My Full Protocol — Nicolette Anderson

May vs Sept.
Down 15bs. Muscle preserved.
Here's exactly what I did.

The root causes, the protocols, the supplements - everything I couldn't say on social media, said here freely.

By Nicolette Anderson | BelleMD Founding Partner | July 1, 2026 | Partner ID 1676201

I am not a doctor. Everything I share here is my personal experience and my own research. Nothing in this post is medical advice. Please consult a physician before starting any protocol — which is exactly what BelleMD is designed to help you do.

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New VIDEO UPDATE!! How I use Microdosing Tirzepatide as a way to combat perimenopause and iron deficiency symptoms

I've been getting so many questions about my journey - specifically how I lost the weight but kept the muscle and the definition. So I'm putting everything here, on my blog, where I can actually say what I want to say without platform restrictions.

Here's an important part because there are always the uneducated judgey judys who love to tell me I look awful or anorexic now - as if this was a weight loss only story. So I need you to understand the following: on the left, I had gained 15 pounds. But I was also dealing with cognitive decline, inflammation, painful bloating, blurred vision, exercise intolerance, fatigue, dizziness, anxiety, perimenopause, and chronic deficiencies...I was a SHELL of the wife, mother, friend that I used to be. And if fixing that is WRONG - then whatever.

So hear me: if you're doing everything right and not getting results, the problem might not be your effort. The signaling inside your body has stopped communicating internally the way that it used to, which happens with age, but happens FASTER with inflammation, deficiencies, or other complications.

That is what we're actually fixing here.

The Root Causes

I treat deficiencies like emergencies. Because they are.

Before I get into what I'm doing, you need to understand why my body needed this level of intervention. These things don't just make you feel bad. They put your body into a chronic state of fight or flight. And a body in fight or flight holds onto fat, stores inflammation, and stops responding to everything you're doing right.

Deficiencies create a domino effect. When your ferritin is critically low, your body cannot absorb or utilize the healthy food and quality supplements you're consuming. You can do everything right and still be deficient. That was me for years - and my PCP kept brushing me off.

For those who are specifically curious about the iron deficiency (which caused the hypothyroidism, and chronic inflammation), here's how I restored that deficiency: I had extreme periods. So I started progesterone to help with those hormones, and also had a DNC/polyp removal to clear out issues that were causing excess bleeding. Then I got an iron infusion! My numbers have been over 100 for 4 months now. Supplementing iron never moved my numbers at all! My hypothyroidism is going away and I'll be off the armor thyroid meds soon!

What I Did About It

The interventions that changed everything.

These are the actual things I did — medical interventions, not just lifestyle tweaks. I stopped waiting for someone to hand me answers and started treating my health like the emergency it was. I share these details because getting to the root cause of what's disrupting your body is important!

My Peptide Protocols

The protocols & why each one matters for me specifically.

If you are interested in Peptide Therapy, I would love to introduce you to BelleMD which is where I get my peptide protocols. It's safe, clinician-led, compounded in 503A pharmacies, and sent to your doorstep. Head to Tranont.com/nicoletteanderson, Click BelleMD. There are metabolism/weight loss options & longevity options!

Protocol One — Weight Management & Metabolic Health

Microdose Tirzepatide - the BIGGEST game changer for me.

GLP-1 & GIP Dual Pathway · Injectable · Microdose Option

I want to explain what this actually does because it is not just a weight loss drug - and that misconception is doing a lot of people a disservice. This was the BIGGEST game changer for me. This is where I'd tell anyone to start who basically wants to just DEFLATE the bloat, puffiness, and stored fat.

Tirzepatide works through two metabolic pathways simultaneously - GLP-1 and GIP. It restores the signaling that tells your body to regulate blood sugar, manage appetite, and process energy efficiently. For me specifically, years of deficiencies and chronic stress had put my body into a state where it was holding onto fat and inflammation as a protective mechanism. My body was stressed at a cellular level and it was showing up physically in a way that exercise and clean eating couldn't touch.

