani Taylor (24:51)
Yeah.

I was thinking about something earlier when I was thinking about the folks that like, you know, were kind of anti-vax but then decided to go for these peptides. And I don’t maybe I wasn’t fully fair on that, because I understand that, you know, people don’t like to be told what to do. And that’s kind of what the government was doing. And I think that was a big part of it. And I certainly understand government distrust and all of that. But

I think that a lot of people have this idea in their head that these things are not regulated and not FDA approved for the reasons people are taking them, because like big pharma wants to keep us sick because that’s how they make their money. A lot of people think big pharma is the super evil industrial complex, and like, yeah, probably kind of. But I what I don’t think people realize is that the wellness industry is four times the size.

Of the pharmaceutical industry. So I just looked it up to make sure I wasn’t like misquoting. And the pharmaceutical industry is worth about $1.8 trillion, which is an insane amount of money. The wellness industry is worth $6.8 trillion. So even though we all like to, you know, if you want to find the evil, you follow the money, right? And that’s certainly a lot of money, but the the wellness industry is also, as we all know, highly

Predatory, highly unregulated, selling people stuff that does nothing at best. but because it’s not the government or no one’s forcing us to do it, people seem to trust it more implicitly. I also think because it’s largely like run by influencers. That that’s their whole job is to get you to trust them.

Ben (26:22)
I just gonna say I it’s like this veneer, this illusion of like agency or autonomy that I think people have where it’s like, I’m making this decision for myself to use peptides versus like somebody’s telling me what to do. But in reality, if you’re uneducated on a topic and you know, you you know, we’re all i like easily influenced by you know, like like it’s it’s easy to

fall into the common pitfalls and traps of hey, somebody’s really confident in what they’re speaking about. They seem like they’re an expert in this topic. and so they can, you know, convince you pretty easily if you don’t have that domain specific expertise to say, hmm, you know, this sounds like there’s a lot of good things going about these, you know, peptides. And yeah, exactly like, you know, Joe Schmoe with a thousand or a million Instagram followers said that this is

what helped him, you know, get abs and all this muscle. And so people are like, okay. You know, that sounds like something I should do. and again, it’s like they feel like they’re, you know, taking taking control and making this this decision themselves. But it’s like really this person’s just implanted this idea in your head that this is a good thing to do and they’re directly profiting off of it. So like what what is actually the difference at the end of the day? It’s just your perception of what’s happening.

Dani Taylor (27:28)
It also kind of reminds me of in the like mid to late 80s, early 90s, when all these psychiatric drugs were coming out that were very promising, all these different like antidepressants and antipsychotics and anti-anxiety medications and blah, blah, blah. They were studied individually. They were not prescribed individually. People were being prescribed these cocktails of these different things that we did not know how they interacted with one another. And having a front row seat to as a child.

I can tell you it wasn’t good. Okay? Like they were not intended to all be used at the same time, and it made a lot of people.

Very crazy and very not themselves. And when I think about one, how little research we have on these peptides individually, let alone together, people are not taking these individually. They’re taking, I mean, I am not exaggerating. When I tell you, I have seen many people post that they have separate refrigerators full of vials of peptides because they are taking six in the morning, six in the afternoon, and twenty at night. All these different compounds. Come on, we have no.

idea how those are gonna interact with each other at all. At that point, I think you’re just being completely reckless. But those are the people that are selling them. Like those are the people that are getting people to it’s it’s like a MLM for dudes mostly is what it seems like to me. there’s women doing it too, but it’s mostly dudes, let’s be real. getting their bros to sign up underneath them and get caught up in this like pyramid scheme of chemicals.

Coach Sawyer (28:55)
I think not to get too meta about it, but I think this is what happens when we’re like in late stage capitalism where things are so unregulated and so hyper competitive and so like gotta outsell the person and it’s all about short-term gain and all these things, is that like it erodes trust of the public.

