Combining CJC and Ipamorelin with Retatrutide

happyboysteak

happyboysteak

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Retatrutide at 2mg has been my protocol for roughly 6 weeks now. The results are decent, not spectacular. My nutrition and training are fairly consistent; sleep is a work in progress. 5 months back I was at 25% BF and managed to cut a large chunk of that without any peptides, sitting at 18% now, with 13-14% as the goal.

About 2 weeks ago I introduced CJC-1295 (no DAC)/Ipamorelin to preserve muscle while in a mild deficit, ramping from 50mcg up to 150mcg, 5 days on / 2 days off. Gym sessions feel better and energy is up, but my hunger has gone up too. I typically eat my final meal between 6-7pm and inject CJC/Ipa at roughly 11:00-11:30pm.

My deficit has been sitting near ~250 cal, yet sticking to it got tougher over the past week, which may be tied to the appetite bump from the CJC/Ipa. I'm unsure what the smartest next step is, because I don't want to sacrifice too much muscle.

Questions:

  1. Is this timing good, or should I move the CJC/Ipa dose to the morning?
  2. I was hoping for sleep benefits, but they haven't shown up, would different timing help?
  3. Should I move my last meal earlier?
  4. If body fat loss is still the priority, should I just drop the CJC/Ipa until I reach my BF% goal?
 
A lot of folks pin it early in the day since it can mess with their rest. Worth a shot as long as you stay on your feet or hit the gym. It may leave you drowsy though if you just sit around all day.
 
1) I switched my injections to the morning so I can share dinner with my family. Because of that change, I’m definitely eating more. Back when I pinned in the evening, I was basically not eating from 6pm to 8am the following day. That clearly supported fat loss. Since then, my fat loss has slowed, but I’m not putting weight on and my resistance training strength is better. How you dose your CJC/ipa can be tweaked based on what you’re aiming for.



2) A plus of taking CJC/IPA in the morning is that I can have a protein-heavy snack right before bed. I came across info saying that overnight, particularly in the early morning, blood sugar drops while on Reta and the body responds by raising Cortisol, which pulls you out of sleep. A high protein snack may keep that cortisol from rising as much, and for me it’s made a real difference! I no longer wake at 3am. Now it’s closer to 5am.

3) I don’t have much to add here.

4) Your reasoning seems solid to me. I’ve got about 8 pounds left to reach my target. I’m fine with where I am and plan to let body recomp from CJC/IPA carry me the rest of the way. If you still have a lot to drop, I’d stick with Reta and keep protein high. I haven’t tried it myself, but you could bring in Tirz or Cagri for hunger the way some other forum members here have done.
 
happyboysteak said:

Retatrutide at 2mg has been my protocol for roughly 6 weeks now. The results are decent, not spectacular. My nutrition and training are fairly consistent; sleep is a work in progress. 5 months back I was at 25% BF and managed to cut a large chunk of that without any peptides, sitting at 18% now, with 13-14% as the goal.

About 2 weeks ago I introduced CJC-1295 (no DAC)/Ipamorelin to preserve muscle while in a mild deficit, ramping from 50mcg up to 150mcg, 5 days on / 2 days off. Gym sessions feel better and energy is up, but my hunger has gone up too. I typically eat my final meal between 6-7pm and inject CJC/Ipa at roughly 11:00-11:30pm.

My deficit has been sitting near ~250 cal, yet sticking to it got tougher over the past week, which may be tied to the appetite bump from the CJC/Ipa. I'm unsure what the smartest next step is, because I don't want to sacrifice too much muscle.

Questions:

  1. Is this timing good, or should I move the CJC/Ipa dose to the morning?
  2. I was hoping for sleep benefits, but they haven't shown up, would different timing help?
  3. Should I move my last meal earlier?
  4. If body fat loss is still the priority, should I just drop the CJC/Ipa until I reach my BF% goal?
Click to expand...
For many people, that extra appetite fades within several weeks when using HGH or its precursors, so sticking with it a while longer could be worth trying. That said, given where your body fat percentage sits, the added IGF benefits probably won't be as noticeable as they would be once you've trimmed down further — so there's a reasonable case on both sides for whether to keep it in the stack. Because preserving muscle seems to be your top priority while you work toward your target weight, the main thing is to hold at a 250 calorie deficit and take in plenty of protein. Without AAS, holding onto muscle during a cut is tough, and HGH and similar compounds don't preserve muscle anywhere near as well as AAS does. So based on your goals, my own take would be to put calorie intake first.
 
