Beyond GLP-1s: The Peptides You Haven’t Heard Of (But Your Body Might Be Craving)

From shrinking fat to restoring function: a new way to think about peptide therapy

GLP-1s are everywhere.

They’re in headlines, group chats, and “before and after” photos.
For many, they’ve changed the conversation about weight and metabolic health.

But if you’ve used a GLP-1 (or watched others do it), you may have noticed something:

The scale moves.
Your appetite drops.

And yet…

Your energy isn’t where you thought it would be.
Your muscles feel flatter.
Workouts take more out of you than they used to.
You’re wondering what happens after the injections stop.

This is where most conversations end.
In our clinic, it’s where a deeper conversation begins.

GLP-1s are one tool.
They’re not the whole story.

Beyond appetite control and weight loss, there is an entire family of peptides designed less to shrink you and more to restore you-especially your sleep, repair, strength, and cellular resilience.

Let’s talk about those.

GLP-1s changed the game. They didn’t finish it.

GLP-1 medications help regulate appetite and blood sugar signaling.
That alone can create meaningful weight loss and better numbers on a lab report.

But they don’t directly:

• Repair overworked joints

• Restore lost muscle

• Rebuild your recovery capacity

• Retrain your cells to use fuel well on their own

So you can lose weight and still feel:

• Tired by mid-afternoon

• Sore longer after workouts

• Anxious about regaining weight once the prescription ends

Peptide therapy gets interesting when we stop asking,
“How do we lose more?”
and start asking,
“How do we function better?”

Tesamorelin: supporting recovery, repair, and sleep

Tesamorelin is not a weight-loss drug. It’s a signalers.

It’s job?
To nudge your brain to release more of your own growth-related signals in gentle pulses -especially at night, when your body is designed to heal.

Clinically, this combination is often used to support:

• Deeper, more restorative sleep

• Muscle repair after you’ve pushed hard in the gym or through years of overtraining

• Tendon and soft-tissue recovery when everything feels “one wrong move away” from a strain

• Better body composition over time (more lean tissue, less central fat) when paired with training and nutrition

Where this becomes powerful:

• After a period of chronic fatigue or burnout, when your recovery system has been overdrawn

• For the man or woman over 40 who still trains but notices it takes days longer to bounce back

• Post-weight loss (GLP-1 or not) when you want to rebuild muscle and protect what you’ve gained

Instead of giving you growth signals from the outside, tesamorelin gently encourages your own system to act more like its younger self- without the extremes of old-school approaches.

BPC-157: for pain, gut repair, and “invisible” inflammation

Not all problems show up clearly on lab work.

You can have “normal” markers and still struggle with:

• Achy joints or tendons that never fully heal

• A gut that reacts to everything

• Subtle but constant inflammation that shows up as brain fog, bloating, random flare-ups

BPC-157 is a peptide originally derived from a protective protein in the stomach. It’s often used by clinicians to support:

• Joint and tendon healing after strain or overuse

• Gut lining repair, especially in people with long histories of digestive disruption

• Localized inflammation that feels real even when standard tests look “fine”

We often think of BPC-157 as a “repair assistant” for tissues that have been quietly irritated for years.

In the context of GLP-1 use or weight loss, it can be especially relevant when:

• You’re lighter on the scale but still limited by joint pain

• You want to train more but your knees, shoulders, or tendons keep holding you back

• Your digestion has never quite recovered from stress, antibiotics, or restrictive dieting

Sometimes the missing step between “weight lost” and “life gained back” is simply the ability to move comfortably again. BPC-157 is one of the tools we consider there.

MOTS-c: helping tired cells use fuel better

If you’ve ever felt like:

• Carbs hit you harder than they used to

• You gain quickly from small “off-plan” choices

• You crash when you push through workouts or long days
  

You’re feeling something we call metabolic inflexibility-your cells struggle to shift gears between different fuel sources.

MOTS-c is a peptide produced naturally in your cells’ energy centers. Therapeutically, it’s used with the intention of helping cells:

• Use carbohydrates more efficiently

• Respond better to movement and training

• Support overall energy production

Where we think about MOTS-c:

• In patients with persistent fatigue despite reasonable sleep

• When carbs feel like an enemy instead of a fuel source

• After GLP-1 use, to help the metabolism function more independently rather than solely relying on appetite suppression

Instead of just “turning hunger down,” MOTS-c is part of a strategy to turn cellular capacity back up.

Stacking with intention: what happens after GLP-1s?

The question we hear most often is not,
“Should I start a GLP-1?”

It’s: “What’s my plan after this?”

That’s where stacking or sequencing peptides comes in.

We don’t throw everything in at once. We think in phases:

1. GLP-1 phase (if used):
   Focus on appetite regulation, weight loss, and stabilizing blood sugar.

2. Transition/rebuild phase:
   As GLP-1 dosage tapers or stops, we emphasize:

• Tesamorelin for sleep, recovery, and muscle repair

• BPC-157 if joints or gut have been holding you back

• MOTS-c if energy and carb tolerance are lagging behind your goals
  

3. Performance and resilience phase:
   Peptides are adjusted around training, work demands, travel, or aging-related changes, with labs and real-world feedback guiding the plan.

The goal isn’t to live on injections forever.
The goal is to use the right signals, at the right time, to help your body remember what it’s capable of.

Our approach: not a peptide menu, but a peptide map

You don’t need “one more thing to inject.”
You need a strategy.

In our practice, peptide therapy is not a menu you pick from. It’s a map we build together:

• We start with your story, labs, and current medications

• We clarify your primary target: weight, energy, pain, performance, or resilience

• We layer tools in sequence and track how you respond

• We pivot based on your lived experience, not just on protocols

Because GLP-1s can shrink fat.
But the right peptides, used the right way, can help restore function, so the person you are after the weight loss feels stronger, clearer, and more capable than the person you were before.
Your Next Step

Already on (or done with) a GLP-1 and wondering what’s next? Book a personalized consult and we’ll map out a plan to rebuild energy, strength, and resilience, not just chase a number on the scale.