HGH Frag 176-191 vs AOD-9604, anyone running both back to back?

Question

Right so I've been digging into the research profiles here on both of these and the mechanisms look nearly identical to me, beta-3 adrenergic stimulation, lipolysis up, lipogenesis down, no IGF-1 hit. But the dosing is different 250 to 500mcg twice daily for Frag versus 300mcg once fasted for AOD and AOD seems to have that cartilage repair footnote that Frag doesn't. Has anyone actually cycled both and noticed a real difference in fat loss, or is it essentially the same compound wearing a different hat? I'm tracking my weight weekly and my waist every fortnight so I can compare properly if I do swap. My main concern is the short half-life on Frag meaning I'd need two pins a day, which is a faff, but if the results are meaningfully better I'd put up with it. Also curious if anyone noticed any difference in appetite between the two, because that would actually be the decider for me.

emma335 · Accepted Answer

Yeah that tracks with what I've been reading, the appetite piece was a big hope for me honestly. If neither one moves the needle on hunger then the twice daily pin is hard to justify unless the fat loss delta is real. Did you track your waist numbers across both runs at all, or was it more eyeballing? I'm trying to decide if the apparent lift you saw on Frag is worth the hassle or if I should just save myself the faff and stick with AOD plus tighter calories.

tiredmira · Answer

I tried AOD first, basically because once-daily dosing fit my schedule better. Did about 8 weeks at 300mcg fasted in the morning. Honestly the fat loss effect was pretty underwhelming for me, maybe a small shift in waist measurements but nothing that clearly stood out from just diet changes. Swapped to Frag after that, 250mcg morning and pre-dinner, and I wanna say the lipolysis felt more noticeable but it could easily have been carryover effects or just better adherence at that point. The twice-daily pinning is annoying, you're right about that. Neither one touched my appetite at all, which was actually disappointing since I'd hoped for a small suppressive effect. If appetite is your decider, I wouldn't expect much difference either way. Honestly for the cost and hassle, I'd question whether either is worth it over just optimizing a GLP-1 approach, but that's a whole different conversation 😅 What's your current stack looking like, are you running this solo or alongside something?

grinder265 · Answer

Ngl the appetite thing tracks with what I expected, both are really just shifting where energy comes from rather than cranking your metabolism wholesale. The real question I always come back to is how clean was your deficit, because if you're eating at maintenance both are gonna look like nothing. Did you track macros or just eyeball it?

emma335 · Answer

Yeah I tracked properly, used MyFitnessPal for about 6 weeks before starting either, just to get a baseline of what I was actually eating versus what I thought I was eating turned out my "clean" diet was a load of rubbish, hidden calories everywhere. 8g per kg for me. I kept that the same throughout both runs so the only variable was the compound itself. So if the fat loss numbers end up similar I'd actually struggle to say one beat the other meaningfully.

HGH Frag 176-191 vs AOD-9604, anyone running both back to back?

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