Peps for women to support muscle growth?

[henzvwry]

I am currently taking Tirz (2.5mg on Mon, 1mg on Fri) and have lost a good amount of weight, I am almost to my goal!

I have been lifting weights for 2 years now, and for the most part I haven't lost much strength while losing fat this year. Only muscle group that's suffering is my glutes. I've been thinking about taking Ipamorelin to try and help with re-growing the muscles, but I can't find many people/women talking about their experience with it. Also not sure if I will be stacking too much at once. I'm already tired of the nights when I do 3 pins at once lol.

I am currently taking:

Tirz

DSIP

Semax/Selank

GHK Cu

Adding 5 amino this week.

 

[Meritocrat]

I suggest waiting till you reach your goal weight, as you said it's close. Then, if you can keep a maintenance dose of Tirz going, use the KLOW or GLOW stack while exercising, and consuming enough protein. Though, Ipamorelin might not be the best GH secretagogue for muscle growth. Ibutamoren could be, but I wont suggest MK-677 especially after a weight loss.

There are many other options out there including actual GH. But a good thermogenic, protein powder, creatine, KLOW/GLOW could also make a marked difference.

 

[wildweasel]

I see a lot of women complain about this. Well, men, too honestly. The glp1s burn through muscle if you’re not careful, and nothing will fix the strongly catabolic state caused by significant calorie deficits other than eating more calories, and reducing the daily deficit

I was on a GLP one for about 60 days when I was 165 pounds to get rid of this last bit of belly flap that just wouldn’t go away.. I had started my weight loss journey at about 200 pounds three years earlier and got down using just exercise and cardio and dieting.

Anyways, in my case, that belly fat was gone after two months, but I would say about half of the 10 pounds I lost was muscle

On to your question tho lol

secretagogues don’t build much muscle, they aren’t anabolic whatsoever. The downstream effects on igf-1 signaling won’t do anything for muscle growth if you are not already in an anabolic state…

So you won’t rebuild muscle with a gh secretagogue given what you’ve said.

I would honestly recommend increase your calorie intake and intensity or frequency of strength training, joining a CrossFit class or something similar… you will not gain muscle in a significant calorie deficit without very high volume training and careful macro intake

If you really want a peptide that builds muscle, pass over ipa, cjc, hgh, and all that stuff. Use hCG. It will stimulate your ovarian cells to produce some extra testosterone and the time and effort you put into the gym will be more effective, your body will naturally build more muscle from your same effort. Start with about half of a man’s dose, 125iu every other day, hold for about a month see how you feel and work up from there.

Side effects you could expect would be increased oily skin maybe some acne. You would have zero expectation of virilization (masculinization) using hcg as a female, especially at reasonable doses, because it doesn’t flood your body with hormones, it just signals your ovaries to naturally produce a little bit more than they already are, bringing your hormone levels from normal to high normal… unless if you’re on a larger dose, lime the several thousand IU daily range at which point it starts acting completely differently in females, but you would never get anywhere close to that

 

[henzvwry]

I see a lot of women complain about this. Well, men, too honestly. The glp1s burn through muscle if you’re not careful.

I was on a GLP one for about 60 days when I was 165 pounds to get rid of this last bit of belly flap that just wouldn’t go away.. I had started my weight loss journey at about 200 pounds three years earlier and got down using just exercise and cardio and dieting.

Anyways, in my case, that belly fat was gone after two months, but I would say about half of the 10 pounds I lost was muscle

On to your question tho lol

secretagogues don’t build much muscle, they aren’t anabolic whatsoever. The downstream effects on igf-1 signaling won’t do anything for muscle growth if you are not already in an anabolic state…

So you won’t rebuild muscle with a gh secretagogue given what you’ve said.

I would honestly recommend increase your intensity or frequency of strength training, joining a CrossFit class or something similar.

