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Tesamorelin + ipa before bed, anyone actually tracking IGF-1 or just guessing?

Posted by fasted_scientist in GH & Growth Peptides - 6 points, 9 comments.

Ngl I keep going back and forth on this combo. The theory is clean on paper, tesamorelin gives the GHRH signal and ipa amplifies the pulse without the cortisol or prolactin baggage. Both have short half lives so it suits a pre-bed shot. But I'm curious if anyone here has actually run bloodwork and seen meaningful IGF-1 shifts, or whether it's mostly vibes.

For me the sleep effect has been the most noticeable thing so far, deeper rest and I wake up feeling properly recovered rather than just having slept. Hard to say if it's placebo though because I was also dialling in bedtime and cutting caffeine earlier. Body comp is too slow to call at a few weeks in.

If you've run tesamorelin + ipa together, what did your IGF-1 actually do on bloods, and did you dose it once before bed or split it?

Comments

  • runner_aaron: Hey, not on that exact combo but I've done tesamorelin on its own pre-bed for around 10 weeks and my IGF-1 moved from the low end of the range to mid-range on bloods, nothing crazy but noticeable. The sleep thing was also the first thing I clocked, so you're not imagining that part. Could be the bedtime routine helping too, fair point. Splitting doses is interesting though, never tried it with ipa in the mix. How long are you planning to run it before you call it on body comp? I gave mine about
  • quiet_ironman: Yeah I ran tesamorelin+ipa for 8 weeks pre-bed and saw IGF-1 creep up a notch, sleep felt deeper too. Gonna stretch to 12 weeks before I call it on body comp, how's your dosing looking? 🔬
  • quiet_ironman: I’m thinking of trying the ipa add‑on for 8‑10 weeks then checking labs, see if the combo adds anything beyond the sleep boost I’ve felt. 🔬
  • fasted_scientist: Mate 8-10 weeks is fair, that's roughly two IGF-1 half-lives so the number should be settled by then. Just don't draw labs the morning after a poor night or right after a hard training week, both mess with the reading. I went a bit higher than I expected on mine so I'll be keen to see where yours lands, post the number if you remember.
  • fasted_scientist: 8 weeks is about where I'm at now so cheers, that's actually helpful. I'm doing tesamorelin once pre-bed and ipa split am/pm because the hunger was wrecking me when I pinned it all at night. IGF-1 bloods aren't back yet, I'll be gutted if they haven't moved much given the sleep feels noticeably better. Did yours move a lot or just a notch like you mentioned?
  • fasted_scientist: Cheers, that's actually useful to hear. Moving from low to mid on bloods is a proper signal, not just a number that bounced around within the range. (Good to know the sleep thing isn't just me talking myself into it either, even if the caffeine cut probably helped.) I've been on it about 5 weeks so far, planning to give it a solid 12 before I bother looking in the mirror properly. What was your tesamorelin dose if you don't mind me asking, and did you pin it fasted or with the bedtime snack?
  • fasted_scientist: Appreciate that, the 10 week to low-mid range shift is actually useful data for me to think about. I was probably being a bit impatient expecting body comp changes at 4 weeks like an idiot, so 12 weeks sounds about right before I bother judging anything either. Did you do anything else alongside it or was it literally just tesam on its own? I'm trying to figure out how much of the sleep and recovery stuff I'm feeling is the peptide vs me just sleeping better in general, and it's hard to separat
  • patient_codes: I ran it at 100mcg, fasted, then ate my snack like 20 min later. Worked fine for me. Mid-range sounds right for 5 weeks tbh, mine didn't really sit solidly upper until closer to month 3. Patience on this one pays off 💯
  • fasted_scientist: Patient_codes's reply is actually really useful here because it matches what I've read about tesamorelin taking a while to saturate the IGF-1 response properly. Five weeks sitting mid-range tracks with what I was expecting honestly. I haven't pulled bloods yet because I wanted to let it settle past that window first, but I'll get a baseline IGF-1 done soon so I can compare at the three month mark rather than guessing. What were you using as your ipa dose alongside the 100mcg of tes?

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.