Right. And so we have I I don’t think medical professionals are doing anything explicitly wrong. I mean, at least not in this this instance, explicitly wrong of like trying to advise, hey, let’s use these tested substances, let’s do this stuff. Right. It’s more the insurance model that they’re constrained under, and they only get 15 minutes with these people once every six months, whereas these influencers pop up on everybody’s feeds every, you know.

every day. And so you’re they’re getting more exposure to this kind of hyper capitalistic, like really tailored to the person message. It feels like these influencers t are talking right to them about their problems. And doctors are just kind of like talking down to them or trying to explain very complex topics like why they should understand the science and why they should take these safer drugs in a period of 15 minutes.

without barely having time to even listen to them talk about their issue. So it sounds to me like it’s really just like a the system has kind of failed a lot in in a lot of ways because and for a lot of the same reason that other other industries have failed, which is that there’s a lot of profit incentive being pushed to the forefront of everything and it makes everything shittier and erodes all kinds of trust like throughout the whole entire industry.

And so that leaves a lot of people vulnerable to other people who recognize, I see my opportunity here to sell to these people who have been underserved or mistreated by this industry that’s gotten shittier. So it’s like a never-ending loop of just screwing people over. And I even saw a meme recently that was like, Why does it feel like every industry is just one big scam now? And I was like, I feel like

Most people could relate to that. Like every industry has at least some actors that are like at the top, but somehow just scamming people. Like the the people that are most rewarded in this system are the people who are the least credible and the least helpful because they’re just the best at selling, you know?

Dani Taylor (31:08)
And they’re so confident

Alice Robeson (31:09)
Confidence Smith

Dani Taylor (31:09)
in the bullshit they’re spewing. Yeah.

Giacomo (31:12)
Okay, so I’m gonna create

a little time capsule for everyone here. I wanna take a vote, right? So it’s June sixteenth seventeenth, twenty twenty six, and I want everyone’s prediction here in let’s say five to ten years from now, are there going to be any peptides that are gonna wind up on the list of acceptable peptides to take and no longer banned? And if so, what are your predictions?

Coach Sawyer (31:12)
Yeah.

Alice Robeson (31:12)
salesman.

absolutely something like, you know, the the BPC 157, I think, because that’s I don’t know. I feel like that’s it’s been around a long time. There’s a lot of curiosity about that one. I think that that’s probably like one of the main ones that people are gonna be putting a lot of their like research into and coming up with similar solutions. But yeah, absolutely.

Giacomo (31:36)
Yeah.

Huh. Interesting.

Dani Taylor (32:00)
I think there’s a handful of them that are gonna be re at the very least, they’re going to be studied to a point that we are gonna know for sure yes or no. Sh are these safe? I think there’s a bunch of them that will be.

Alice Robeson (32:09)
You know the one that scares me the most is the the one that increases women’s libido and also makes you very, very tan.

Coach Sawyer (32:10)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (32:17)
Mm-hmm.

Coach Sawyer (32:18)
Mm hmm.

Dani Taylor (32:18)
Yep.

Giacomo (32:19)
uses for that. It’s you get deep into a prep and your testosterone is low. Those thoughts just cross my mind. Like how do I how do I deal with these side effects? No, no, no, I know, I know. Not related, but yeah. Yes.

Coach Sawyer (32:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Dani Taylor (32:26)
Yeah, but it’s not it’s not testosterone. Like it it’s not anything like that. I know what you’re talking about. And also we know somebody

that has taken the one that makes you really tan and yikes. It’s not really tan, it’s like orange.

Giacomo (32:37)
god not a good look. No Yeah, you don’t want that. Which Ben you’re

Alice Robeson (32:40)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Giacomo (32:43)
you’re eager to I think are are you being you taking the opposite stance here?

Ben (32:46)
I I am, and the reason I’m taking the opposite stance isn’t because I don’t think that there’s gonna be enough research to say that they’re like safe or effective. I think sometimes just a lot of these organizations have a very harsh, like we are anti drug policy and it’s takes a lot to like flip the tides on the way that they view certain things. Maybe to the point where they can get people can get medical exemptions for these things, but like, hey, like, you know, there are certain drugs that are well studied and like, you know.

These are things that help people like let’s just look at beta blockers, for instance. Like some people take beta blockers for other reasons, but they’re still banned in you know drug tested competitions for you know, be yeah, they are in l you have to get a medical exemption to to use them. so I still just think like a lot of these organizations, they’re just very like their their stance is just like anti drugs. So unless there’s some compelling reason for them to change their stance, like I think even drugs that are

quote unquote safe and effective are still banned. So I I’m gonna take a little bit of a different stance, but do I think maybe that there could be like medical exemptions in the way that certain drugs are now, like, you know, insulin, beta blockers, those sort of things. Yeah, I think that’s a possibility.

