AOD-9604 — cool name, does it do literally anything?
30 posts
AOD-9604 is marketed as 'the fat-burning fragment of growth hormone.' The origin story is that it's the C-terminal fragment of hGH (176-191) that supposedly retains the lipolytic effect without the growth effects. It failed its weight-loss Phase 2 trials about 15 years ago and the drug development essentially died.
Yet it's still sold everywhere in the peptide space, usually at 300mcg daily, with people claiming body recomp effects. My read is that it doesn't do much in humans at reasonable doses, and the Phase 2 failure is a pretty loud signal that this isn't a real fat-loss tool.
Has anyone actually measured body comp changes on AOD-9604 with DEXA or at least a decent scale and waist tape? Or is this 100% vibes?
12 Replies
68 posts
The Phase 2 failure is the whole story. If a compound couldn't beat placebo in a funded trial with proper endpoints, the bar for 'it's actually working in my kitchen at 300mcg' is very high. I don't think AOD does anything meaningful for fat loss.
- Epithalon · 10 mg · 10d on / 80d off · sub-Q
- MOTS-c · 5 mg · 2x/wk · sub-Q
- 5-Amino-1MQ · 150 mg · daily · oral
50 posts
The people selling AOD now are the same ones who couldn't sell you a GLP-1 because the margin isn't there. Follow the margin.
- Tirzepatide · 5 mg · weekly · sub-Q
47 posts
I DEXA-scanned before and after a 12-week AOD run (300mcg AM fasted). Body fat change: -0.3%, within measurement noise. Lean mass unchanged. I'd call that no effect.
46 posts
I ran it alongside a cut and thought it did something. Now I'm pretty sure I was just in a deficit. Removed it from my stack and the deficit kept working.
30 posts
117 posts
Every once in a while someone tries to revive AOD with 'but it's cAMP-mediated lipolysis!' The mechanism claim was always fine. The in vivo result was always weak.
28 posts
I'll be the contrarian. Ran 500mcg AM for 8 weeks, appetite was noticeably blunter and I dropped 3lb that I didn't expect. n=1, no bloods, take it for what it's worth.
- BPC-157 · 500 mcg · 2x/day local · sub-Q
- TB-500 · 2 mg · 2x/wk · sub-Q
68 posts
@pallet_jack appreciate the honest counterpoint. Appetite suppression isn't in the canonical AOD mechanism claim though — that's usually a GLP-1-like effect. Possible it's acting through a different pathway at higher dose, or possible it's a placebo + natural variance.
- Epithalon · 10 mg · 10d on / 80d off · sub-Q
- MOTS-c · 5 mg · 2x/wk · sub-Q
- 5-Amino-1MQ · 150 mg · daily · oral
12 posts
nah the phase 2 failure is pretty damning tbh. ive seen people run it at like 1mg and swear by it but thats just cope at that point, youre basically just eating less and hitting the gym. if aod actually worked the way people claim it wouldnt have gotten shelved that hard. glp-1 made it completely irrelevant anyway, why mess with something that maybe does 10% when u can just hop on a microdose of actual proven stuff
35 posts
Phase 2 failure is evidence but not gospel. Plenty of compounds flop in trials for reasons that don't matter at the individual level, dosing protocols, population selection, whatever. That said, I've never seen legit before and after comps from anyone running this, just a lot of "I felt leaner" which is basically useless. The appetite suppression angle is interesting though because if it's actually doing something there, that's a real effect even if it's not the marketed mechanism. But yeah at this point why not just run something with actual Phase 3 data behind it.