Why do some people run growth hormone releasing peptides instead of HGH?

[benfrankparkway]

My bloodwork on 2mg of tesamorelin, didn't get labs before taking. None the less I am 43 and not on testosterone or any other anabolic. Using Tesa because hgh wreck my joints, just more side effects in general compared to tesa.

 

[Deadpool99]

My bloodwork on 2mg of tesamorelin, didn't get labs before taking. None the less I am 43 and not on testosterone or any other anabolic. Using Tesa because hgh wreck my joints, just more side effects in general compared to tesa.View attachment 355040

How long did u wait to inject the tesa before ur blood test

 

[benfrankparkway]

How long did u wait to inject the tesa before ur blood test

Tesa has always been dosed at night 830PM fasted by hour and half. This bloodwork was taken at 820AM fasted. So it would of been 12 hours from Tesa injection to lab draws.

 

[drapton]

I use Sermorelin because hgh gives me heart problems. I've never had success at any dosage. Even at 1iu I get a racing skipping heartbeat.

 

[Vicki]

I use Sermorelin because hgh gives me heart problems. I've never had success at any dosage. Even at 1iu I get a racing skipping heartbeat.

Did you notice an increase in igf-1 with sermorelin from your baseline. I took 0.03mg/kg for six weeks and my igf-1 was slightly lower

 

[drapton]

Did you notice an increase in igf-1 with sermorelin from your baseline. I took 0.03mg/kg for six weeks and my igf-1 was slightly lower

I haven't taken blood work for that. I've only ever taken a low dose. 300mcg daily. I've recently started taken 300mcg every 3 days because it seems to be irritating my golf elbow. But I get all the things I want from it. Better skin, more energy, weight-loss and hgh just isn't even an option for me.

 

[ParquetPatquet]

I've tried gh and tesamorelin. Tesamorelin wins hands down for me. 2 reasons :

- cost-effective : most people take the daily 2mg dosage as gospel. I was able to raise my igf-1 levels by ~100 in 4 weeks using only 0.5mg tesamorelin daily. That's cheaper than GH.

- doesn't interfere with my sleep, unlike GH. Didn't matter which time of the day I took GH, I always felt like crap the next morning.

 

[Nadia]

Wow that is amazing to know. I started on 0.5mg for first couple weeks, then tapered to 1mg now I’m on 1.5mg I feel like I’ve got water retention and bloat so thinking of tapering back down as I was originally going to try taper upto 2MG

 

[MrTexas2]

I found MK-677 to be complete garbage. It made me tired all day and over eat late at night. And the Chinese GH coming out is so incredibly high quality, why not?

There are so many good, cheap suppliers out there, and so many good reliable Jano reports that you would have to have an IQ under 40 not to get good GH at a decent price.

 

[MrTexas2]

I’m primarily taking 2 IU of HGH for its fat-loss benefits and was hoping it would also improve my sleep and recovery. So far, though, I just feel beat up, my arms feel puffy and tight, not in a good way, more like I’d struggle to put on a dress coat. My elbows feel like they’re on the verge of tendinitis, though they still function. I’ll probably finish this kit, but tesamorelin might be more up my alley as described ITT.

There is absolutely no scientific reason for these sides.

 

[Endeavor Fitness]

I've tried Ipa/CJC (no Dac) stack, MK-677 (which I think is the best of the secretagogues). But, they pale in comparison to real GH; even the generic Chinese GH is better (I get a janoshink (sp) certified for my rabbit's GH).

I just think some ppl get caught up in certain peptides' hype. Others are conscious of the legal ramifications. A lot of peptides are great, but I see that GH is about the same, maybe slightly higher in price than the secretagogues. I mean, you'll still get nice effects, but nowhere close enough to real GH.

 

[BigDadd7]

I’m primarily taking 2 IU of HGH for its fat-loss benefits and was hoping it would also improve my sleep and recovery. So far, though, I just feel beat up, my arms feel puffy and tight, not in a good way, more like I’d struggle to put on a dress coat. My elbows feel like they’re on the verge of tendinitis, though they still function. I’ll probably finish this kit, but tesamorelin might be more up my alley as described ITT.

That's either all in your head, or something else has changed in your life/supplementation/training/sleep.

 

[nameste]

I've been wondering for a while why there are so many people using these growth hormone releasing peptides such as CJC+Ipamorelin, GHRP, Tesamorelin etc... over just injecting straight up HGH?

Back in the day when HGH was expensive as hell, people would resort to the peptides, but nowadays with chinese generic hgh being so cheap and available, i don't think it's the case anymore. But yet these peptides are still very popular.

Heck people even called them "poor mans HGH" back in the old days.

I asked ChatGPT about the benefits of growth hormone releasing peptides over HGH:

• More natural secretion pattern:
  GH is normally secreted in pulses, mostly at night. Peptides stimulate this natural pulsatile release. Injecting HGH often creates a flat, supraphysiological spike that doesn’t mimic normal physiology.
• Lower risk of suppression:
  Long-term exogenous HGH can suppress your body’s own GH production and may reduce pituitary function. Peptides usually maintain pituitary responsiveness, so your system is less likely to "shut down."
• Potentially safer metabolic profile:
  Exogenous HGH, especially in higher doses, can increase risks like insulin resistance, carpal tunnel, edema, and potentially accelerate growth of latent cancers. Peptides (at physiological doses) are thought to carry less of this risk because they don’t chronically oversaturate GH/IGF-1 pathways.

Bodybuilding is obviously not a healthy sport, and the more the better, so a lot exogenous HGH makes sense, but let's say you are on TRT and focus on health and longevity. Would these growth hormone releasing peptides be a better option?