Giacomo (33:51)
Yeah, I’m on your I have this a similar mindset to you, Ben, but for different reasons. I don’t it’s less about well, yes, to give more context here, just because something’s safe doesn’t mean it’s not gonna be defined as quote unquote doping, right? Even though there’s some gray area here because if it’s helping you heal faster but it’s not making your muscles grow bigger, is it actually doping? But I would be I would be surprised if Wada was like, Yeah, we’re cool with this

I would th I feel like they would still classify it as doping. That’s that’s my opinion. That’s what I think. I I don’t I but but with the with the exemption use stuff, I feel like that would be a possibility. Like how you see some bodybuilding organizations, for example, and I’m sorry we keep using be we keep using bodybuilding as a sport that we’re familiar with when it comes to all these tests and regulations and whatnot, but they have therapeutic use exemptions for different kinds of things that would otherwise enhance your

performance if you were using it for that particular purpose. But I I don’t think we’ve heard from you story either yet, but I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking, Dani.

Dani Taylor (34:49)
I was just gonna say I agree with you. I don’t think any of these things are gonna come off the WADA list. Like I think if they’re on there, they’re gonna stay on there. I think there’s tons of stuff on the bodybuilding banned substance list that shouldn’t be on there, but it is. I don’t think that’s gonna change. But I do think they’ll be like FDA approved for the purposes that people are using them for now. Or or not, you know? so yeah, anyway. Sawyer, go ahead.

Giacomo (34:53)
okay.

Gotcha.

Coach Sawyer (35:09)
Yeah, I don’t really have anything to add. I agree with that. and I don’t know enough about the bodybuilding world to like to comment anything about that. But no, I I definitely in terms of medical uses, I think it’ll they’ll we’ll get comfortable enough with some of these to to see them prescribed probably at some point.

Alice Robeson (35:26)
in the wada like I guess like world, a lot of the sort of like approach that they take looking at like whether or not to ban something is like, does it give the athlete like a strong advantage? And that’s a lot of the rationale they’ll use for something like BPC one fifty seven, the ability to heal and recover faster.

Once

we get to a point where the research is good enough and enough of these are approved and we find a good enough quality one, I think it I just do think that it would be like wrong to keep this from from certain people when it becomes like the norm in medical treatment. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? At least for that one. Go ahead.

Dani Taylor (36:02)
I think a lot of stuff that they say, like, does it give somebody an unfair advantage? I don’t this is a kind of a side topic. I also just think that anybody that has enough money has an unfair advantage because they have more time to pursue more recovery methodologies and special PT and special this and special that.

So I don’t know. I think there’s lots of stuff that isn’t a quote unquote banned substance that still gives people quite the advantage over other people that don’t have access to it. So for that reason I think some of the ones on there are a little bit silly, especially when they do have other legitimate medical uses. So

Ben (36:37)
that’s true. I think it comes down to like the magnitude of impact as well. Like, you know, they there might be able to like I think you make a good point, Dani. Like, obviously having more wealth is a resource in and of itself that lets you then divert your energy and attention to other things. But, you know, with infinite amounts of training and the perfect nutrition and sleep and recovery, that still only gets you so far as opposed to then having like, you know, super physiological enhancement. so I think that they attempt to draw the line in a place that is very close to

about as natural as you can get as opposed to maybe some people are like, you what, I think I could you know, that line can move a little bit this way. So I think it’s yeah, there’s a lot of interpretation, up for debate there.

Dani Taylor (37:14)
Yeah.

Coach Sawyer (37:15)
That hey, that’s a that’s an interesting question. Is are we considering people that take peptides natural or are we where do we draw the line? Because it’s obvious like some people need medications to live well. I know. yeah, I I guess I mean like more societally. Like like what would you call natural like as a just person to person? I guess I’m curious about that concept.

Dani Taylor (37:25)
So they’re all banned, Sawyer. They’re all banned. They’re all you can’t compete in natural, you know.