If you really want a peptide that builds muscle, pass over ipa, cjc, hgh, and all that stuff. Use hCG. It will stimulate your ovarian cells to produce some extra testosterone and the time and effort you put into the gym will be more effective, your body will naturally build more muscle from your same effort. Start with about half of a man’s dose, 125iu every other day, hold for about a month see how you feel and work up from there. Side effects you could expect would be increased oily skin maybe some acne if you’re on a larger dose, at least until you get into the several thousand IU daily range at which point it starts acting completely differently in females, but you would never get anywhere close to that

Thank you! This is all very helpful.

It's weird because my strength has not dipped at all- I'm still hitting PRs! My upper body doesn't look deflated, but my glutes definitely look flatter.

For reference, I am 4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs. I started at 220. I typically lift weights 5x a week. I aim for 1200-1400 cals but it's hard with tirz. I still eat a min of 80g of protein, but aim for 120. I take creatine and l-carnitine daily.

Would it be more beneficial/less risky to just microdose testosterone at that point?

 

[henzvwry]

I suggest waiting till you reach your goal weight, as you said it's close. Then, if you can keep a maintenance dose of Tirz going, use the KLOW or GLOW stack while exercising, and consuming enough protein. Though, Ipamorelin might not be the best GH secretagogue for muscle growth. Ibutamoren could be, but I wont suggest MK-677 especially after a weight loss.

There are many other options out there including actual GH. But a good thermogenic, protein powder, creatine, KLOW/GLOW could also make a marked difference.

Thank you! I have not heard of Ibutamoren, I will look into it. I also plan on adding KLOW after this cycle of ghkcu.

I eat 80-120g of protein a day, I also take creatine pills. Would you suggest a powder instead? I have also not looked into a thermogenic yet. Thank you!

 

[wildweasel]

Thank you! This is all very helpful.

It's weird because my strength has not dipped at all- I'm still hitting PRs! My upper body doesn't look deflated, but my glutes definitely look flatter.

For reference, I am 4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs. I started at 220. I typically lift weights 5x a week. I aim for 1200-1400 cals but it's hard with tirz. I still eat a min of 80g of protein, but aim for 120. I take creatine and l-carnitine daily.

Would it be more beneficial/less risky to just microdose testosterone at that point?

Glutes tend to be pretty fatty and as you lose weight, they’re going to deflate quickly, so that makes sense

I would definitely not recommend micro dosing testosterone in your case. Doing that would require you to monitor your test levels using blood work to ensure you aren’t taking too much, because if you don’t you would risk masculinization, which I’m sure you don’t want

Hcg doesn’t cause masculinization in men or women, it just signals to produce more natural testosterone, keeping people within physiological levels of hormones, just higher within the normal range. This is going to cause your body to partition nutrition in favor of muscle growth and preservation, and it will increase glycogen and water storage in your existing muscles, such as your glutes, causing them to become fuller and rounder without actually needing to build any more muscle

 

[wildweasel]

Thank you! I have not heard of Ibutamoren, I will look into it. I also plan on adding KLOW after this cycle of ghkcu.

I eat 80-120g of protein a day, I also take creatine pills. Would you suggest a powder instead? I have also not looked into a thermogenic yet. Thank you!

Ibutamoren causes massive water retention. Within a week of taking it, you will probably look like you gained a whole lot of subcutaneous fat.

I can show you my data from it, I gained 10lbs in 5 days taking ibutamoren, that’s literally 1 pound a day in water I retained. Researchers discontinued human trials because patients were gaining so much water weight that It was causing congestive heart failure in old people.

Also, it’s just another gh secretagogue, it’s literally not going to help you achieve your goal in any sense unless if you are already in an anabolic state building muscle, which from what you’ve stated, you are not

 

[wildweasel]

Thank you! This is all very helpful.

It's weird because my strength has not dipped at all- I'm still hitting PRs! My upper body doesn't look deflated, but my glutes definitely look flatter.

For reference, I am 4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs. I started at 220. I typically lift weights 5x a week. I aim for 1200-1400 cals but it's hard with tirz. I still eat a min of 80g of protein, but aim for 120. I take creatine and l-carnitine daily.

Would it be more beneficial/less risky to just microdose testosterone at that point?

