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Listener Questions

A calorie deficit takes energy away. Building muscle demands it. Whether you can do both at once depends almost entirely on where you’re starting from, and the answer for a beginner is not the answer for someone ten years in.

Exercise order comes next. The case for doing compound lifts first has nothing to do with those lifts being better. It’s about energy: what a squat asks of you versus what a leg extension asks, and what happens to your form once the tank is empty. There are limits to that rule, and they’re worth knowing before you treat it as gospel.

Then the timeline questions. One listener has a baby on the way and a month with no gym in front of him, and wants to know when “you don’t lose it that fast” stops being true. Another is 67. His doctor just told him muscle is the organ of longevity and to start lifting. His adult kids are terrified.

Then the peptide mail. What an FDA advisory vote actually does, and what it doesn’t. Why a yes vote is not an approval. Who pays for trials on a molecule nobody can patent, and what happens if the answer is nobody. Plus a listener six weeks into treating his own elbow, asking when “we need more human trials” stops being caution and starts being a gate.

Corrections & Context

We check the big factual claims after every episode. Here’s what needs fixing, what needs more context, and what held up. Everything links to a source so you can check us.

What we got wrong

1. You can’t currently get these peptides from a compounding pharmacy. On air we described the FDA committee’s vote as clearing the way for a doctor to write a prescription and a compounding pharmacy to fill it. That isn’t where things stand. The Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee met July 23–24, 2026 and voted, but an advisory committee vote is not an agency action. Nothing has legally changed. Before any of these substances can be compounded, the FDA has to accept the recommendation and add it to the 503A Bulks List through formal notice-and-comment rulemaking, and that process hasn’t started. As of this writing, none of the seven peptides reviewed in July can legally be compounded. → FDA’s Advisory Committee Votes on Peptides: What It Does and Doesn’t Do — Mintz (July 29, 2026) → What the Peptide Vote Actually Changes at My Counter (Hint: Not Much, Yet) — Pharmacy Times

One thing to separate out: plenty of peptides remain legally compoundable and always have. The seven under review are the exception.

2. The FDA did not lose in court. We said the agency “lost in court” and that’s why the peptides came back. No such loss happened. The path back ran through the executive branch: the FDA removed twelve peptides from Category 2 in April 2026 after their nominations were withdrawn, then sent them to the advisory committee. Where compounding has actually been fought in court lately — the Outsourcing Facilities Association suits over GLP–1 shortage delisting — the FDA won. Judges denied the compounders’ injunctions in both the semaglutide and the tirzepatide cases. → FDA clarifies policies for compounders — U.S. Food and Drug Administration → Court Backs FDA in Tirzepatide Compounding Case — McDermott

3. “Peptides are not drugs” is backwards. “Peptide” describes a chemical: a short chain of amino acids. “Drug” describes a legal category. Something can be both, and most peptide medicines are. Ozempic and Wegovy are FDA-approved drugs whose active ingredient is a peptide. BPC–157 is also a drug under federal law, just an unapproved one, which is why selling it for human use is illegal. Your body making peptides doesn’t change that, any more than your body making cortisol makes prednisone a supplement. This is our own basil-and-nightshade point from the peptides episode, and we dropped it. → Wegovy (semaglutide) prescribing information — FDA → Understanding the Legal Risks of BPC–157 and Other Unapproved Peptides — Holt Law

4. “There are no human trials, and there never will be any” is too strong on both halves. Human studies exist. They’re small, old, and mostly unpublished in full. Under the development name PL–14736, BPC–157 went through a safety and pharmacokinetics study in healthy volunteers (Gut, 2003) and a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase II study in ulcerative colitis (Gastroenterology, 2005). A Phase I safety trial in 42 volunteers was registered in 2015 (NCT02637284) and cancelled without published results. The most recent human data is a 2025 intravenous safety pilot in two people. Fewer than thirty published human subjects, total. That’s a bad number, but it isn’t zero, and “no trials” and “almost no data” lead to different conversations.

