Tirzepatide, or tirz.
What the compound is, why it is called a dual agonist, the vial sizes that turn up on labels, how to convert the mg printed there into units on a syringe, how to store it, and what tracking a tirzepatide protocol looks like in Protocol Her.
- Compound class
- Dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist
- In the Protocol Her library as
- Tirzepatide
- Doses entered in
- mg
- A new schedule starts at
- Once a week
- Powder vial sizes commonly seen
- 10 mg, 15 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, 60 mg
The classification badge describes the molecule's regulatory status, which is what the app displays. It says nothing about any individual vial, seller, or compounded preparation.
Two receptors, not one.
Tirzepatide is a single engineered peptide that activates two gut-hormone receptors: GIP and GLP-1. That is what dual agonist means, and it is the structural difference between tirzepatide and semaglutide, which acts on GLP-1 alone. Like the other compounds in this family, it was built to persist in the body long enough for weekly use.
Where you meet it
Tirzepatide is the active ingredient in FDA-approved prescription products sold under brand names, each cleared for the uses printed on its own label. It also circulates as compounded and research-labeled powder outside that supply chain, held to different standards, with the label as the only description of the contents.
Why the shorthand
Tirz, or tirze, is what people type. Protocol Her lists the full name, Tirzepatide, and groups it in the picker under the family label GLPs alongside sema and reta, because that is how people look for it, even though the molecule is a dual agonist.
What this page will not do
It will not tell you an amount, a schedule, how much water to add, or where to buy anything, and it makes no claim about what tirzepatide will do for you. Those belong with a clinician who knows your history. What follows is arithmetic and handling.
Bigger numbers on the label.
Tirzepatide powder vials are typically labeled with larger mg totals than semaglutide vials, which is a fact about how the compound is dosed, not a statement that more is better or that the two are comparable at the same number.
Pens and ready-made vials
Prescription tirzepatide is dispensed as prefilled pens, and in some cases as single-dose vials of solution that is already prepared. Both arrive as liquid. Nothing is reconstituted, no conversion is needed, and the instructions in the box govern.
Powder vials
Compounded and research-labeled tirzepatide is usually freeze-dried powder, with labels commonly reading 10 mg, 15 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, or 60 mg. That figure is the total mass in the vial, not a strength. Strength only exists once you add liquid.
A 30 mg and a 60 mg vial can produce identical syringe readings or wildly different ones, entirely depending on the water added. Read the mg figure off the vial in front of you every time. Protocol Her ships no preset vial sizes for any compound, on purpose.
From mg on the label to units on the barrel.
Take a 10 mg vial with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water added, and say you want to measure 4 mg. Every number here was picked to make the arithmetic easy to follow. None of them is a suggested vial size, water volume, or amount.
Concentration
Divide the peptide in the vial by the water you added. That is the strength of every mL in the finished solution.
10 mg ÷ 2 mL = 5 mg/mL
Volume
Divide the amount you want by the concentration. That gives the volume of liquid holding it. Tirzepatide is entered in mg, so no unit conversion is needed first.
4 mg ÷ 5 mg/mL = 0.8 mL
Syringe units
A U-100 insulin syringe is marked at 100 units per mL, so multiply by 100 to read the same volume on the barrel.
0.8 mL × 100 = 80 units
80 units is most of a 1 mL syringe, which is worth noticing: with 4 mL of water instead of 2, the same 10 mg vial gives 2.5 mg/mL, and that same 4 mg reads as 1.6 mL, more than one full syringe. The vial holds 10 mg regardless. Water only changes how the amount is measured.
Run your own numbers in the free calculatorPeptides are fragile proteins.
Heat, light, and agitation are what degrade them. General handling principles below. Your product's own label and your pharmacist override every one of them.
- Before mixing, the powder is the stable form. Freeze-dried peptide keeps far better than solution. Store it as its label directs, away from light and heat.