--OP--

Let me actually just address your diet and fitness because honestly, that’s the best answer for you, don’t stack additional drugs they arent going to help you in your case, thats the simple truth

4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs lift weights 5x a week female... your TDEE is between 1900-2200 or so. You are having trouble targeting 1200-1400 cals daily because of tirz.

You are eating 1200-1400 cals daily. Thats a massive fkn calorie defict ( ~ -1000 daily). you are going to lose muscle and no peptide or supplement will stop that until you adjust calorie intake. If a body builder blasts testosterone and gear all day long they would still be losing muscle in this sort of calorie deficit you've described

This is simple human physiology and dietary sciency, brutal honesty: theres no magic peptide thats going to fix this for you.

Reduce tirz. Let yourself eat some more. Adjust daily calorie intake to be no more than a deficit of -15% to -20% daily (no more deficit than -250 to -500 cals daily). this means increasing your daily intake by several hundred calories. 1g protein per pound body weight. 0.3-0.5g fat per pound body weight. the rest carbs. 30%/25%/45% ratio of protein/fat/carbs is what you should aim for.

you can either spin your wheels injecting a bunch of stuff and waiting for a month and moving on when you dont see results, or your can maintain a smaller calorie deficit by eating some more calories and suddenly everything will fall in place and your butt will fill back out and your PR's will continue.

its really up to you. speaking from experience here.

 

[Meritocrat]

Would you suggest a powder instead? I have also not looked into a thermogenic yet.

Creatine powder is better. You can use it along with collagen powder to create a really useful shake. I add mine into my mega protein shake, and just keep sipping it throughout the day to maximize my nutritional goals while using Reta.

I have not heard of Ibutamoren, I will look into it. I also plan on adding KLOW after this cycle of ghkcu.

I only mentioned Ibutamoren because you brought up Ipa. I would not recommend GH or any secretagogues of it. I agree with wildweasel. He is right. You shouldn't use GH secretagogues, nor should you pin Test especially if you are starting out. Remember, muscle growth requires nutrition, and anything that works on hunger will risk your weight loss gains. HCG sounds very useful. It also aligns with what I would actually recommend.

The reason I mentioned KLOW is because the BPC,TB500 in it can quicken your recovery, allowing you to exercise more frequently. Also, the thermogenic along with a good NO preworkout could give you a massive energy boost in the gym allowing for a more fulfilling training session.

Once you have stabilized everything into a consistent schedule, if you need the actual boost, then there is always Var, but I wouldnt even think of it now and this public space is not the place to talk about that, unfortunately.

 

[CNCCurrency]

Thank you! This is all very helpful.

It's weird because my strength has not dipped at all- I'm still hitting PRs! My upper body doesn't look deflated, but my glutes definitely look flatter.

For reference, I am 4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs. I started at 220. I typically lift weights 5x a week. I aim for 1200-1400 cals but it's hard with tirz. I still eat a min of 80g of protein, but aim for 120. I take creatine and l-carnitine daily.

Would it be more beneficial/less risky to just microdose testosterone at that point?

Not a bad idea low dose test and hgh.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

Not peps but there is DHEA and Anavar.

 

[rkbleddyn]

Creatine (not a peptide) and maybe Ipamorelin, probably the safest of the GH promoting peptides. People will tell you to take that with CJC or just take Tesamorelin. There's also HRT. All of this stuff has sides of course, except the Creatine.

 

[henzvwry]

--OP--

Let me actually just address your diet and fitness because honestly, that’s the best answer for you, don’t stack additional drugs they arent going to help you in your case, thats the simple truth

4'11", 28 and weigh 150lbs lift weights 5x a week female... your TDEE is between 1900-2200 or so. You are having trouble targeting 1200-1400 cals daily because of tirz.

You are eating 1200-1400 cals daily. Thats a massive fkn calorie defict ( ~ -1000 daily). you are going to lose muscle and no peptide or supplement will stop that until you adjust calorie intake. If a body builder blasts testosterone and gear all day long they would still be losing muscle in this sort of calorie deficit you've described

This is simple human physiology and dietary sciency, brutal honesty: theres no magic peptide thats going to fix this for you.