When the sleep perks never show up, pausing it until you hit your target weight is pretty logical — improved rest is one of the main ways it protects lean mass regardless.
 
happyboysteak said:

Retatrutide at 2mg has been my protocol for roughly 6 weeks now. The results are decent, not spectacular. My nutrition and training are fairly consistent; sleep is a work in progress. 5 months back I was at 25% BF and managed to cut a large chunk of that without any peptides, sitting at 18% now, with 13-14% as the goal.

About 2 weeks ago I introduced CJC-1295 (no DAC)/Ipamorelin to preserve muscle while in a mild deficit, ramping from 50mcg up to 150mcg, 5 days on / 2 days off. Gym sessions feel better and energy is up, but my hunger has gone up too. I typically eat my final meal between 6-7pm and inject CJC/Ipa at roughly 11:00-11:30pm.

My deficit has been sitting near ~250 cal, yet sticking to it got tougher over the past week, which may be tied to the appetite bump from the CJC/Ipa. I'm unsure what the smartest next step is, because I don't want to sacrifice too much muscle.

Questions:

  1. Is this timing good, or should I move the CJC/Ipa dose to the morning?
  2. I was hoping for sleep benefits, but they haven't shown up, would different timing help?
  3. Should I move my last meal earlier?
  4. If body fat loss is still the priority, should I just drop the CJC/Ipa until I reach my BF% goal?
Click to expand...
Age 71, in excellent health.

Several peptides are in my stack at the moment. As far as this thread goes: I've already reached goal weight, yet retatrutide stays in for appetite control and the metabolic upside. 12 weeks of gh secretagogues just wrapped up — 2mg Tesamorelin + 200mcg Ipamorelin, 7 days/week, taken AM fasting & fasted, and in the PM 200 mcg CJC-1295 nodac + 200mcg Ipamorelin.

The lifestyle side: solid nutrition on a vegan diet, heavy lifting, and better-than-average sleep.

As for the GH secretagogues — honestly, wow. The impact was striking. Recomp around the waist and neck grew obvious enough that other people commented before I ever mentioned anything.

Around week 12 a touch of edema showed up, which was my cue to cycle off. Nothing suggesting tesamorelin antibody ISR — though at the 12-week mark I wouldn't anticipate any. Any downstream or systemic adaptation would probably be too slight to detect.

Week 3 of the washout has just begun, and I'm impatient to get through the full 6 weeks so the GH protocol can restart.

Going without also throws the benefits into relief. Sleep through weeks 1 & 2 was dreadful; by week 3 it has improved. That points toward some systemic adaptation at the 12-week mark, though it proves nothing. Training feels heavier, and recovery afterwards is plainly slower and achier.

Appetite shifted noticeably as well. With hunger lower, my retatrutide dose came down from 3mg to 2mg. Once the GH secretagogues resume I'll likely find I need to titrate back up.

One more shift I can't fully explain: resting heart rate climbed by a statistically significant 6-8 bpm while on the gh secretagogues, measured overnight. By washout week 2, overnight RHR was back at the 52 BPM baseline. I had been blaming retatrutide for that rise, yet it fell to baseline before my retatrutide dose ever changed. Next cycle I'll watch this more closely.

Since no cancer risk elevation is involved, cycling on that 12 weeks / 6 weeks rhythm seems worth keeping for the payoff. At some point I may swap the costly Tesamorelin for the cheaper CJC-1295 nodac in the morning slot.

When the next 12 week cycle ends I'll try to get IGF-1 labs drawn.
 
Appreciate the replies! This week I moved my dose to the morning, and I'm now set on tapering off the cjc/ipa, because on top of everything else it's been giving me edema and joint pain. I've had joint issues before from old injuries, and making that worse is the last thing I want.

This week I ran 200mg of each, 5 times a week, but tomorrow I'll probably drop to 100mg of each and reassess over the next couple of days. That said, I'm fine with quitting right now — the sleep upside I was hoping for never showed up. Still, there's a chance my body adjusts at a lower dose and I get something out of it.

I've also got another IGF test coming in a few weeks. About a month ago it came back a bit low, around 138.

On top of that, I'll probably move over to tirzepatide, since my cardio has tanked. Nothing else feels too off — appetite was suppressed reasonably well and the weight was coming off at a decent rate — but being this unfit makes any kind of physical activity a real struggle.

Sleep stays my priority. DSIP did help when I tried it, but I still haven't managed to sort this out permanently 🙂
 
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