Tirzepatide helped my body release that stored inflammation and stubborn fat - not because I wasn't working hard enough, but because the metabolic signal had gone offline. The 15 pounds came off in 10 weeks because my body finally felt safe enough to let them go. I microdose (2.5mg for 4 months - now down to 1mg) specifically to get the metabolic and inflammatory benefits without side effects. It has been a very easy adjustment, no issues, no side effects. I am very intentional about my hydration and macros/protein. Yes I poop every day! (This is a frequent question lol)

I am currently on this microdosing protocol - down to 1mg per week for inflammation.

Protocol Two — Cellular Wellness & Detoxification

Glutathione

Master Antioxidant · Injectable · Cellular Repair

Glutathione is the body's master antioxidant - produced naturally in every cell but depleted by aging, chronic stress, illness, and poor gut health. For someone rebuilding a microbiome and recovering from years of malabsorption, this is critical support.

It supports detoxification at the cellular level, immune function, mitochondrial health, and the repair of damage caused by inflammation and oxidative stress. I take the injectable form specifically because oral glutathione has notoriously poor bioavailability - most of what you take orally doesn't survive the digestive process. Injectable delivers it directly where it needs to go.

For me personally this supports the detoxification work happening as I clear bacterial overgrowth from my microbiome, and it supports skin health, energy, and cellular repair from the inside out.

I am currently on this protocol - 9 months in.

Protocol Three — Longevity & Healthy Aging

Sermorelin

Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone · Injectable · Longevity

Sermorelin signals your pituitary gland to produce more of your own growth hormone naturally. Not synthetic growth hormone - your own. That distinction matters enormously. Growth hormone production peaks in your 20s and declines steadily after that. By the time most women are in their 40s, especially in perimenopause, growth hormone production is a fraction of what it was - and you feel it in your sleep, your recovery, your body composition, and your energy.

The results I've heard consistently from others: dramatically improved sleep quality, more energy, faster recovery from workouts, better body composition over time, improved skin elasticity, and a general return of vitality. This is the longevity piece. This is me investing in who I want to be at 52, not just how I look right now.

I've been using this for 3 months and I am noticing my muscles popping, I see all of my abs for the first time ever, I am increasing weights in my workouts consistently, and I'm not dealing with intense soreness the way I was before.

I am currently on this protocol - 3 months in.

Ready to start your peptide journey, but not sure how or where to go?

That was me too. I wanted to make sure what I did was pure, safe, and physician-led. So I use BelleMD to get my peptides with a doctor and care team - but no membership or consultation fees!

Check out BelleMD Here.

The supplements that support everything else.

Peptide therapy supports the signaling. But the foundation still matters. These are my daily non-negotiables — nothing about this changes regardless of what else I'm doing.

My daily supplement stack

• Highly bioavailable whole food multivitamin that also supports gut health — quality and bioavailability matter enormously here, this is not a grocery store vitamin.

• Clean protein — hitting my protein targets every single day is non-negotiable for body composition and muscle retention.

• Electrolytes — daily, not just when I work out.

• Bovine liquid collagen — which is actually a peptide itself. Supports skin, joints, connective tissue, and gut lining.

• My metabolic cocktail with Activate every single day — a natural GLP-1 booster. While I'm supporting that system through peptide therapy I still want my body producing its own. The additional benefits of Activate are something I will never give up.

This is a complete system. Not one thing.

I exercise 6 days a week. Usually 5 days strength, 1 day cardio, and 1 day for rest and stretching.

I eat clean, I prioritize protein, fiber, and electrolytes.

I prioritize sleep and stress management.

What changed is that I stopped accepting "your labs are in normal range" as a complete answer when I clearly wasn't functioning normally. Because normal range in a severely unhealthy society actually is not normal. It's sad.

I want OPTIMAL.

When I added clinician-led peptide therapy on top of an already solid foundation to restore the signaling that had gone offline, the results I finally saw sincerely felt miraculous. It had been SO long.

Peptides are the circuit breaker. They address the switches that need to be flipped back on. But the electricity still has to be there to begin with - and that comes from the lifestyle work you're already doing.

If you're doing everything right and it's not working the way it should - that is a signal problem, not a willpower problem. And signal problems have solutions.