Reduce tirz. Let yourself eat some more. Adjust daily calorie intake to be no more than a deficit of -15% to -20% daily (no more deficit than -250 to -500 cals daily). this means increasing your daily intake by several hundred calories. 1g protein per pound body weight. 0.3-0.5g fat per pound body weight. the rest carbs. 30%/25%/45% ratio of protein/fat/carbs is what you should aim for.

you can either spin your wheels injecting a bunch of stuff and waiting for a month and moving on when you dont see results, or your can maintain a smaller calorie deficit by eating some more calories and suddenly everything will fall in place and your butt will fill back out and your PR's will continue.

its really up to you. speaking from experience here.

Thank you! I've been in a deficit for 10 weeks straight. I usually do 4 weeks on, 1 week maintenance. I think it might be time for a maintenance month.

It's easy to read success stories and think if I just add one more thing, I'll get to have my cake and eat it too lol.

 

[DunningKruger]

You're good with the protein, especially the aim of 120g. Under-eating a bit, but you're still working on cutting, so you're fine as long as you reverse diet at goal.

Personally, I preferred Tesa to Ipa. Since Ipa works on the ghrelin pathway I found it vastly increased my hunger signalling. I also found that I had tendon issues start to develop while on Ipa (carpal and knee) that were not present on Tesa. There were also neurological symptoms, like parasthesia in both arms every morning upon waking for 5-10 minutes. Thankfully those ceased within a few weeks of cessation. The tendon issues are still present months later.

As a fit female at goal who is looking for increased strength & density over size, my personal next test run will be Test C. from my GP, with a side of HGH, both in small doses. If those cause side effects, I will gladly go back to Tesa, as it helped me gain lean mass while losing fat mass.

 

[henzvwry]

You're good with the protein, especially the aim of 120g. Under-eating a bit, but you're still working on cutting, so you're fine as long as you reverse diet at goal.

Personally, I preferred Tesa to Ipa. Since Ipa works on the ghrelin pathway I found it vastly increased my hunger signalling. I also found that I had tendon issues start to develop while on Ipa (carpal and knee) that were not present on Tesa. There were also neurological symptoms, like parasthesia in both arms every morning upon waking for 5-10 minutes. Thankfully those ceased within a few weeks of cessation. The tendon issues are still present months later.

As a fit female at goal who is looking for increased strength & density over size, my personal next test run will be Test C. from my GP, with a side of HGH, both in small doses. If those cause side effects, I will gladly go back to Tesa, as it helped me gain lean mass while losing fat mass.

I read that Ipa can cause issues with joints, I already have enough joint issues as is.

Did you experience a lot of bloating with tesa? That's the one thing that kept me from considering it. I have awful bloating that was fixed with tirz, but the idea of dealing with it again scares me.

I actually ran test c for a few years on and off! My ex husband was a powerlifter and convinced me to try it. I had a lot of energy, lost a lot of weight and built muscle, my jaw got sharper and my chin got more pronounced too. But of course there were a lot of negative effects lol. I was younger and not very responsible running it. They have all reversed, though. I have definitely considered microdosing it in shorter cycles.

 

[wildweasel]

Thank you! I've been in a deficit for 10 weeks straight. I usually do 4 weeks on, 1 week maintenance. I think it might be time for a maintenance month.

It's easy to read success stories and think if I just add one more thing, I'll get to have my cake and eat it too lol.

I went through the exact same thing tbh, glp1 are great at losing large volume of fat, but when human bodies don’t have significant fat to lose, they respond to large calorie deficits by holding onto fat and eating muscle.

It’s really easy to think you’re missing something in your stack and overlook the basics.

My own experience, I’m a male, 38, and when I got near to my target weight I still kept large calorie deficits and kept working out hard af and I stayed looking like a washboard.