Well, that’s that’s the thing, man, is like I

feel like a couple years ago, most people would have said anybody injecting stuff into their bodies to make their joints heal faster, you would have been like, That’s not natural. But the the tone has shifted so much to the point that it’s just kind of seen as way more normal.

Coach Sawyer (37:49)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (37:56)
and that’s just been like a really weird and I remember telling Giacomo about this, like like probably like two years ago. I was like, I can’t believe what I’m seeing. This is like people are eating these like breakfast cereal at this point. And it’s just it’s only gotten more so since then. So I think most people would say, yeah, that’s fine. Like if you could just order it online, that’s fine. but I I mean I don’t feel that way.

Coach Sawyer (38:15)
Mm. Yeah, me neither.

Alice Robeson (38:16)
No one’s really coming out and saying like, hmm, peptides are bad, I feel like. And maybe maybe when there’s more voices coming out with some warnings, people will start thinking more about it.

Ben (38:27)
I think it’s because it’s like the way that they’re framed. It’s like a compared to what? Again, it’s kind of this idea of like it being like a PED light, like, hey, you know, here’s how to get all these positives that you would get from you know, steroids without actually taking the steroids or something like that. And I’m like, again, it just comes down to me. It’s like common sense. It’s like, really? Like you you honestly think like these that they’re like wouldn’t bodybuilders be using these things if they were so effective, like instead of the the steroids themselves. So I think, again

Coach Sawyer (38:50)
Mm-hmm.

Ben (38:53)
You gotta apply your critical thinking skills and just really like ask yourself, how have how long have these things been around for? You know, who who is taking them, who is promoting them? and I think you’ll see that there’s there’s a lot of holes in in the way that they’re currently being talked about.

Dani Taylor (39:09)
I just think it’s so wild. Like, can you picture your like grandmother talking about taking steroids or performance-enhancing drugs? Like just Nana having her tea talking about taking PEDs. Like, but that’s what’s happening. Like, that’s literally what’s happening now. It’s like I see some of these Facebook groups, because they I don’t know why they pop up and it’s it’s literally like

Nanas sitting around talking about if they should take this peptide because they heard blah blah blah and then a laundry list of comments encouraging her to do so from other grandmas. And it’s just like it’s really jaw-dropping shit. And I don’t think we can sit here and be like peptide’s bad, right?

Coach Sawyer (39:37)
Hm.

Dani Taylor (39:43)
But I s I couldn’t I could not in good conscience encourage anybody to take almost any of them. The only ones I could think of encouraging somebody to take would be the GLP ones. And that would be someone in a very specific situation where I think it could basically kick start saving their life. and outside of that, I don’t think I would recommend it for anybody.

Giacomo (40:03)
But we also started with a very open mind with GLPs in the beginning because there is evidence that it can help and what we’re seeing with clients and whatnot are people are still struggling, even well after the fact. And different and things are happening where they were working until they weren’t. Right? So even something that is clinically proven to help you in some ways is still not necessarily the answer.

Coach Sawyer (40:20)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (40:25)
Yeah.

And I have a theory on that also, because I’ve seen some people that GLP once have worked miracles for, and then I’ve seen other that it hasn’t really done stuff. And just anecdotally, what I’ve noticed is the people that it’s not really helping, I don’t think those were the people that necessarily were dealing with the food noise and the insatiable hunger. I think the overeating was a habit of self-soothing. And it had nothing to do with hunger in the first place. So for those people, it’s like the overeating or the binging or the night eating or.

or whatever, it’s a habit that they have formed for probably more emotional reasons than physiological ones. But the people that it really is like food noise, like all day, just thinking about food, being super sensitive to hunger, and overeating because of those things. But that was like the root of it was that I feel like it’s helping those people a lot.

Coach Sawyer (41:13)
that’s so interesting. Yeah, well, I mean, we have these GLP ones, agonists that have passed phase three of FDA approval. Like they’ve they’ve been really well tested. And a lot of these studies have shown that they’ve been placebo controlled, randomized, and helped people lose weight. and so cause what you’re saying seems to suggest that like you think it’s placebo. You think it’s more physiolog or not as physiological as it is like

They know they’re taking p GLP ones and that’s why they’re getting rid of these habits. Is that what you’re saying? Or you think it’s different?

