Over the last six months, Reta (retatrutide) paired with Tesa did exactly what they are designed to do: my weight dropped, my labs improved, and my clothes fit better. My DEXA now has me in the 7 percent body fat range with no detectable visceral fat.
From a pure biomarker standpoint, that looks optimized. From a facial aesthetics standpoint, that is where things started to get complicated.
Once you are in single digit body fat with zero visceral fat, your face does not just lean out, it empties. You do not need to have been massively overweight or have saggy skin to end up with a hollow, under structured look. Aggressive fat loss plus no plan for your facial fat pads is enough.
For me, that turned into a very specific GLP1 style face:
• Sunken mid face and cheek volume loss
• More skeletal look around the eyes and temples
• Sharper, more tired jawline and lower face sagging
• Overall deflated appearance that made me look older and more exhausted than I actually felt
My body felt lighter and more functional. My labs were dialed in. My face looked like it had just gone through a decade long stress test.
This post is a full breakdown of what I did to change that, and a genuine question to this community. My stack included fillers, Botox, an aggressive Helix Fusion CO2 laser treatment, a minimalist recovery skincare routine, and a peptide protocol built around Glow with BPC 157, TB 500, GHK Cu, plus others. I am not telling anyone to copy this. I am putting the entire case on the table so people who are already on this road can see what happened, what I did, and then tell me whether they think it was the most intelligent aesthetic plan or not.
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Why I am posting this and what this is not
My last big post in these groups included:
• DEXA scans showing single digit body fat and no visceral fat
• Protocol details for Reta and Tesa, diet, and training
• Lab panels showing that my biomarkers were not collapsing
Even with full receipts, a lot of the response was:
• You are lying, these numbers are not possible
• This is inherently unsafe, no one can do this without wrecking their health
• Your face and body are going to collapse, you are just coping
It took days of back and forth, adding more data, just to convince a fraction of people that I was not fabricating my metrics.
I expect some of that here.
This is not a brag post and it is not a flex. It is not me saying everyone should push to these numbers or run this stack. My goal is to put a complete, transparent case study on the table so people who are already doing this can:
• See what actually happened to my face at very low body fat levels
• See what it took to change it
• Debate whether my strategy was smart, reckless, or something in between
If you think I am wrong, reckless, or misguided, that is fine. Just give me your reasoning. I am going to personally read and respond to every serious comment, positive, negative, or neutral, over the first 48 hours. This is not automated. I am doing it myself because I think this conversation matters.
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Quick disclaimers before the pitchforks come out.
• I am not a doctor. This is my N equals 1 experience, not medical advice.
• I am not telling anyone to start, stop, or change Reta, GLP1s, or any peptide without their own clinician.
• I do not work for SoroSkin or Everglow.
• I do not receive affiliate commissions, referral bonuses, discounts, or consulting fees.
• No one paid me to write this and no one approved it before I posted it.
If I ever post sponsored content in the future, I will label it clearly. This is not sponsored.
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I did not do this naturally
I am not going to pretend hydration, sleep, and a basic moisturizer reversed six months of facial volume loss in a body sitting at roughly 7 percent body fat with no visceral fat.
I went all in, deliberately, with a structured plan:
• Fillers in specific areas that had clearly deflated from fat loss
• Botox for upper face movement and lines that looked harsher on a leaner face
• Helix Fusion CO2 laser to resurface texture, even tone, and drive collagen remodeling
• Tight, minimalist recovery skincare designed for a destroyed barrier after laser
• Peptide support with Glow, built around BPC 157, TB 500, GHK Cu, plus other peptides for systemic and local tissue support
You are not looking at the result of one cream or one syringe. You are looking at a coordinated aesthetic and recovery plan layered on top of an aggressive metabolic protocol.
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Who actually did the work on my face.
All cosmetic work in these photos, laser, filler, and Botox, was done by Robin Sessler, MSN, APRN, FNP-C and owner of EverGlow Medical Aesthetics in Kennebunk, Maine.
She:
• Built the overall facial strategy based on my bone structure, fat loss pattern, and goals
• Executed injections conservatively, with an anatomy first approach
• Performed the Helix Fusion CO2 session and laid out the post procedure guidelines
Clinic link for context and credentials:
www.erglowbyrobyn.com
I am not affiliated with everglow. I do not work there. I do not get kickbacks or referral deals. I am a paying patient whose outcome depended heavily on having someone competent driving the aesthetic side.
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How my medical care is coordinated with Dr Patel
I do not run any of this in isolation. I work with six private concierge providers, and Dr Patel acts as the quarterback for all of it.
He is the medical director at EverWell Concierge MD. His role is to:
• Coordinate my care across all providers so this does not become a pile of disconnected experiments
• Review my labs roughly every 14 days so we are not guessing about how protocols are affecting me
• Maintain a closed loop system where data comes in, protocols get adjusted, results get checked, and that cycle repeats
• Communicate directly with my dermatologist and aesthetic team to keep my face routine, lasers, fillers, and Botox aligned with the rest of my health strategy
Dr Patel is involved with everything, GLP1 class decisions, peptide architecture including Glow, DEXA interpretation, lab follow up, and the long term plan to maintain the work I have already done on my face and body.
I have included a letter from Dr Patel explaining, in his own words, why we chose this stack, how we structured it, and what he believes actually made the difference in my case:
Letter from Dr Patel:
To Whom It May Concern,
I serve as Andrew Lawson’s lead physician and oversee the coordination of his care across multiple providers. In that role, I was directly involved in reviewing and guiding both his facial skin maintenance protocol and his post procedure recovery strategy.
