Am I wasting HGH at 12 IU if I’m not bulking?

[DoctorSaysStop]

Been meaning to get some input from guys with long-term GH experience.

Quick background:

I’ve been running HGH since May last year, titrated slowly from 2 IU → 12 IU. I’ve been holding 12 IU as a single bolus pre-bed for a couple months now. Sides are very manageable, mild hand numbness, nothing crazy.


Fasting BG sits around 5.5 mmol/L, will creep into the low 6s if I eat too close to bedtime.

Here’s the question:

I’m not bulking. Calories are around maintenance, and my anabolic load is relatively low compared to the GH dose. 325 Test, 300 Mast. Despite that, progress has been very real, body comp, skin, recovery, sleep, overall well-being. Honestly faster progress than I ever expected at maintenance.

That said, I keep hearing the same thing repeated:

“High-dose GH is wasteful unless you’re bulking.”

So I’m wondering, am I actually leaving gains on the table, or just burning extra IU for diminishing returns?

I’ve got plenty of GH in the fridge, so cost isn’t the concern. This is more about physiology and efficiency. If 6–8 IU would give me the same results, I’d consider dropping back. On the flip side, if higher GH still meaningfully drives body recomposition and recovery at maintenance, I’m fine staying where I am.

Looking for experience-based input.

Anyone here run 10–12 IU long-term at maintenance or a mild deficit?

 

[benjaminnetenyahu]

Been meaning to get some input from guys with long-term GH experience.

Quick background:

I’ve been running HGH since May last year, titrated slowly from 2 IU → 12 IU. I’ve been holding 12 IU as a single bolus pre-bed for a couple months now. Sides are very manageable, mild hand numbness, nothing crazy.


Fasting BG sits around 5.5 mmol/L, will creep into the low 6s if I eat too close to bedtime.

Here’s the question:

I’m not bulking. Calories are around maintenance, and my anabolic load is relatively low compared to the GH dose. 325 Test, 300 Mast. Despite that, progress has been very real, body comp, skin, recovery, sleep, overall well-being. Honestly faster progress than I ever expected at maintenance.

That said, I keep hearing the same thing repeated:

“High-dose GH is wasteful unless you’re bulking.”

So I’m wondering, am I actually leaving gains on the table, or just burning extra IU for diminishing returns?

I’ve got plenty of GH in the fridge, so cost isn’t the concern. This is more about physiology and efficiency. If 6–8 IU would give me the same results, I’d consider dropping back. On the flip side, if higher GH still meaningfully drives body recomposition and recovery at maintenance, I’m fine staying where I am.

Looking for experience-based input.

Anyone here run 10–12 IU long-term at maintenance or a mild deficit?

Are you leaving gains on the table?

Dude you not eating in a surplus alone is leaving A LOT of gains on the table

Why run that much GH and not be in a growth phase? This is like running 3g of gear for a cut. You can get so much more out of it

 

[RockyP]

If money is no issue, then I guess just keep going. You are 100% wasting the GH at this dosage, as it's just a very expensive fat burner. Also, if you are less than 100 kg in weight, you're running a dosage that may lead to irreversible cardiac remodeling. While it may not be relevant, I can tell you that very few professional bodybuilders in the open / super heavyweight class run more than 9 to 10 iu per day when bulking. Most drop it to 6ish when cutting. But they're also running 2 to 3 grams of gear.

So, on an absolute basis, yes the GH is being wasted in this scenario. You could get the recomp / skin / sleep effects at likely half of the dosage with less long term risk to your organs and insulin sensitivity.

 

[Billbo98]

Are you leaving gains on the table?

Dude you not eating in a surplus alone is leaving A LOT of gains on the table

Why run that much GH and not be in a growth phase? This is like running 3g of gear for a cut. You can get so much more out of it

100% correct

 

[Ateam2023]

Been meaning to get some input from guys with long-term GH experience.

Quick background:

I’ve been running HGH since May last year, titrated slowly from 2 IU → 12 IU. I’ve been holding 12 IU as a single bolus pre-bed for a couple months now. Sides are very manageable, mild hand numbness, nothing crazy.


Fasting BG sits around 5.5 mmol/L, will creep into the low 6s if I eat too close to bedtime.

Here’s the question:

I’m not bulking. Calories are around maintenance, and my anabolic load is relatively low compared to the GH dose. 325 Test, 300 Mast. Despite that, progress has been very real, body comp, skin, recovery, sleep, overall well-being. Honestly faster progress than I ever expected at maintenance.

That said, I keep hearing the same thing repeated:

“High-dose GH is wasteful unless you’re bulking.”

So I’m wondering, am I actually leaving gains on the table, or just burning extra IU for diminishing returns?

I’ve got plenty of GH in the fridge, so cost isn’t the concern. This is more about physiology and efficiency. If 6–8 IU would give me the same results, I’d consider dropping back. On the flip side, if higher GH still meaningfully drives body recomposition and recovery at maintenance, I’m fine staying where I am.