Dani Taylor (41:42)
No, no, no. I’m saying that there are people

that because they’re overeating or they’re binge eating or anything like that, because it is emotionally driven, they’re taking the GLP ones and it’s not stopping the habits because it it never came from hunger in the first place. yeah.

Coach Sawyer (41:55)
you’re saying the opposite. Okay. Yeah, okay. That makes more sense to me. Okay,

I was like, because it seems like you’re negating the placebo trial. But no, you’re that makes way more sense that they would have if it’s an emotional trigger, that that wouldn’t be solved by a by a drug that helps you limit your appetite because it’s not appetite driven, it’s emotionally driven. That makes a lot of sense.

Dani Taylor (42:13)
Yeah, and that’s so that’s gotta

Giacomo (42:13)
Interesting.

Dani Taylor (42:14)
be so disappointing. I mean, my god, that’s gotta be soul crushing to kind of come to that realization that there’s basically a miracle drug out there that just like doesn’t work for you. And that could be part of the reason why.

Coach Sawyer (42:20)
Mm.

I yes and no,

because if you are able to rule out, it’s physio like if you’re confused, if you’re like, I can’t tell if it’s physiological or psychological, and you take this drug and you’re like, Yeah, okay, I’m not as hungry like for mealtime, but I still binge on chocolate, you would know at least, it’s emotional. I need to go to therapy, or I need to do you know what I mean? So you would at least figure out one more piece of the puzzle. I I would like to see, like, I’d hope that way. Yeah.

Dani Taylor (42:47)
Yeah, that’s a hard message to deliver.

Coach Sawyer (42:51)
I know. This is this is a third party saying that, you know, but whatever.

Giacomo (42:50)
Me and my feelings again.

Dani Taylor (42:53)
Yeah.

Alice Robeson (42:55)
You’re talking about like, how disappointing. I mean, so s a lot of people are trying to get these things covered by health insurance. And if you fall into, you know, the certain like range, you you may be able to get approval from your insurance to begin these drugs. But then when the weight loss reaches a certain point and you reach a new like threshold just because just because your numbers are different, even though you still have a lot of weight to lose.

You might lose that insurance coverage and then bam, you’re gonna be stuck trying to foot the bill for these things. and talk about I mean, talk about disappointment there. Like, especially if you’re putting your own money towards this, how much time and effort it is because you’re still gonna like I said, you’re still gonna have to do all the things. You’re still gonna have to eat right, you’re still gonna have to sleep, you’re still gonna have to move your body. and now it’s like, these things are being stripped away, you’re gonna have to start

Coach Sawyer (43:33)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Alice Robeson (43:47)
Paying who knows how much money? very stressful.

Coach Sawyer (43:48)
Yeah.

Dani Taylor (43:49)
And for that I

Coach Sawyer (43:49)
Yeah.

Dani Taylor (43:49)
know a lot of people who are like, I don’t wanna say gaming the system ’cause that sounds disingenuous, but kind of gaming the system and basically like, you know, the doctor will be like

I think we should move you to a higher dosage. What do you think? And they’ll be like, Yeah, that’s a great idea. But then they’re not actually taking the higher dosage because they want to save it for when insurance no longer covers it and they’re like stockpiling it. And I don’t blame them because I have seen a lot of people, it’s like they their numbers have put them back into a camp where they’re healthy enough that they no longer have pre diabetes. so now too bad, so sad, you gotta pay for it all out of pocket now. And it’s like, no, but wait, the reason I don’t I’m not pre-diabetic anymore is because of this. that’s gotta be so

Coach Sawyer (44:26)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (44:28)
Scary. I mean, I know it I have had moments where like there’s a medication I’ve needed that I can’t get for some reason. I know you’ve had that moment as well, Alice. Like it’s a scary feeling to feel like one of the things that is keeping you like upright and going, you’re not gonna have access to anymore. That’s terrifying. So I think part of it is like an accessibility thing. Yeah.

