Tesofensine dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
Tesofensine is an experimental weight-loss pill, not a peptide. It cuts appetite by acting on brain chemicals.
Evidence grade for Tesofensine: Limited. The rule: people have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. The sum on this page: 1 completed trial, none stating how many people. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 0
- Human studies
- 1
- Found nothing
- 0
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
1 completed trial, 0 people given it
8 effects reported, 5 unwanted, 3 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Fat loss and metabolism
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
Tesofensine is a daily pill that kills your appetite. It works in the brain, on the same chemicals that antidepressants work on. It is not a peptide. It started as a drug for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and people on it lost weight. It is not approved. It shows up on peptide sites anyway.
What people take it for
- Weight loss without needles.
- Shutting off hunger and food noise.
- More energy and focus while dieting.
- An option when GLP-1 shots did not suit them.
What studies in people showed
The main trial put 203 obese people on one of three doses or a dummy pill for 24 weeks. The three doses lost 4.5, 9.2 and 10.6 percent of body weight. The dummy pill group lost 2.0 percent. That is a real result. A second study showed the loss came from eating less. The problem was the heart. On the 0.5 mg dose, heart rate went up by 7.4 beats a minute. The drug never got approved. Nobody has shown what it does past 24 weeks.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- Hunger goes quiet and the weight comes off.
- No needles.
- Some people say they feel more awake and focused on it.
The bad
- A faster heart rate. The trial measured it and it did not go away.
- Dry mouth and trouble sleeping. Both were worse at higher doses in the trials.
- Constipation, headache and nausea.
- Low mood in some people.
- It stays in your body about 8 days. If you get side effects, they take weeks to fade.
Where these come from: The heart rate, dry mouth, sleep, constipation, headache, nausea and mood items are from the side effect reports of the early obesity trials. The energy and focus reports are from clinic write-ups by clinics that sell the drug, so read them that way. Forum discussion is thin.
My bottom line
It works on hunger and the trial proves it. It also pushes your heart rate up, and nobody fixed that well enough to get it approved. Weight loss that comes with a faster heart is not a trade I would make.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals Tesofensine has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Losing weightno headcount stated · 1 study
- Feeling less hungryno headcount stated · 1 study
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with Tesofensine, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
33 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind Tesofensine
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove Tesofensine does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about Tesofensine and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is Tesofensine?
Tesofensine is an experimental weight-loss pill, not a peptide. It cuts appetite by acting on brain chemicals.
Tesofensine is a small-molecule pill. It keeps three brain chemicals, noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin, around longer. It was first tested for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Then people noticed it cut appetite. In a study of 203 people with obesity, they lost 4.5%, 9.2% and 10.6% of their weight in 24 weeks, going up with the dose. People on a dummy pill lost 2.0%. On the 0.5 mg dose, resting heart rate rose by about 7 beats a minute. In 2013 the journal that ran that study published a formal note of concern about it. A smaller look inside the same study found the weight loss came mostly from eating less. It is not a peptide and not approved. It shows up on peptide and longevity sites as a weight-loss drug.
How does Tesofensine work?
It stops the brain from clearing away noradrenaline, dopamine and serotonin. That boosts fullness signals and cuts how much you eat.
What do people who took Tesofensine report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- There is no experience base to report. What discussion exists is about how the drug works and trial data, and nobody in it describes having taken the compound, which is unusual for a weight loss drug and is the single most useful thing to know about the community material on it.
- The doses people discuss are the trial amounts rather than anything self-administered, and the point made most often is that the middle amount was described as giving most of the weight change with less effect on blood pressure than the highest one.
- The concerns raised come from what the drug is, not from anyone's experience. It stays in the body for hundreds of hours, and the body turns it into other active substances, so any stimulant effect lasts a long time and is hard to adjust. Blood pressure and poor sleep at the higher amounts are the other worries.
- Posters expected it to be controlled, pointing out that a closely related compound already was in at least one country, and they discuss its resemblance to established stimulants in the same breath.
- The live disagreement is not about this compound at all but about whether cutting appetite with a stimulant is ever a long term answer, which several posters argue it is not.
