On my last blood work, my IGF-1 was 88 which was kind of low. My doc asked if I wanted to try a peptide to help raise it. He said it could help me feel better and trim up (I’m pretty slim already). I’m always up for a science experiment so I said, “Of course, let’s give a try and see what happens”.
He prescribed me CJC-1295/ Ipamorelin. He said to use is 5 days a week and take the weekends off. I’ve started my doses and I’m kind of excited to see what happens. The cost is about $240 a month so I figured I’d try it for a few months and determine if it’s worth it to keep going.
I’d be interested to hear others that have taken it and what was the most noticeable effect.
From what I have seen, these more expensive peptides don’t really produce results any better than MK-677 (Ibutamoren) which is a peptide that can be bought as a research chemical. It is much cheaper (like $0.50 per day or $15/month). It does make some people much more hungry, and some lethargic. I haven’t gotten either of those sides to any large extent, but I take it at night close to bedtime, so that could explain some of it.
My IGF-1 is also pretty low without anything. Even on TRT it was only 124. I am due blood work soon, so I’ll try to remember to post back how well the MK-677, worked.
See the graph below for my experience with blended Ipamorelin (IPA) and CJC-1295. The dots are where I held CJC-1295 constant at 250 mcg and varied the amount of IPA. In all cases injections were daily in the morning on an empty stomach and I did not eat for 15 minutes after the injection.
Included in the graph on the left side in green is my experience with various doses of MK-677. In all cases, dosing was done twice per day in the early AM and late PM before bed. In one case, I combined it with IPA/CJC.
Also included in the graph is my experience with actual growth hormone injections. This is plotted in red dotted lines. This give a comparison to how the various peptides compare to GH for increasing IGF-1.
Wow, that’s a lot of good info on the chart. Very interesting to see that MK677 with CJC and Ipamorelin almost raised your IGF as high as actual growth hormone injections.
I do not get that reaction. What I have noticed is that when I raise my IGF-1 levels, either with peptides or with GH, I retain a LOT of water within my muscles (not subcutaneously). This is reflected in daily bioimpedance measurements of body composition. Almost always, my weight shoots up but my %BF measurements drop, thus showing an increase in muscle content. However, it is not permanent. As soon as I stop, the weight drops and %BF increases. If I have time I’ll make a graph of that and post. Might not get to it today due to work demands.
It raised it higher than 1 iu of GH per day. It was only slightly lower than the 2.6 iu per day level.
With MK-677 the dose response in IGF-1 is close to logarithmic.
Studies have shown that increasing dose after a certain point has very little response in IGF-1. I don’t think the hunger response is logarithmic though.
Most studies I have read seem to point to 25 mg a day being the dose upon which going above doesn’t make sense. In @youthful55guy chart the 50 mg/day and 75 mg/day are very close to the same result, indicating 75 mg/day did not buy him much (looks to be about a 7 point difference). I would guess if he trialed 25 mg/day he would only be a few points lower.
I am trialing MK-677 now. I need to get IGF-1 measured, but I am only dosing 10-12.5 mg/day. Research even shows that to be a pretty good amount. With this substance the law of diminishing returns applies very heavily.
I will make a post or update here when I get my IGF-1 blood work done. I think special thanks goes to youthfulguy55 for the great chart.
MK-677 got @youthful55guy IGF-1 levels to within 5 ng/mL of what 1 iu a day of HGH got him to for probably 1/10th or less the cost. That sounds pretty good to me.
Additionally, from what I have seen youthful55guy did not have a very strong response to MK. Some blood work I have seen have people in the 300s for IGF-1 with 25 mg of MK per day.
Mine went from 103 to 124 with TRT. AIs will generally lower IGF-1. I was only on like .125 mg per week of adex, with 150 mg/wk of test C. I might have gotten to the 130s without the AI.
I would agree with your analysis. What was most interesting to me when I charted the information was that there appears to be a synergistic effect of MK-677 with the injectable peptides. Note how either 35 or 40 mg of MK-677 with 500/250 mcg IPA/CJC-1295 yielded an IGF-1 response of about 205 while MK-677 alone at 50 and 70 mg was only 160 and 165, respectively. Also 500/250 mcg IPA/CJC-1295 alone only yielded an IGF-1 response of about 145.
I am currently on a dose of 25mg MK-677 once per day in the evening combined with 500/250 mcg IPA/CJC-1295 in the AM. Have IGF-1 labs planned in a couple weeks.
Oh, also note that in contrast to the OP, I do not take weekends off from dosing.
Funny you guys bring up cost. I actually did a cost analysis of 500/250 mcg IPA/CJC-1295 vs 2 IU of GH. The peptide protocol was about 12% less than the HGH protocol. However, I have to order HGH overseas and the suppliers that I deal with do not guarantee delivery of HGH. They will not redeliver if the package doesn’t arrive.
On the other hand, the peptide dealers are domestic (research chemicals). They all guarantee delivery and so far, none of them have failed me, which is not my experienced with a particular overseas outfit. I got stiffed once for about $300+ of HCG (not HGH). Bottom line is that non-delivery needs to be factored into the cost of protocols too.