Looking for experience-based input.

Anyone here run 10–12 IU long-term at maintenance or a mild deficit?

Nope , wasting hgh here ,

 

[Proud Pangolin]

Been meaning to get some input from guys with long-term GH experience.

Quick background:

I’ve been running HGH since May last year, titrated slowly from 2 IU → 12 IU. I’ve been holding 12 IU as a single bolus pre-bed for a couple months now. Sides are very manageable, mild hand numbness, nothing crazy.


Fasting BG sits around 5.5 mmol/L, will creep into the low 6s if I eat too close to bedtime.

Here’s the question:

I’m not bulking. Calories are around maintenance, and my anabolic load is relatively low compared to the GH dose. 325 Test, 300 Mast. Despite that, progress has been very real, body comp, skin, recovery, sleep, overall well-being. Honestly faster progress than I ever expected at maintenance.

That said, I keep hearing the same thing repeated:

“High-dose GH is wasteful unless you’re bulking.”

So I’m wondering, am I actually leaving gains on the table, or just burning extra IU for diminishing returns?

I’ve got plenty of GH in the fridge, so cost isn’t the concern. This is more about physiology and efficiency. If 6–8 IU would give me the same results, I’d consider dropping back. On the flip side, if higher GH still meaningfully drives body recomposition and recovery at maintenance, I’m fine staying where I am.

Looking for experience-based input.

Anyone here run 10–12 IU long-term at maintenance or a mild deficit?

GH nowadays is so dirt cheap, if money is the issue then just get a job.

As long as you arent worried about unwanted tissuegrowth in your face then GH is the miracle drug. Soft on your mind, soft on your organs, soft on your whole body.

You cant run heavy steroid cycles the whole year around. At some point your body will tell you to fuck off. Everybody who ran somw heavy cycles know what im talking about. Its not even just your physical body but your mind. Dont get me wrong, i love the drive at the beginning.
But after ahoveling food down your throught for months, your sleep getting worse etc..... its like a imverse U-curve.

Anyways, no its not a waste. I would always take GH all year around. Doesnt matter you you are on a blast or cruise. Your GH stays the same.

 

[RockyP]

GH nowadays is so dirt cheap, if money is the issue then just get a job.

As long as you arent worried about unwanted tissuegrowth in your face then GH is the miracle drug. Soft on your mind, soft on your organs, soft on your whole body.

You cant run heavy steroid cycles the whole year around. At some point your body will tell you to fuck off. Everybody who ran somw heavy cycles know what im talking about. Its not even just your physical body but your mind. Dont get me wrong, i love the drive at the beginning.
But after ahoveling food down your throught for months, your sleep getting worse etc..... its like a imverse U-curve.

Anyways, no it’s not a waste. I would always take GH all year around. Doesnt matter you you are on a blast or cruise. Your GH stays the same.

I do like increasing my GH a bit when running a health phase of 200-250 mg test. Helps tremendously with fullness and it’s very anticatabolic.

I do think that 12 iu is just needlessly risking organ / heart issues if run for long periods of time. Even at 105 kg bodyweight I saw a tremendous difference in fullness / pumps / sleep / recovery simply from increasing to 6 iu from 5. I can’t fathom 10+.

 

[Proud Pangolin]

I do like increasing my GH a bit when running a health phase of 200-250 mg test. Helps tremendously with fullness and it’s very anticatabolic.

I do think that 12 iu is just needlessly risking organ / heart issues if run for long periods of time. Even at 105 kg bodyweight I saw a tremendous difference in fullness / pumps / sleep / recovery simply from increasing to 6 iu from 5. I can’t fathom 10+.

Everything has its risks.

Your organs will grow over time, thats for sure. The question is what do you want and what is a health phase?

If your goal is building muscle then you should run 12 IU all year around as well as blast an cruise. In my opinion its softer on your body to have a higher GH dosage all year around ans therefore maybe not run very hogh dosages of steroids. However most people do both.

A big difference is: lets say you are cruising and really want to recover and give your self a break. Even if you do TRT+ meaning 170mg per weak (lets not forget an acatual replacement dosage would me more like 80mg so even the 100-120mg prescriped as trt is a lot and will put you at the end of the natural distribution) you wilk still suffer from "catabolism". Cutting on that dosage will still result in sigkificant muscle loss even if you dont achieve real low bodyfat %.

With 12IU? You can cut on your TRT+ (hell i even had the feeling my "client" put on muscle) while giving your body a break from the steroids.

However lets not forget that just because GH isnt so hard in the short term this does not mean its harmless. I always compare this to some degree with alcohol and cigs. After a night drinking you will feel it, you feel.like shit, your body needs to recover. You cant drink for extended periods of time and not feel.like shit/not get a hangover.

But you can smoke cigs 24/7. You wont feel like shit, you dont have to "take a break". BUT this does NOT mean they wont kill you over time.