The “never will be” half is fair as far as it goes. A molecule without strong patent protection has little commercial money behind it. But academic and government-funded trials happen all the time. And there’s an irony from the committee itself: some members argued that allowing compounding would open the door to more study, while the counterargument is that selling it commercially removes any reason to ever run the trial. → Is BPC–157 safe for use in humans? — InpharmD evidence summary, with primary citations → Safety of Intravenous Infusion of BPC157 in Humans: A Pilot Study — PubMed

5. The vote was six of seven, not two — and our earlier reporting needs updating too. We’ve been describing the July meeting as a narrow win for BPC–157 and KPV with the others still pending. The final tally: the committee recommended adding BPC–157, KPV, TB–500, MOTS-c, epitalon, and semax to the 503A list, and voted againstemideltide (DSIP). Two things matter more than the count. The FDA’s own scientific reviewers recommended against all seven. And each peptide was judged against one specific medical use — BPC–157 was assessed for ulcerative colitis, not tendons or elbows or recovery. The uses driving all the demand were never on the ballot. → FDA Expert Panel Backs Compounding of Six Peptides — Medscape → FDA briefing documents and meeting materials, July 23–24, 2026 PCAC

6. There is no 300-pound threshold for GLP–1 medications. We talked about eligibility in pounds. The FDA label uses BMI: 30 or greater, or 27 or greater with at least one weight-related condition such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, or dyslipidemia. Someone hoping to lose twenty-five pounds may well qualify. Someone who weighs three hundred pounds might not, depending on height. Pounds alone can’t answer the question. → Wegovy prescribing information, Indications and Usage — FDA

7. Neither of us knew what Ipamorelin/CJC–1295 is. Here. It’s the most commonly prescribed growth-hormone peptide pairing. CJC–1295 is a synthetic version of growth hormone-releasing hormone. Ipamorelin acts on the ghrelin receptor. They hit two different receptors on the same pituitary cells, which is why they get stacked: the combined signal produces a bigger growth hormone pulse than either one alone. Neither was among the seven peptides the advisory committee reviewed in July which is why we didn’t see this one coming.

8. For anyone who competes: BPC–157 is banned in tested sport. This didn’t come up on air and it should have. BPC–157 sits on the WADA Prohibited List under S0, Non-Approved Substances. It’s banned at all times, in and out of competition, with no therapeutic use exemption available, because it has no regulatory approval anywhere in the world. TB–500 and CJC–1295 are prohibited under other categories. Athletes have taken multi-year bans for exactly this. If you’re tested by a WADA signatory, the NCAA, or several strength-sport federations, none of what the FDA decides next changes your situation. → BPC–157: Experimental Peptide Creates Risk for Athletes — USADA

11. Tyler deserves a straighter answer than “he’s right.” Six weeks, one elbow, no control, no blinding, and a man who wanted it to work. That’s how you get a hypothesis, not how you test one. Elbow and tendon pain also improve on their own, improve with rest, and improve on placebo, all at well-documented rates. Tyler may be right. There’s currently no way to know. But the part of his question we agreed with too fast is the part that deserves taking seriously: when nobody will fund the study, “wait for the evidence” stops working the way it works for a drug with a sponsor behind it. That’s a problem with the incentives. It’s a different question from whether the stuff works.

Pete Wright:
Hello everybody, I’m Pete Wright. Welcome to Build for Health. Today we are opening the mailbag. It turns out you people have been paying attention, and you paying attention is both flattering and mildly terrifying.

The questions split into two piles. The first one is fundamentals: losing fat while getting stronger, whether exercise order matters, how long you can actually step away from the gym, all that kind of stuff. And then we’ve got pile two, which is the peptide questions. Apparently those episodes struck a bit of a nerve. Some of you are confused, some of you are skeptical, at least one of you is already injecting.

So we’ve got the questions, we’ve got Srdjan Injac here, and we are so glad that you are here joining us on Build for Health. All right, Srdjan, hi.

Srdjan Injac:
All right. Hi.

Pete Wright:
Welcome. Okay. We’re going back in time a little bit, because we may have a few questions that have been sitting in the mailbag for a little bit too long.

Srdjan Injac:
Okay.

Pete Wright:
So here we go.

Srdjan Injac:
Oh, okay.

Pete Wright:
Rich, this is to you. Can you be in a caloric deficit and still make strength gains? Is this just a matter of protein?

Srdjan Injac:
So strength, yes. Even some muscle size, yes. But that also depends where you are fitness-wise. Like for me, I wouldn’t be able to do that, because I already have a lot of muscle mass, low body fat, so for me to go even lower —

Pete Wright:
Why not?

Srdjan Injac:
— I would have to fight really hard not to lose any muscle. I don’t think I would be able to gain any, because to gain more muscle you need some carbs too.

Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.

