AOD-9604
Also called AOD9604, hGH fragment 176-191
A fragment of human growth hormone - the tail end of the molecule, without the part that drives growth.
Studied in people, in small numbers. The ranges below lean mostly on community-reported dosing and results — what people run, and what they say happened.
- Fat loss & metabolic
The quick answer
A fragment of human growth hormone - the tail end of the molecule, without the part that drives growth. The idea was that you could get the fat-metabolism effect without the rest of what growth hormone does.
What it is not
Worth knowing before you buy it for fat loss specifically: it was trialled in humans for weight and did not beat placebo. The joint use was never what those trials measured, which is why people still run it for that.
Why people use it
Most people run it for joints and cartilage rather than weight, and that is where the reports are consistently positive - easier movement, less ache in knees and shoulders. It is cheap, it is oral-friendly in some forms, and people describe it as an easy one to add.
What people report using
These are ranges other people have reported running. They are here so you can see what has actually been done — they are not medical advice and not a recommendation for you.
People report running this anywhere from 300mcg to 500mcg, daily, morning, empty stomach.Where somebody sits in that range depends on what they are using it for and what they are starting from — the low end is a deliberate choice a lot of people make, not a half-hearted version of the high end.
Fat loss & metabolic
- How often
- Daily, morning, empty stomach
- Route
- subcutaneous
- Where this comes from
- Small human studies
Joint comfort and recovery come up more often than weight in community reporting, which is the opposite of what it is sold for.
What to expect, and when
Weight: no reliable timeline, because the trial that looked for one did not find an effect. Joints: reports describe weeks to a couple of months, usually inside a stack rather than alone.
Side effects, and what people do about them
Generally reported as mild and uneventful, which is unsurprising given the efficacy finding below.
Go deeper
Open these only if you want them.
How it actually works
hGH fragment 176-191.
More on the evidence
Human obesity trials did not separate from placebo on weight. Say this plainly.
What people report, in full
AOD-9604 has an unusual story and the community tells it accurately, which is worth crediting. It was built as the fat-loss fragment of growth hormone, it was taken into human trials for obesity, and it did not beat placebo. That is a real result and people repeat it rather than hiding it.
What happened next is the interesting part: people kept running it, and the reports shifted to joints. Cartilage and knee comfort is what current users describe, not weight, and those reports are consistently more positive than the weight-loss ones ever were. The compound found a different use than the one it was designed and tested for, and it has quietly become a component in joint and repair stacks rather than a fat-loss tool. It is frequently run alongside BPC-157 and TB-500 for that reason.
It is also very well tolerated - that comes up in every thread - which is part of why people were willing to keep experimenting with it after the trial result. The community's own summary is a fair one: do not buy it to lose weight, because that question was asked properly and answered no. Whether it does anything for joints has not been asked properly at all.
Worth knowing
A null result on one measure is not a verdict on everything, and people do report other effects. But it was tested, it did not win, and that is worth knowing before deciding where your money goes.
This is the one on the list that was actually put through human trials for weight loss - and it did not separate from placebo. That is a real red flag and almost no seller page mentions it. Worth being precise about what it does and does not mean: the trials tested weight, in people with obesity, over a set number of weeks. It says the average person did not lose more than they would have on nothing. It does not say nobody ever notices anything, and people do run it for joint and cartilage reasons that were never the trial endpoint. But if fat loss is what you are buying it for, this is the compound on this list where your money is most likely better spent elsewhere.
Sources and review
This record is built on what the wider community reports doing and experiencing, summarised above. No counted dataset has been attached to this compound yet — when one is published, it goes here with its numbers.
The effect of AOD9604 on weight loss in obese adults: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study. Trial registration ACTRN12605000067673.The only human weight-loss trial located. No peer-reviewed publication of a positive result could be found, which matches this record's null-result grade.
These references were located by literature search and recorded as the primary sources behind this record. The publishers block automated retrieval, so they are pointers to the right papers rather than quotations we have checked line by line. They are replaced as we read them properly.
Last reviewed 2026-09-08.
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