Shift from pure caloric deficit to recomposition — fat off, muscle on.
By Week 5, the GLP-1 has done its job. Appetite is suppressed, weight is trending down, and — the part nobody talks about — your insulin sensitivity has materially improved. That last point is the unlock. The GH axis you're about to engage requires fasting insulin under 8 mIU/L to work for you instead of against you. Phase 1 earned you that ticket. Now you spend it.
The problem with running a GLP-1 alone past Week 4 is that the scale lies. A meaningful fraction of what you're losing is lean mass — the substrate is explicit that GLP-1 monotherapy without a recomposition layer drives muscle catabolism alongside fat. Phase 2 changes the equation. You add a growth hormone secretagogue stack to pulse natural GH (driving lipolysis and protecting lean tissue), an NNMT inhibitor to attack the stubborn fat that GLP-1 alone can't budge, and BPC-157 to protect the joints you're about to start training harder.
What's actually happening at the cellular level
Growth hormone is the body's master lipolytic and anabolic hormone. It does two things simultaneously that no other compound class achieves: it pulls fatty acids out of adipose tissue for oxidation, and it upregulates IGF-1 to drive muscle protein synthesis. The practitioner corpus is unambiguous that pulsatile GH release — the natural rhythm — beats exogenous synthetic HGH on every metric except raw IGF-1 peak. Secretagogues stimulate your own pituitary to release GH in physiologic pulses; the synthetic injection delivers a flat bolus that suppresses endogenous production and carries the side-effect profile that earned HGH its bad reputation.
CJC-1295 (no DAC, the modified GRF 1-29 variant) functions as a growth hormone-releasing hormone analog. It tells the pituitary it's time to release. Ipamorelin is a ghrelin mimetic — it acts on the GHSR-1a receptor to amplify the same pulse. Run alone, either gives you a modest bump. Stacked, they synergize: the GHRH signal opens the gate, the ghrelin signal pushes through more GH per pulse, and the result is sharp, clean pulses that closely mimic the body's natural rhythm. The practitioner consensus is that this combination is the cleanest body-recomposition tool in the peptide stable.
Tesamorelin sits in a different category. It's the only GH secretagogue with FDA approval, originally for HIV-associated lipodystrophy, and it is uniquely effective at reducing visceral adipose tissue. The Phase III data shows VAT reductions on the order of 50 cm² at week 26 — a magnitude that no GLP-1 produces directly. If your Phase 1 weight loss has revealed (or failed to reveal) stubborn central adiposity, Tesamorelin is the targeted lever. It is not a replacement for the CJC/Ipamorelin stack — it's an alternative pick depending on goal: CJC/Ipamorelin for whole-body recomposition, Tesamorelin for visceral-specific.
5-Amino-1MQ operates through an entirely different pathway. It inhibits nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT), an enzyme whose elevated expression is associated with obesity and dysregulated fat storage. Blocking NNMT does two things at once: it preserves cellular NAD+ (which fuels mitochondrial fat oxidation and sirtuin activity) and it directly promotes lipolysis in adipocytes. The practitioner corpus describes it as the tool for the fat that GLP-1 alone won't touch — the stubborn subcutaneous depots — and notes its use pre-fasted morning workouts to amplify the lipolytic window.
BPC-157 is in the stack for a single reason: you're about to start training harder. As caloric deficit narrows and muscle preservation becomes the goal, training volume needs to rise. Joints, tendons, and connective tissue under that load benefit from BPC-157's angiogenic and tissue-repair signaling. It doesn't drive fat loss directly — it lets you train hard enough that the rest of the stack can do its job.
The Phase 2 stack (Week 5-10)
Pick either Lane A (whole-body recomposition) or Lane B (visceral-specific), not both. Run 5-Amino-1MQ and BPC-157 in both lanes.