Srdjan Injac:
But being in a calorie deficit — my metabolism is already so fast that if I eat less than four thousand calories, I start losing weight. So it’s really impossible. But for somebody who’s just starting, who hasn’t been in the gym for a long time, it’s possible they can start losing fat at the same time as they’re gaining muscle and strength.

It’s just, at some point, the better shape you get, the harder it’s going to be to do that. It’s going to stop. Then you’re going to have to try to gain as much muscle and strength as you can, and then you go through the cutting phase, where you’re cutting down and creating that calorie deficit so you can lose some fat. And then you want to eat as much protein as possible to retain the muscle mass that you already have, so you don’t lose that. It’s kind of inevitable you’re going to lose a little bit here and there. So it is — but it all depends what shape he’s in right now.

Pete Wright:
I like how you were just talking to both you and me at the same time. So listen, Rich, if you’re already a perfect specimen, a perfect physique like Srdjan, you’re not going to get there.

Srdjan Injac:
No, there’s no perfect — [crosstalk]

Pete Wright:
If you’re a schlub like Pete, there’s a lot of headroom. Lot of headroom.

Srdjan Injac:
You got options.

Pete Wright:
Apple writes us: does the order of exercises really matter that much, or is that overstated? I feel like “shocking the muscle” — that goes back a few weeks — I feel like shocking the muscle is hidden in a more random strategy for my training. Maybe not?

Srdjan Injac:
Okay, so the answer would be yes and no.

Pete Wright:
Okay.

Srdjan Injac:
So it matters when it comes to — for example, if I’m going to do legs, I’m going to do my compound exercises first, like deadlifts and squats, because they require a lot of energy. There’s a lot of muscle groups that are involved. I’m not going to start with hip thrusts and then do leg extension, and then later toward the end of the workout do my squats or heavy deadlifts. So yes, in that sense, it matters. You want to do your compound exercises first — your squats, your heavy deadlifting, things like that — before you go down the list and start focusing on the smaller muscle groups, or isolating just the quads on a leg extension machine. You don’t really need that much energy for that one.

Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.

Srdjan Injac:
So when it comes to the big muscle groups, you kind of want to do them first and then go toward the smaller ones. But then it doesn’t really matter too much when it comes to upper body. I’ve seen people, for example, doing shoulders. You don’t have to start with the shoulder press. Everyone can do shoulder press, lateral raises, and then at the end they’ll do rear delts. You can start with the rear delts if you want. If you feel like you need to really focus on those rear delts and you want to build some rear delts, you can start with the rear delt. It’s fine.

And then you can do lateral raises, and then you can do shoulder press. So it doesn’t really matter then. The way I do it, I switch it up. I always switch it up. I don’t want to always do the same exercise at the very beginning and have all my energy for just that one all the time. If I was doing shoulder press last time, now I want to do shoulder raises. I want to have good shoulder raises, heavy shoulder raises, be able to do that. And then I’ll do the other thing later. So you can mix it up.

It doesn’t really matter which one you do first. But when I’m doing back, I’m going to work on my lats, so I’m going to do my pull-ups or pull-downs first. It’s a big muscle, it’s going to be heavier weights, so I have energy for that one when I’m starting. Because toward the end you’re more fatigued, you’re more tired, so your form is going to be compromised and you’re going to have less strength. So you don’t want to be doing some of that heavy lifting toward the end, because that’s how you’re going to get hurt. You’re going to have to go with lighter weights toward the end. But then at the end, you don’t want to always be doing the same exercises and never be able to do them a little bit heavier, with full energy. So you can mix it up.

Pete Wright:
I have a real rube question to ask you. Are you ready?

Srdjan Injac:
Yes.

Pete Wright:
Where does doing an exercise to failure fit into that? For example, let’s say I save my heavy squats or deadlifts to the end, after I’m already tired. I could even do lighter weight and get to failure faster. Is getting to failure on lighter weight later in a routine the same as getting to failure with heavier weight early in the routine?

Srdjan Injac:
Well, earlier in the routine you’re going to be able to build more strength that way.

Pete Wright:
Okay.

Srdjan Injac:
You’re not going to be able to build that much strength if you do it toward the end when you’re fatigued, even though you’re doing lighter weight and going to failure.

Pete Wright:
Okay. You’re just failing. You’re not building anything in the process.