I was also involved in the decision to proceed with Helix Fusion, an advanced and highly aggressive resurfacing treatment that, while promising, still has limited real world data in cases of this kind. Given Andrew’s goals, baseline condition, and the level of medical and aesthetic oversight in place, we made the deliberate decision to pursue a more aggressive single session approach rather than a slower, piecemeal treatment plan spread out over time.
In my medical opinion, the quality of Andrew’s outcome was the result of a coordinated treatment plan rather than any single intervention alone. That plan included the Helix Fusion procedure, structured skin barrier support, and peptide based recovery measures. The SoroSkin products used in his recovery routine, together with the Glow peptide protocol, were important components of that plan and, in my opinion, contributed meaningfully to the speed and quality of his healing as well as the overall aesthetic result.
Based on my oversight of his care and follow up, Andrew’s recovery and visible improvement progressed more rapidly than would typically be expected with an intervention of this intensity.
Sincerely,
Dr. Patel
Medical Director
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The Helix Fusion CO2 treatment and what it really looked like.
This was not a lunchtime laser. It was an aggressive Helix Fusion CO2 protocol.
High level:
• Combines ablative CO2 with non ablative energy in the same pass to hit both surface and deeper layers
• Targets texture, tone, pigment, and collagen in one treatment
• Comes with real downtime, you cannot do this midweek and be public ready the next day
Day 1, 24 hours post laser:
• Full face, uniform redness
• Oozing and visible weeping
• Skin barrier extremely compromised
• High sensitivity to touch, air, temperature, and any product.
The day 1 photo is rough. This is the cost of this level of resurfacing.
Week 3, same lighting and setup:
• Barrier visibly restored
• Redness dramatically reduced
• Texture noticeably smoother
• Tone more even, with less blotchiness and stressed look
I did not walk out looking like a different person. I walked out looking more like myself before the fat loss stress showed up in my face. Less wrecked, less inflamed, less gaunt.
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Recovery and why my skincare was boring on purpose
When your barrier is shredded, most of the skincare aisle becomes a liability. Acids, retinoids, fragrance, and aggressive glow formulas will just prolong the injury.
For the early recovery phase after Helix Fusion, I kept it brutally simple:
• Double Hydration Boost Gel from SoroSkin as a hydrating, barrier support gel with no peeling agents
• Peptide Anti Aging Serum from SoroSkin as a peptide focused serum aimed at repair and firmness without exfoliating damaged skin
That was it for leave on products in the critical window. No ten step routine and no mixing half the actives on the market onto raw tissue.
Why these specific products:
• They are positioned as barrier supporting and gentle rather than acid heavy anti aging
• The textures did not sting or flare my skin when it was at its most damaged
• My priority was healing and function, not chasing instant cosmetic wow at the expense of poor long term results.
I do not work for SoroSkin. I do not receive any payments, commissions.
Their products worked well for me in this specific context. I am linking for transparency and ingredients only:
www.soroskin.com
No discount code. No affiliate link. If you buy anything, nothing changes for me.
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Peptide architecture with Glow BPC 157 TB 500 and GHK-Cu.
Parallel to the external work, I ran a peptide protocol built around Glow, which was foundational for how I handled systemic recovery and tissue and skin quality while running Reta.
Glow’s core:
• BPC 157 for tissue repair and micro injury support
• TB 500 for inflammation modulation and recovery under high stress
• GHK Cu as a copper peptide tied into collagen and skin quality
On top of Glow, I layered other peptides, but Glow plus the Reta and Tesa stack was the backbone for fat loss, recovery, and skin support.
Is this necessary for everyone? No.
Is it overkill for most people? Probably.
But at these body fat and visceral fat levels, with this degree of aesthetic intervention, a basic multivitamin and vibes approach is not enough.
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Three week outcome…
Putting everything together, Reta and Tesa side effects, ultra low body fat, fillers, Botox, Helix Fusion, recovery skincare, and peptides, this is my three week outcome:
• Volume: targeted filler restored structure where fat loss hollowed me out without turning me into a balloon
• Expression and lines: Botox softened lines that had become more pronounced on a leaner, more angular face
• Texture and tone: Helix Fusion CO2 improved fine textural noise and unevenness, which is more noticeable when volume is down
• Skin quality: barrier focused skincare plus Glow’s peptide mix helped my skin heal fast enough that the laser was worth the downtime
• Overall impression: I looked more like how I actually felt, lighter and healthier, not like someone who compressed ten rough years into six months
Could I have done this naturally? At my metrics and goals, I do not think so. Could someone with different genetics, starting points, or objectives need far less? Absolutely.
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The question for you….
All of that brings me back to the title:
Reta Took Me to 7 Percent Body Fat No Visceral Fat and
Brutal GLP1 Style Face What Do You Think Is the Most Intelligent Aesthetic Plan for a Face Like This and Why?
You have seen:
• The metrics, DEXA, visceral fat, labs
• The facial changes
• The stack I chose, fillers, Botox, Helix Fusion, peptides, skincare, coordinated care
What I want from you:
• If this were your face and your metrics, what would you consider the most intelligent aesthetic plan and why
• Would you go harder or softer than what I did
• Would you swap fillers for biostimulators, add or avoid surgery, regain weight, or do nothing
• If you have already run similar protocols, GLP1 class drugs, Reta, extreme recomposition, what actually helped and what was absolutely not worth the risk, money, or downtime.
I will be in this thread for the next 48 hours responding to every serious comment. Whether your feedback is supportive, cautious, or brutal, you will get the same level of detail and attention from me.
What would your plan be?
