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Peptides/Weight and appetite

AOD-9604

Also sold as Anti-Obesity Drug 9604, HGH fragment 176-191

A growth hormone fragment sold as a fat burner. It was tested properly in humans, and in the trial that mattered it did not beat placebo.

Research onlyEarly human evidence
CC0 1.0 · source

At a glance

What people use it for

  • Marketed for fat loss without affecting blood sugar
  • Sold in weight loss injection blends
  • Promoted for stubborn fat around the middle

How it is taken

Sold as a powder for injection, and sometimes in oral or topical forms with no plausible absorption.

Evidence

Early human evidence

Good to know

  • A well-run human trial found no meaningful weight loss over 12 weeks
  • Not approved as a medicine, so nothing about the vial contents is guaranteed
  • Frequently sold in blends where the other ingredients are the active ones

AOD-9604 is a small piece cut out of human growth hormone, specifically the tail end that seemed responsible for breaking down fat. The appeal was obvious: the fat-burning effect of growth hormone without the effects on blood sugar and tissue growth. It reached human trials, which puts it ahead of most compounds in this section.

What people take it for

It is sold almost entirely as a fat loss injection, often as one ingredient in a blend. Marketing usually points at "targeted" fat loss around the abdomen.

What the evidence shows

This is the unusual case where a research peptide was actually tested and the answer came back. A phase 2b trial ran AOD-9604 against placebo in obese adults for 12 weeks. Weight loss did not separate meaningfully from placebo. Development for obesity did not continue.

Later work has looked at it for cartilage and joint health instead, which is where the research attention has moved.

Australia's anti-doping authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency treat it as prohibited, since it has no approval for human therapeutic use.

What to know before

A properly run human trial tells you far more than a hundred animal studies, whichever way it lands. That is what makes this one genuinely useful: the question got asked, and it got answered.

Last reviewed .