Metformin, advantages over injecting insulin & using whilst on HGH
One of the more common questions I am asked is the differences between insulin and Metformin and how each could be used to mitigate HGH induced insulin resistance. Here is a response from me today when a reader asked the following questions below. I thought it was worth sharing my response for today’s post. Maybe I’ll do that more often.
A reader asked:
“How would one incorporate Metformin into a hgh cycle?”
“Is there advantages to using Metformin over injecting insulin?”
Hey mate. No, Metformin is not a replacement for insulin. Metformin is merely an insulin sensitiser that would allow the body to respond better to its own endogenous (natural) production of insulin while using HGH, which will normally decrease insulin sensitivity.
Metformin at 250-750 mg twice per day with meals or 1000-1500 mg of Metformin XR (extended release) once per day will be effective at increasing insulin sensitivity. Again, there is no one size fits all approach because the dose of Metformin required to solve these issues largely depends on the dose of HGH used and a bunch of other genetic and lifestyle factors that determine how insulin sensitive the user was pre-HGH use. As a rule of thumb, most healthy, relative lean users will not need to use anything to combat HGH induced insulin resistance at doses of 1-2.5 iu per day. From 3 iu per day onwards, there may be some concerns. From 5 iu per day, almost certainly there will be some concerns in most users. Another factor is the frequency of dosing HGH. Splitting your dose of HGH into twice daily injections carries more risk for insulin resistance than once per day; or once every other day bolus dose. Thigher the dose of HGH the more muscle and fat loss and the more frequent the dose of HGH, the more fat loss. There are obvious reasons why a user would use more HGH than 2 iu, so to consider some kind of insulin sensitivity management is a must for a lot of HGH users.
The biggest hurdle is not resolving the HGH induced insulin resistance, but instead the diagnosis (finding out whether or not you are experiencing insulin resistance from HGH use). A user would have to check fasting insulin (not fasting glucose) in order to diagnose or rule out insulin resistance. This diagnosis can only be done with blood draw (as far as I’m aware) and so it is inconvenient to check on regularly. For this reason, a prophylactic approach is reasonable. If you plan on using more than 2 iu of HGH per day long term, then I suggest you put in place some preventive measures to stop insulin resistance in its tracks. The diagnosis is no joke and is a real problem in bodybuilding. Good news? It’s an easy fix. Hope that helps.
The advantage of using Metformin over insulin for the purpose of maintaining pancreatic health is that unlike insulin, Metformin will still be relying on your bodies endogenous (natural) production of insulin. Whenever you use exogenous hormones, you risk desensitisation via the negative feedback loop. No one knows for sure what would happen if a non-diabetic used exogenous insulin at high enough doses for long periods of time, but I do not suggest you find out because it may end in tears. For this reason, keeping Metformin as a long term staple and insulin use as an intermittent drug in your arsenal is a more intelligent approach. Other advantages of Metformin over insulin in this context include Metformin’s excellent safety profile compared to insulin use. You can’t sleep on insulin. You have to know what you’re doing or you’re going to have a bad time. Popular to contrary belief, it’s pretty difficult to end up in a coma or death from the acute use of insulin, but it is theoretically possible if you are stupid enough. I want to be clear though, that insulin and Metformin are not the same things and do not work the same at all. Each drug has a special use case.
I hope this helps! Any specific questions related to this post do not hesitate to ask in the comments section below or email us at info@austeroids.is
– Dave from Austeroids.is