Srdjan Injac:
You’re still working on that muscle, you’re tearing those fibers, the micro-tears. But you want to also work on the strength as well. So that’s when you actually have to have a little bit heavier weight, and you’ll do them at the beginning when you have the energy to do them.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
If you know that day you’re not going to be focusing on deadlifting and hamstrings, you’re going to focus on something else, that’s fine. And then at the end you can just finish up with the lighter weight. It’s just not going to be the focal point that day, those deadlifts.

Pete Wright:
Okay. Marcus says: “Pete said on the vacation episode that he ‘lost nothing’ after two weeks of lighter training. We’re about to have a baby, and I’m realistically looking at a month of basically no gym. Is there a point where the ‘you don’t lose it that fast’ thing stops being true? When should I actually start to worry?”

Srdjan Injac:
Well, it usually takes about three to four weeks before you start losing muscle mass.

Pete Wright:
Okay.

Srdjan Injac:
But you also have to think about the food, your protein intake. You at least try to focus on that. If you’re not going to be able to go to the gym and work out, make sure that you get your protein intake so you can try to retain that muscle mass. And then do some stuff at home. You can do some push-ups, you can do some lateral raises, you can do some squats and stuff like that. It will help your body move and stimulate those muscles, and if you eat right, you’ll be fine.

You’re not going to lose much, and you’re going to be able to bounce back after that month really fast. It’s going to take you like a week or two and you’ll be back right where you left off. So you’re not going to lose that much, unless you really don’t do anything — no exercises, you eat whatever, you’re not focused on your protein intake — then you’re probably going to lose a little bit more. And it’s still going to take probably two to three weeks.

But then we also talked about what kind of muscle you’re losing. If you have mature muscle, that sticks around a little bit longer. It’s not that easy to lose the mature muscle, compared to the muscle that you just gained in the last six months. It takes about three to five years, they say, to get the mature muscle, because it’s more dense, so it’s harder to lose.

Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm. Okay. So you’re going to be fine. Do the squats, drop and do some push-ups. You’re going to be fine. Just keep yourself moving. And you’ll have lots of excuses to move. Believe me, you’ll have lots of excuses to move.

Srdjan Injac:
Move the baby around, lift the baby up and down, move her around, all that stuff.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, for sure.

Srdjan Injac:
I would use the baby as a weight, and I would do all kinds of workouts.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, I know you would.

Srdjan Injac:
Maybe I should do a video about it, if I can.

Pete Wright:
That is unsafe. Put the baby in a bag, some sort of a satchel. Start lifting it.

Srdjan Injac:
Maybe we’ll have a great time. [unclear]

Pete Wright:
Curl the baby.

Srdjan Injac:
Maybe we’ll have a great time.

Pete Wright:
Frank is at the other end of the spectrum on this question. “67 here, and my doctor said muscle is the organ of longevity, and to start lifting. My kids” — I assume adult kids — “are terrified that I’m going to hurt myself. How do I start heavy enough to matter but not end up as a cautionary tale at Thanksgiving?”

Srdjan Injac:
Man, I love that doctor. What doctor is that? I want to talk to that doctor. Yeah, you should start lifting. But at that age, if you’re not sure, if you don’t know how and you need help with the form and the weights, I would say hire a trainer. Hire somebody who knows, who can guide you through it, help you with that, so the kids are not worried about you trying things on your own and not knowing how to do it right. Because at that age, once you hurt yourself —

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
— it’s going to be a long recovery, and depending on the injury, how fast you’re going to come back, if you’re ever going to recover fully, how bad it’s going to be. So yeah, find somebody, hire somebody. But definitely start lifting, start working on the muscle mass, and find someone who knows.

Pete Wright:
I think that’s going to be the most important point. If I’ve heard anything from you, it’s that working with a trainer will help you learn your baseline. There’s no way you could learn from the podcast how to start, how heavy to start.

Srdjan Injac:
No.

Pete Wright:
You have to work with somebody who can help you protect yourself. My God, man, if you do anything, have a couple of sessions with a trainer. Srdjan does distance stuff wherever you are. Get on Zoom. You’ll do a Zoom session.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, we’ll do Zoom. It’s really important. Don’t just try to download some workouts on your phone and then watch some videos, because you don’t have anybody watching you while you’re doing it. You’re going to see the video and you’ll be like, okay, I can do that. But then once you start doing it, there’s nobody watching to say, hey, watch this, make sure shoulders back, chest down, don’t round your back, whatever — all that stuff, the important stuff that really matters. You might not see it or feel it yourself. You’re thinking you’re doing it right, but you might not.