Coach Sawyer (44:45)
And case in point, the insurance

yeah, the insurance industry sucks.

but but I have a client who who was on I God, I’m gonna mess this up. I have to look at my notes. But he was on, I think, Monjaro or Ozempic, I forget which one. He was on one of them. He was on one of them. And then he switched to Wagovi because his insurance wouldn’t cover it that one anymore. And that one didn’t work for him. The second one didn’t work for him, even though the first one did. So I’m like, okay, that’s really interesting.

Dani Taylor (44:59)
Jaro, Wagobi. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Coach Sawyer (45:13)
And I guess I I learned recently when I was doing some research for this particular episode, which I wish I had my notes in front of me. But basically there’s there’s two kinds of GLP agonists, and they they one of them attacks like two different pathways, and one of them just attacks one, like semiglutide versus the other one. and so it was probably that. Three, what

Alice Robeson (45:29)
We’re gonna have three coming out next. So then it’ll be three different things. Yes.

Dani Taylor (45:33)
Yeah. Is that Red

Atrutchide? Is that the one that does three? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Alice Robeson (45:34)
That’s Redatruchide. Mm-hmm. That’s what everyone wants. Anyway, sorry, I had to put that before that passed. Go ahead.

Coach Sawyer (45:37)
Whoa. Dang. Right. so it’s

yeah, semi-glutide and terzipatide. So he was yeah, he was on one that was working and then he his insurance no longer covered it. It had to go to one that was, you know, like Govi or whatever. And it stopped working, or it just kind of helped him maintain. And then he was like, I wanna go back to that other one, so I think he figured it out. But it’s like, I don’t know. It’s it’s so messy.

Dani Taylor (45:59)
Yeah. I mean I’ve seen people

Botch their glucose tests on purpose so that they still come out as pre-diabetic, so that they can. I mean, I’ve seen some pretty wild shit. And again, I don’t blame people for doing this. I was gonna mention this earlier. So, in research for this episode, I was looking up, you know, who are the doctors that are prescribing these peptides, not GLP ones, just peptides in general. Like, there are doctors working with real pharmacies that do prescribe these, but they are few and far between. So I was looking them up in my area to see, like, okay, what exists?

Coach Sawyer (46:08)
Wow.

Yeah.

Dani Taylor (46:31)
And I found like two in the state. And when I was looking at their website, just the appointment, just the initial chit-chatting with the doctor, no blood work, nothing, just chit-chatting, $800 out of pocket. They don’t take insurance. There is no insurance. That’s just to talk with them. And then after that, they put together a plan of which peptides and the

ongoing blood work because anybody that’s doing this in anything resembling an intelligent way needs to be getting ongoing blood work. so you know it’s like okay if if it turns out that these peptides do do what a lot of people think that they are going to do, currently it is so gate kept the safe way to do it behind like just needing to have a kind of an insane amount of disposable wealth.

That it’s that’s really depressing. I don’t know. I mean, what’s new? That’s everything, right? But I was kind of shocked when I looked that up. Like, but of course, there’s also these like chop shop pharmacies that you can go to online where you pay a hundred dollars a month and they’ll just keep prescribing you stuff that you just like hope is the right thing. Ugh, I don’t know, man. Yeah. It’s like best case scenario, it’s saline.

Coach Sawyer (47:19)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

That’s terrifying. Yeah.

Alice Robeson (47:38)
Yes to blood work.

Coach Sawyer (47:42)
Yeah.

Alice Robeson (47:42)
right.

a lot of the things that I was watching in self-study was people talking about how yeah, before you start this peptide route, like get blood work to see if there are any underlying hormonal challenges first. And I think that layer that’s another layer of complexity because so many, you know, like PCPs and stuff, like really you should be seeing an endocrinologist, you know? And that’s not an easy thing.

specialist to find is not an easy specialist to get into. So checking to see if you have, you know, something else that’s that’s physiologically getting in the way of your weight loss. And then yes, coming to some legitimate weight loss program, not a crash diet that’s trying to look you know do all the right things that are that are trying to protect you in the process. And then and then, you know, that’s when you start thinking about adding peptides.

Giacomo (48:13)
Mm-hmm.

Alice Robeson (48:37)
onto the whole onto the whole pile. So I appreciated that about a lot of the stuff. A lot of law the influencers I was listening to and physicians. I feel like people don’t say that enough.

Dani Taylor (48:45)
Yeah.