Lane A — Whole-body recomposition (default)
| Compound | Dose | Route | Frequency | Evidence Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CJC-1295 (no DAC) | 100 mcg | SubQ | Nightly, before bed, empty stomach | 🟢 Expert | Pair with ipamorelin in same injection. Empty stomach is non-negotiable — food blunts the pulse. |
| Ipamorelin | 100–500 mcg, 1–3× daily | SubQ | 12-week cycle, best dose before bedtime on empty stomach | 🟢 Expert | Cleanest GH secretagogue profile — minimal cortisol/prolactin elevation. Start at 100 mcg, titrate. |
| 5-Amino-1MQ | 50–150 mg | Oral | Once daily, morning (ideally pre-fasted workout) | 🟢 Expert | Substrate range spans 50–100 mg/day to 100–150 mg/day. Start low. |
| BPC-157 | 500 mcg/day | SubQ | Daily, near belly fat or injury site | 🟢 Expert | Joint/tendon protection under rising training volume. |
| GLP-1 (continued from Phase 1) | Maintenance dose | SubQ | Weekly | 🔵 Clinical | Do NOT escalate further in Phase 2. Hold the dose that's working. |
Lane B — Visceral-fat-dominant phenotype
| Compound | Dose | Route | Frequency | Evidence Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesamorelin | 1 mg, 1–2× daily | SubQ | 5 days/week (OR 5 mL of 1 mg/0.6 mL solution 1×/day, 6 days/week) | 🔵 Clinical | Specifically targets visceral adipose tissue. FDA-approved compound — most rigorously studied of the GH secretagogues. |
| 5-Amino-1MQ | 50–150 mg | Oral | Once daily, morning | 🟢 Expert | As Lane A. |
| BPC-157 | 500 mcg/day | SubQ | Daily | 🟢 Expert | As Lane A. |
| GLP-1 (continued from Phase 1) | Maintenance dose | SubQ | Weekly | 🔵 Clinical | As Lane A. |
Hard gating — check before you start
Pull fasting insulin before injecting the first dose of any GH secretagogue. If fasting insulin is above 8 mIU/L, do not start. Growth hormone antagonizes insulin; running secretagogues on top of insulin resistance pushes you further into metabolic dysfunction — the exact opposite of what Phase 1 was trying to fix. Stay on the GLP-1 alone for another 4 weeks and re-test.
What you should feel, by week
- Week 5–6 — Subtle but real: deeper sleep within 7–10 days of starting the ipamorelin/CJC combo. Substrate consistently reports sleep quality as the earliest signal of a working GH pulse.
- Week 7–8 — Body composition starts to visibly diverge from scale weight. Scale may stall or rise slightly while the mirror improves. This is the recomp signature.
- Week 9–10 — Joint comfort under training load improves on BPC-157. Recovery between sessions tightens, allowing higher training frequency — which is the actual mechanism by which the muscle-preservation goal gets achieved.
What's NOT happening yet
- Not synthetic HGH. You are not getting a flat anabolic bolus. You are getting amplified physiologic pulses. The total daily GH exposure is meaningfully lower than an HGH user's — and that is the safety profile, not a bug.
- Not muscle gain without training. Secretagogues create the anabolic environment. The training stimulus creates the gain. No resistance training, no recomp — just slightly more efficient fat loss.
- Not appetite stimulation that derails the GLP-1. Ipamorelin operates on GHSR-1a but is reported by the practitioner corpus to produce only mild hunger increase — readily managed by the still-active GLP-1.
- Not a visceral fat miracle if you ran Lane A. If central adiposity is the dominant complaint at Week 10, switch to Lane B for the next cycle. The CJC/Ipamorelin stack is whole-body; Tesamorelin is the targeted instrument.
- Not a permanent intervention. The 12-week ceiling on the ipamorelin cycle is real. Plan the Week 13–16 washout into the Phase 3 maintenance protocol.
Research describes this. Track insulin, track the mirror more than the scale, and adjust.