So I do Zoom first, make sure that I can actually see what you’re doing so I can guide you through it. And even the clients that I have here, I never give them any kind of workouts that we haven’t actually done together, so I know for sure that they know how to do them. If I give them the name of an exercise and they’re not sure what it is, they go on Google and look at it, and they’re like, oh, I remember it, I remember how he did it.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, take it off the list.

Srdjan Injac:
So I’m like, don’t watch whatever videos they have on there, because I don’t know which video you’re going to look at. Some might just remember how we did it, and they’re like, okay.

So yeah, make sure that you have somebody there to watch you and then guide you through it. And don’t just download all these videos. There are thousands of these videos online now where you can get the workouts. And sometimes even the order in the workouts, the exercises that they put — I’ve seen some of these workouts and I’m like, ooh, I wouldn’t really do that. So I’ll help people: okay, do it in this order, leave this one out, do this one. So you have to find somebody first to help you with that.

Pete Wright:
Reach out in the show notes and send us another question, Frank, and we’ll set you up with Srdjan if you’re interested in doing a Zoom session. Get those eyeballs on you.

Marcy has written in — and now we’re transitioning. This is the big transition into the peptides.

Srdjan Injac:
Ooh, here we go. Getting excited.

Pete Wright:
So here we go. Okay: “I listened twice and I’m still stuck on one thing. If the FDA committee voted yes on BPC-157, why isn’t that the same as approving it? What am I missing here? Love the show. You two crack me up.” Well, thank you, Marcy. Moving on.

Srdjan Injac:
Thank you for that. Well, they said yes because they had banned it completely. So they were yes for the compounding pharmacies to carry them and be able to — the doctors will be able to give you a prescription, and you’ll be able to go to a compounding pharmacy and get them. So you won’t have to go through all these companies and try to get something where you don’t know what you’re getting. That’s what they wanted. Yes, but they didn’t approve it. So it’s not FDA approved. There’s a difference.

Pete Wright:
That’s the thing I think I’m stuck on too a little bit, semantically — that the FDA is saying, look, compounding pharmacies can carry it, but we’re not happy about it. That’s kind of what the vote feels like.

Srdjan Injac:
Pretty much, yeah. Because they couldn’t — I mean, they lost in court, because they couldn’t ban them completely. They tried, but they didn’t really have much evidence. So they had to, and then they were approved to be back on the market. So you’ll be able to get them, but you’re going to have to pay the full price. Don’t expect your insurance to cover it.

Pete Wright:
And it’s not approved by the — yeah, because the FDA hasn’t approved it. So that means there are all kinds of limitations they can put on it.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, that’s not coming from big pharma. Your insurance is not going to cover it, all that stuff. And there are also certain doctors that won’t be prescribing them for you, so you’re going to have to go to different clinics, find the right clinics and the doctors that can monitor and then prescribe those. And you’ll be paying the full price for them through the compounding pharmacy — because I have one that I take from the compounding pharmacy, and I have to pay the full price, and they’re not cheap.

Pete Wright:
Right.

Srdjan Injac:
So that’s what it means.

Pete Wright:
Okay. Dale writes in: “Wait, is Ozempic a peptide or a drug?”

Srdjan Injac:
It’s a peptide. Yeah, those GLP-1s that are very popular these days, and a lot of people have been taking them. We had the whole discussion on that, remember.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. Yeah, no, you’re really thrilled about them.

Srdjan Injac:
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I’m trying not to start again, because I’m just going to go off.

Pete Wright:
Well, I think it’s important to note that when people say Ozempic is a drug — it’s a peptide. We’re just kind of loosely using the word drug. When people toss “drug” around for Ozempic and Wegovy, that’s just loose vernacular. But what it is specifically, it is a peptide.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, it is a peptide.

Pete Wright:
Right? Is that a fair assessment?

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, it is a peptide. So peptides are not drugs, because your body already produces those amino acids — certain amino acids put together to target certain things. So it’s not a drug. When you take a drug, it can affect a lot of stuff, a lot of things. So it’s totally different from a drug.

Pete Wright:
Okay, here’s Tyler. “Respectfully…” Oh, opening with “respectfully” always makes me nervous. “Respectfully, I think you guys were too cautious.” Too cautious. Tyler’s your new best friend. “Srdjan, I’ve been running BPC-157 for my elbow for six weeks and it is night and day. At what point does ‘we need more human trials’ just become gatekeeping? People are getting results now.” Seems like advocacy — not so much a question, but a point of advocacy.