- Once liquid is added, it is refrigerated. Reconstituted peptide belongs in the fridge, upright, not in the door where the temperature swings every time it opens.
- Do not freeze a reconstituted vial. Ice crystals damage peptide in solution. Freezing and rethawing is not a way to extend anything.
- Add water gently and do not shake. Run the stream down the inside wall of the vial and swirl slowly. Foaming means agitation, and agitation denatures protein.
- Bacteriostatic water is not sterile water. Bacteriostatic water contains a preservative, benzyl alcohol, which is what allows a vial to be entered more than once. Sterile water has none. They are not interchangeable.
- Write the date you mixed it on the vial. A date on the label beats memory. Discard a vial that is cloudy, discolored, or has anything floating in it.
- Pens and ready-made vials follow their own rules. Prescription products carry manufacturer storage limits and in-use windows on the carton. Use those, not general peptide guidance.
Protocol Her records the date you reconstituted a vial and seeds a discard date 28 days later, a common convention rather than an expiry the app is asserting. The date is yours to change, and the app never claims a beyond-use date on your behalf.
Tracking a tirz protocol, exactly as it ships.
Tirzepatide is one of 35 compounds in the app's library. Picking it sets up the frame: the category, the classification badge, the unit your doses are entered in, and a starting cadence. Every number stays yours to enter.
A schedule you set
A new tirzepatide schedule opens on Once a week, since weekly is intrinsic to how this compound is given. You can move it to every day, every other day, twice a week, every 2 weeks, or as needed, then pin a weekday and a time.
Doses in mg, with the site
Each logged dose carries the amount in mg, the time, and one of seven injection sites: left or right abdomen, thigh, or arm, plus glute. The body map remembers where the last ones went, so rotating stops being a memory game.
The vial, tracked
Log the mg and the water you added and the app carries the concentration forward: doses remaining, a low-stock signal, cost per dose, and the reconstitution and discard dates. The same conversion runs on a live U-100 syringe gauge.
Metabolic check-ins
Because tirzepatide sits in the Metabolic category, the daily card offers weight, energy, hunger, protein, and body measurements. Side effects log with a 1 to 5 severity, from nausea and fatigue to headache and sleep.
The note it always shows
Selecting tirzepatide surfaces a standing safety note: not for use in pregnancy, and it may lower the effectiveness of oral birth control, so a backup method matters. It shows every time, never gated behind a number you entered.
A record you can hand over
Log your period and doses and symptoms gain cycle-phase context. Weeks on the protocol are counted from what you logged, never prescribed ahead of you, and the history exports as a clinician-ready PDF.
All of it stays on your iPhone. There is no account and no server copy of what you log, and reminders never name a compound or an amount on your lock screen. What the app does not do is equally deliberate: it ships no dose ladder, no vial presets, and no water volumes for tirzepatide or anything else.
Common questions, answered.
What does tirz mean?
Tirz, sometimes written tirze, is everyday shorthand for tirzepatide, in the same family of contractions as sema and reta. It is not a separate compound, a brand, or a different strength.
Is tirzepatide a GLP-1?
It is more than one thing at once. Tirzepatide acts on the GIP receptor as well as GLP-1, where semaglutide acts on GLP-1 alone. People still file it under GLP-1s in conversation, and the app groups it that way, but the molecule is a dual agonist.
How do I turn mg into syringe units?
Divide vial mg by the mL of water added for the concentration, divide your amount by that concentration for a volume in mL, then multiply by 100 for a U-100 syringe. The free calculator runs the same chain and prints every step.
Why are tirz vials labeled with bigger numbers?
Because the compounds are dosed on different scales, so a milligram of one is not comparable to a milligram of another. A larger mg total on a label is not a larger effect, and it says nothing about how the vial should be prepared.
The rest of the library.
Track it where it stays yours.
Protocol Her keeps doses, vials, symptoms, cycle, and labs in one place, with the reconstitution calculator and a live U-100 syringe gauge built in. Free to download, no account to create.
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