Sources: A Bluelight thread on tesofensine, read directly, September 2026. Nothing above is attributed to any specific post and no post is reproduced.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
1study in people cited, but none says how many people took part
number of people not stated
We do not draw a total, because none of the studies in people on this page gives one. Read the sources below for what each study measured.
We read the number of people from the source lines on this page. Where a line gives no number, we count nothing for it. We do not guess.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
All 2 sources here are studies in people.
- Study in people · done in people2100%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
Sources here come from just two years, 2008 and 2012.
Too few different years on this page to draw a timeline. The newest source on file is from 2012, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Small molecule
- Molecule weight
- 381.9 Da
- Half-life
- About 8 daysVery long, weeks+
- Chain length
- None on file
No amino acid sequence is on file for Tesofensine, which is expected: a small molecule is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Study in people2008
Pulled or flagged by the journalThe Lancet published an Expression of Concern about this trial in April 2013 (PMID 23561987). The paper has not been retracted and remains the main human efficacy result for this compound, which is why it stays on the page, labelled.
Effect of tesofensine on bodyweight loss, body composition, and quality of life in obese patients: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trialIt produced large weight loss, and it pushed the heart rate up with it. Two hundred and three people with obesity took one of three doses of tesofensine or a dummy tablet for six months. Weight fell 4.5, 9.2 and 10.6 percent as the dose rose, against 2.0 percent on the dummy. At the top dose, resting heart rate rose by about seven beats a minute. A faster resting heart is the harm to weigh here, and it is not a side note.
Phase 2, 203 patients: 4.5%, 9.2% and 10.6% weight loss at 24 weeks versus 2.0% with placebo; heart rate rose 7.4 bpm at 0.5 mg.
- Study in people2012The effect of tesofensine on appetite sensations
The weight came off because people ate less, not because the drug burned anything. This was a smaller study run inside the main trial, looking at hunger. People taking tesofensine reported weaker appetite and took in less food. That is the mechanism behind the weight loss reported in the main result. Appetite was measured by asking people how they felt, which is the only way to measure it and also the softest kind of measure.
Phase 2 sub-study: weight loss was driven mainly by reduced appetite and energy intake.
Where to buy Tesofensine
2 sellers list Tesofensine in our latest read. They are ranked by trust score, then by archive rating, then by certificate tier, then by the lowest price per milligram. Archive evidence is counted before source-backed. Each path is out of 4, and the two are not added. A higher price does not raise the score. The letter is the certificate chip. 0 of them have a published certificate that names Tesofensine.
Some seller links may pay this site when you buy through them. A payment never changes a seller's tier or rank, and no seller has a say in any page.
| Seller | Trust score | Vial sizes | From, per mg | Certificate for Tesofensine | Seller link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty Peptides | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 15 mg | $12.0 | None found for Tesofensine | View |
| Core Power Peptides | 40 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 80 mg | $1.36 | None found for Tesofensine | View |
- LC Lab-confirmed: the issuing laboratory echoed this certificate back
- A Current certificate, independent laboratory named, laboratory not yet checked
- B Certificate published, but no laboratory link, older than a year, or the laboratory did not recognise the published lookup
- C No certificate could be read
Every listing and vial size for Tesofensine · How the trust score is counted
Sellers named on the price pages are ranked by certificate tier, then price, and any affiliate income is disclosed there. Naming a seller is not a recommendation to buy or use anything.
Common questions
Has Tesofensine been tested in people?
Yes. 0 people given it across 1 completed trial cited here, 0 of which found nothing. Tesofensine is an experimental weight-loss pill, not a peptide. It cuts appetite by acting on brain chemicals.
What is the Tesofensine dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 1 completed trial, 0 people given it
Is Tesofensine FDA-approved?
Investigational, not FDA-approved
Is tesofensine a peptide?
No. It is a small-molecule drug that acts on the brain. It is on this site because it shows up on peptide and weight-loss sites as an experimental obesity drug.
Latest reading on Tesofensine
Blog posts about Tesofensine, newest first.