Srdjan Injac:
That’s true. Yeah, no, he’s right. Completely right. Because I know a lot of people that have been using the peptides for their injuries and they love it. It’s helping a lot of people. And they’re not having any negative effects, and they love it. So I’m all for it.

And there are no human trials — that’s what the FDA says, and that’s the only thing they have that they can use to try to ban all these peptides. But there never will be any human trials, because pharma will have to spend money on those, and they’re not going to spend it because they can’t patent it and make any money.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So of course no one’s going to —

Pete Wright:
Right.

Srdjan Injac:
No company — it doesn’t matter what your product is, you’re not going to spend money on something where you can’t make any out of it. So they’re just going to try to ban it, so they can use their other drugs for other things. But yeah, it’s been helping. And that’s why I think, day one, when they went to court — because they’ve been using it since like 2012 or 2013, all these peptides.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, the horse has left the barn, right?

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, I mean, they have a lot of evidence. All these people are coming out, and you can see even the long term, how good they were and how much they’re helping, and that there were no long-term effects and all that stuff. And they couldn’t fight that, because they had no other human trials, they’ve never done them. So they couldn’t say otherwise. And all these athletes have been using them.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So they’re great. So yeah, I agree.

Pete Wright:
Well, here’s another one, anonymously submitted, but similar vibe. “My longevity clinic has me on Ipamorelin CJC…” I don’t know what that is. Do you know what that is? Ipamorelin CJC?

Srdjan Injac:
There’s so many different ones. I’m trying to think of which one.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. Well, it sounds like it’s in the same space. I don’t know what it is. “But they do mention risks,” says this submitter. “They’re very thorough. You made it sound like every clinic is a scam. Some of us do our homework.” Well, I don’t think we made it sound like every clinic is a scam at all. I think we made it sound like you’ve got to find a place that you trust, that is trusted, that will sit down with you and talk to you about what the repercussions are of starting it, what the opportunities are, what the risks are. It’s great. You did exactly what we suggest to do. You listened to risks and went forward.

Srdjan Injac:
Yes. And they told you those side effects. Because with the GLP-1, or the Ozempic, there are side effects.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, there are.

Srdjan Injac:
Even though it’s peptides, there are side effects. It will help you, it will suppress the appetite, you’re going to eat less, all this stuff, you might lose weight. But there are side effects, which means when you lose weight, you’re going to lose some muscle. You might even lose a lot more muscle than you probably should. And maybe you don’t really qualify for exactly that drug — I say drug, but that peptide. So when you lose muscle, then also bone density goes down. So there are all these things that get affected by taking that peptide. Those are what they say are the negative effects that that peptide might have.

So people that are over three hundred pounds, it might be okay for them. They actually need to start suppressing their appetite, learning how to eat and all that stuff. But at one point they’re going to have to get off, because if you just want to lose some weight and you’re not three hundred pounds, you just want to lose fifty pounds, twenty-five pounds, that’s not the way to go. That means there are some side effects, where you’re going to lose some muscle, and then you’re going to lose some bone density, and then everything else that comes with that.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So they need to tell you, so you know.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
But not all of them are bad. That’s why you have to do your research. Make sure that you know who you’re getting it from.

Pete Wright:
Kim, is this a —

Srdjan Injac:
Actually, I have an example. One of my clients came in today, and she sent me a text message with two different websites where she was able to get some of that — which her cousin actually sent her, and said that’s where he got it, some peptides, and she could get it. So she forwarded it to me, and today she came in and she was like, “Oh my God, did you order anything? Don’t do it, don’t do it.” I’m like, no, I didn’t do anything. And she was like, “Well, one of them is fake.” It looks real.

Just because this has been a really hot topic for the last month or two, and people are finding out about it and learning more about it, all these scammers are now coming out saying, hey, we can make some money. So they’re making these websites that look really legit and taking people’s money. You would think it’s a real legit website, all this stuff you’re going to order, and they’re just going to take your money.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So you’ve got to be especially now even more careful than a few months ago.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. So we’re not saying that every clinic is a scam. We’re saying go to a clinic that you trust, go see a person, talk to a person, right?