Ngl im 2ish months into starting peptides and didn’t know much got cjc ipa thought it was good now when i’m done with the vials imma switch to HGH

 

[endtropy]

Tesa has been studied for long term use, it's FDA approved, and as a peptide legal and easier for many to access. Also feels like the more moderate and safer way to boost levels over long periods of time. All those reasons added up for me more than cost.

 

[jdel_gar]

From my experience people, and specifically how me and some of the ppl ik think about it.

It’s mainly a lack of knowledge and a fear of doing something that might induce permanent damage or maybe fucking up our endogenous GH, as we didn’t understand it.

As a natural, I had a big fear of HGH and I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand the risks and benefits of HGH so I thought a second best alternative to be safer.

As the thought process was using high doses of Tesa, CJC, Ipa combined, would yield similar results to HGH and maintaining natural GH and not suppressing it. I did get GH serum tests to try and prove the spikes I’m getting and it seemed effective, I do think that the literature might support this, although idk the HGH equivalent to 300mcg Ipa/300mcg CJC-no dac/2mg tesa and a possible use of 25mg mk-677.

But once you gain the knowledge and guidance tbh it’s a no brainer to switch to HGH. Plus GH secretagogues literally cost like 3 times the amount to just run HGH. At the time I was running US based peptides, so paying $67 for a vial of 2mg Tesa. Thankfully I managed to get out of that mindset and use HGH.

Only regret is that I have a kit of Tesa/Ipa/CJC that would last me a year laying around the freezer. Will probably never use it tho.

What about running both?

 

[Deadpool99]

What about running both?

Running HGH together with secretagogues is basically pointless because they work through the same pathway and hit the same ceiling. Secretagogues rely on your pituitary to release its own growth hormone, but once you’re injecting exogenous HGH, your pituitary output is already suppressed by negative feedback. That means the secretagogues literally have nothing meaningful left to stimulate. At the same time, adding them doesn’t raise IGF-1 any higher, because exogenous GH already saturates the GH receptor and controls IGF-1 production directly. So all you end up doing is paying extra for compounds that biologically can’t add to the effect you’re already getting from HGH.

exogenous HGH overrides your body’s GH system, shuts down endogenous production, and maxes out IGF-1 on its own. Secretagogues can’t “stack” on top of that, so the combination adds cost but not benefit.

 

[BendigoShafter]

My bloodwork on 2mg of tesamorelin, didn't get labs before taking. None the less I am 43 and not on testosterone or any other anabolic. Using Tesa because hgh wreck my joints, just more side effects in general compared to tesa.View attachment 355040

That's almost exactly the same levels I had after 7 weeks of 4iu HGH/day. I'm getting another set of labs tomorrow and will see what it's at. If the secretagogues can do similar, I might try a cycle and see where I end up.

 

[amazonas]

I just stopped my Tesamorelin 2mg journey because it was fucking me up too much with carpel tunnel syndrome. I did not have this while running pharma GH. It got the point that it ruined my sleep. But does it work? Yes absolutely it's effective for someone looking for budget options. But personally i would stick to HGH if i were to use it again.

 

[Proud Pangolin]

Going to copy and paste this:
You have to monitore you bloodsugar

3.Even though not a big risks with moderate dosages, you stilk have a risk for unwantes tissue growth because you are not only avoiding the negative feedbackloop but also eliminating another regulatory mechanism: pulsative GH release.

4. Pulsative GH is a lot more anabolic. Basiacally the sytemic igf-1 level doenst tell you much. For anabolism the autocrine igf-1 is relevant. Thats why you have such huge difference in anabolic responses with similar igf-1 levels. Thats also the reason why even though systemic igf-1 didnt continue to increase in studys with more than 6IU rHGH but bodybuilders report more anabolic effect with higher dosage.
In lower rHGH dosages systemic igf-1 has even a negative effect on autocrine igf-1 which seems to be overwritten at higher dosages and of course while rHGH increases systemic igf-1 which may surpress autocrine igf-1 it also increases autocrine igf-1 at the same time.

Its complicated and i havent understood it completely yet but i tried to break it down.

So Peptides or to.me.more accurate GH pulses increases autocrine igf-1 a lot better and are therefore more anabolic (in context of the same GH release/level)

Also i even saw bloodwork of some guys who achieved higehr igf-1 levels with peptides than with 4 and even 6IU hgh if you believe them. (Bloodwork was posted but of course you cant verify if they actually took 6IU HGH)


I also wanted to attack my lovehandels so thats why i chose Tesamorelin. Also based on my feeling and well now the swolen hands, Tesamorelin is a lot more potent than CJC-no dac.

At the same time im not a fan if MK-677 or CJC- WITH DAC because

1. MK-677 makes you very hungry
2. You get a constant GH release resulting in basically exactly the same problems (insulinrwsistance) as with HGH
3. I dont think its such a good idea to hammer you p. gland constantly.

I really dont see the point in unsing MK-677 or CJC with DAC by anyone. Sole purpose would be if somebody is already on GH (meaning your gland is already shut down) and you are taking MK-677 for bulking because its Gherelin action and very long halflife makes y
ou hungry the whole da

 

[BendigoShafter]

That's almost exactly the same levels I had after 7 weeks of 4iu HGH/day. I'm getting another set of labs tomorrow and will see what it's at. If the secretagogues can do similar, I might try a cycle and see where I end up.

Following up on myself...

My IGF-1 is 324 and my z score is 1.90. I'm taking 4iu HGH per day. Seven weeks prior, it was 303 and 1.8 so I'm pretty stable.

I've been running this dose for 4 months total and it seems to keep me right at optimal levels without sacrificing longevity. I'll probably drop to 2 or 3iu during my next cruise and see where my numbers go for reference.

At about $0.40/iu, it's stupid cheap for the (supposed) benefits.