Coach Sawyer (48:45)
Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (48:46)
I mean, some of these peptides, copper, copper peptides, people a lot of people taking copper peptides. I forget why, I forget why some a lot of people, a lot of women are actually taking this one for like skin and hair and stuff like that. But like you can get copper toxicity. Like that’s that’s a thing that can happen. So even if somebody decides to go one of these routes and get these from a gray market, it’s not like it’s not like your vitamin that you take every single day. It’s like some of them should only be run for like six weeks at a time, and then you take

This much time off, and they are all different schedules that should be followed. And really, who came up with these schedules in the first place since there’s no research on any of it? Like, did someone just make this up? It’s just, you know, again, I hope that some of these turn out to be as good as it seems like they might be. But right now, short of going to one of those million-dollar doctors that who could afford to do that, like you couldn’t get me to take one of these. And I’m

Coach Sawyer (49:23)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dani Taylor (49:38)
usually like too afraid of my my high school self would just take anything you put in front of her. But you know like I’m not usually too too scared of certain things. But there’s no way that I would do these things. Like I cannot imagine injecting something into my body that I didn’t know. What something about that just sounds so extreme and so wrong.

Coach Sawyer (49:42)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. It’s always

Alice Robeson (49:57)
You order a lot of these things

from overseas and the quality control is very, very questionable. There’s a lot of waste that can go into just just the creation process. And that’s that’s another thing, making sure that you’re getting like pharmaceutical grade and avoiding these, you know, Chinese websites.

Coach Sawyer (50:14)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Dani Taylor (50:17)
You just

don’t know. All right. I think that’s a good place to wrap it up for today. You guys feel good about this? Yeah? All right. All right. I’ll do I hate that it does that. I’ll do the outro here. All right. Well, I hope you guys enjoy.

Giacomo (50:21)
Yeah, I think so.

Coach Sawyer (50:21)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Definitely. It never does it when you want

Alice Robeson (50:21)
Yeah.

Giacomo (50:25)
Ha ha ha.

Alice Robeson (50:25)
Who

Coach Sawyer (50:29)
it to do it though.

Giacomo (50:29)
Just

you day.

Coach Sawyer (50:30)
Why not do it when I want to do it? She what the heck she got it? This is ridiculous. I’m outta here.

Alice Robeson (50:30)
How how do I do it? How did you do that?

Dani Taylor (50:33)
I just gave a thumbs up and it just did it. I don’t maybe I have

Giacomo (50:36)
Put in the same spot on the screen

too.

Dani Taylor (50:38)
something turned on that I was unaware of.

Alice Robeson (50:40)
I thought you hit like a button like in like in Zoom, like emoji.

Giacomo (50:42)
He

Coach Sawyer (50:43)
She’s getting

favorable treatment. I’m outta here.

Dani Taylor (50:46)
Do the same thing. Ha! Just curious. Just curious. All right. All right. Well, guys, I hope that you enjoyed this episode. There’s probably more that we could talk about. If you enjoyed the style of podcast with the round table, all the coaches on here chit-chatting, I think we did a pretty good job not interrupting each other.

Giacomo (50:47)
Why?

Alice Robeson (50:48)
Only yours is responding.

Coach Sawyer (50:49)
What the heck?

I’m leaving. This is crazy. I’m furious.

Dani Taylor (51:05)
Bummer that Ben had to bounce. But if you’re looking for any kind of one-on-one coaching, we’ll leave the link for the assessment in the show notes. You fill that out. You’ll hear back from probably Giacomo within a business day. We do have some open spots and we’d love to be a part of your journey. If you want to give us feedback on this episode or ask questions or suggest other topics, you can email us coach at veganproteins.com.

Feel free to follow us on social media. So Ben is at Ben A. Mitchell. Sawyer is at Soy Boy Fitness Coaching. Alice is at Vegan Proteins Alice. Giacomo is at Muscles by Brussels, and I am at Vegan Proteins. And if you liked the podcast, go ahead and leave us a review wherever you’re listening to this. It really helps get the podcast in front of other eyeballs. Once again, thank you guys so much for listening, and we’ll talk to you later. Bye.

Giacomo (51:47)
Yeah.

Alice Robeson (51:47)
Mm.