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, my doctor recommended the clinic, because she couldn’t do it. She doesn’t do that, she doesn’t prescribe peptides. She’s not opposed to it, so she told me the clinic that I could go to and the doctor that I should be asking for, and then I can go through them.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, there is a chain of trust that you can follow to get this done. Okay. Next question, another anonymous one: “Here’s what I keep coming back to. You said both sides are arguing over the same missing data. Okay, so who’s supposed to fund the trials? BPC-157 can’t be patented, right? So no drug company will pay for a Phase 3. Doesn’t that mean we’re permanently stuck at ‘promising’?”

Srdjan Injac:
Exactly.

Pete Wright:
“What breaks the stalemate?”

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, it sucks. They’re not going to do it, and they’re going to keep saying that it’s dangerous, that we shouldn’t do it. But we already have so many people on it and all these great results. So yeah, there’s just a lot of people.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. I don’t know how we would have the answer to what breaks the stalemate. I don’t have that answer. I think you’re absolutely right. Something has to move the ball down the field a little bit. But maybe we’re at stasis right now. Maybe we’re at stasis by just talking to your doctor and finding a compounding pharmacy that will do it for you.

Srdjan Injac:
Yes. Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to change. Because it’s been since 2012, and I don’t see it being any different.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. Okay. This one I think is a lot for me. It’s from Chad. Chad says — first of all, rude. Second of all, a question from an actual guy named Chad. “When the PCAC reconvenes on the rest of this list, what should we be watching for? What would change your read?”

Now, I want to say apologies to Chads, because I do toss around the name Chad with some frequency when referring to street clinics. I’m sorry, Chad. It is rude, and I apologize. Thank you for taking the time to write in and call me out.

Srdjan Injac:
I’m going to have to find a different name.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, we need a different name.

Srdjan Injac:
So, well, nothing’s really going to change my mind.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. I guess this is the same answer as the last question. There’s a functional stalemate, and we actually are at a sort of careful détente. People are talking about these things. I think, weirdly, the RFK Jr. factor is a fascinating wrinkle. If there’s anything that could move the ball down the field, it’s the idea that there could be more government spending toward research.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.

Pete Wright:
And I haven’t seen any indicator that that’s what’s happening. That’s not my beat, so to speak, but I’m fascinated by it.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, he was just trying to get it back on the market, because they banned it in like 2023 or something like that.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So he just wanted to get it back on the market. That’s it. But I think this is where it stops. I think that’s how it’s going to stay. But yeah, there’s nothing that’s really going to change my mind, because I’ve seen a lot of people on it and great results. So I’m about to go to that clinic. I’m going to call them tomorrow and check it out and go down there.

Pete Wright:
I know you got waylaid. The last time we talked about it, you had your wide-eyed, bushy-tailed excitement about going to talk to your doctor, and then your doctor dropped a piano on your head.

Srdjan Injac:
I know. She says she can’t do it. I’m like, oh my God, come on. But she loves the idea and all that stuff, and she knows all my injuries, and I would be a good candidate for that. She gave me recommendations. She was like, I know somebody, they can do it, and this is the clinic that I would go to. And she recommended it, so I’m definitely going to go. She just wants somebody that can monitor everything as I’m taking it, giving me the right dosage and all that stuff.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, for sure.

Srdjan Injac:
Because once I’m fully recovered, of course I’m not going to stay on it. I’m going to get off of it. It’s just to help my recovery speed up.

Pete Wright:
Yep. I think it’s fascinating. I can’t wait to hear the next chapter.

And that is the end of our question parade today. Please check the show notes. There’s a link, it just says “submit your questions to the show.” It’s that easy. You click on that link and you can just write — you don’t even have to write your name, that’s not required. You can put any name you want in there. And then send us your question. We would love to take them on in a future listener questions episode.

You can also contact us — just head over to elev8fitnesspdx.com. The link to that’s in the show notes too. It’s missing some letters and there’s a number in there, so you just have to get the spelling right: elev8fitnesspdx.com. Click on the link and learn more about the gym. And of course, if you want to connect with Srdjan or one of the trainers directly, we’d love to facilitate that.

Thank you so much for joining us, for listening to the show. We appreciate your time and your attention. Don’t forget to subscribe and share. This is how we grow stronger together. Until next time, we’ll see you in the gym.
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Hosted by Pete Wright and Srdjan Injac, Build for Health moves beyond gym culture to explore why muscle is critical for longevity, not just looks.