Worse, I was losing weight on the scale, but my fat wasn’t disappearing anymore and my lifts were getting weaker, I didn’t understand it… I wasted over two months doing this…

When I reduced my deficit to around 250 calories/day, the little bit of fat I had started melting off and I suddenly began building visible body tone again

Later when my goal changed to building muscle, I was afraid to eat above maintenance for a long time, it was a huge psychological barrier honestly, I thought I would get fat again… Eventually I broke that psychological barrier and ran about a 400 cal daily surplus and kept my workout routine and I didn’t gain any fat whatsoever and I became very toned with significant muscle growth

Glp1 is great losing weight when you have a lot to lose, but honestly, not just for myself, but from what I’ve heard from so many people around me as you have less and less fat to lose, it really starts eating into muscle and at that point, your diet becomes the singular most important thing to getting the physique you want the GLP1 honestly starts to get in the way at a certain point because your body will start destroying muscle instead of fat if it’s in a large calorie deficit, but as soon as you make that calorie deficit small, it will keep removing fat and maintaining muscle and body tone.

Maybe it does that the whole time it just can’t be seen when there’s a lot of body fat covering up the rest of someone’s body I don’t know

 

[wildweasel]

I actually ran test c for a few years on and off!

Pretty based tbh I was surprised when you casually suggested microdosing t, now I know why lol

 

[henzvwry]

Pretty based tbh I was surprised when you casually suggested microdosing t, now I know why lol

I didn't mind it honestly! I really liked most of the effects lol. Only thing I didn't like was the acne and not being able to control my emotions as well, but everything else was either nice or neutral lol.

 

[henzvwry]

I went through the exact same thing tbh, glp1 are great at losing large volume of fat, but when human bodies don’t have significant fat to lose, they respond to large calorie deficits by holding onto fat and eating muscle.

It’s really easy to think you’re missing something in your stack and overlook the basics.

My own experience, I’m a male, 38, and when I got near to my target weight I still kept large calorie deficits and kept working out hard af and I stayed looking like a washboard.

Worse, I was losing weight on the scale, but my fat wasn’t disappearing anymore and my lifts were getting weaker, I didn’t understand it… I wasted over two months doing this…

When I reduced my deficit to around 250 calories/day, the little bit of fat I had started melting off and I suddenly began building visible body tone again

Later when my goal changed to building muscle, I was afraid to eat above maintenance for a long time, it was a huge psychological barrier honestly, I thought I would get fat again… Eventually I broke that psychological barrier and ran about a 400 cal daily surplus and kept my workout routine and I didn’t gain any fat whatsoever and I became very toned with significant muscle growth

Glp1 is great losing weight when you have a lot to lose, but honestly, not just for myself, but from what I’ve heard from so many people around me as you have less and less fat to lose, it really starts eating into muscle and at that point, your diet becomes the singular most important thing to getting the physique you want the GLP1 honestly starts to get in the way at a certain point because your body will start destroying muscle instead of fat if it’s in a large calorie deficit, but as soon as you make that calorie deficit small, it will keep removing fat and maintaining muscle and body tone.

Maybe it does that the whole time it just can’t be seen when there’s a lot of body fat covering up the rest of someone’s body I don’t know

I for sure understand the psychological barrier. I'm at a point where I'm not fat anymore but not quite average or skinny, so I'm having to reset my goals. I get nervous when I eat over the 1400 threshold.

I took a glp1 last Summer but quit after a few months when my lifts tanked. I've been much more diligent this time around because I've worked really hard to get fit again. I was super fit when I was 18-22, but let myself ago and had to start all over a few years ago.

 

[wildweasel]

I for sure understand the psychological barrier. I'm at a point where I'm not fat anymore but not quite average or skinny, so I'm having to reset my goals. I get nervous when I eat over the 1400 threshold.

I took a glp1 last Summer but quit after a few months when my lifts tanked. I've been much more diligent this time around because I've worked really hard to get fit again. I was super fit when I was 18-22, but let myself ago and had to start all over a few years ago.

I get nervous when I eat over the 1400 threshold.

similar, it really did me a disservice. If i shared pictures with you of how i looked after spending 9 months tring to build body tone and trim fat while in a large calorie deficit, vs how i looked after just 2 months of a maintenance/slight surplus and no changes in routine, you would probably laugh, i go from looking like a washboard to having a manly chest and veiny biceps, kinda crazy tbh