Phase 1 burned the brake. Weeks 1-4, the GLP-1 dialed appetite to baseline, the gut healed, the insulin/glucose axis reset, and body weight dropped — most of it fat, some of it lean tissue you didn't want to lose. That last part is why Phase 2 exists. Weeks 5-10 is where you stop losing weight and start recomposing. The lever is the GH axis. You're not adding more GLP-1 pressure — you're adding the signal that tells skeletal muscle, connective tissue, and mitochondria to stay built while the fat keeps coming off.
What's happening in the cell, weeks 5-10
The Phase 2 stack runs two parallel signals into the same body at the same time, and they don't fight each other if you sequence them correctly.
The GLP-1 agonist — whether you're holding semaglutide at maintenance or escalating retatrutide — continues triple-receptor pressure on appetite, gastric emptying, and (for retatrutide specifically) glucagon-driven hepatic lipolysis. The practitioner corpus is explicit that retatrutide acts on GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon receptors, and the glucagon arm is what drives the visceral and hepatic fat clearance that semaglutide alone misses. This signal stays in the morning lane.
Layered on top, the GH axis runs at night. CJC-1295 without DAC (Modified GRF 1-29) functions as a GHRH analog — it tells the pituitary to release growth hormone in pulses that mimic endogenous rhythm. Ipamorelin works the same window through a different door: a ghrelin-receptor agonist that triggers GH release without the cortisol and prolactin spillover you see with older secretagogues like GHRP-6 or hexarelin. Stacked, they produce a sharp nighttime GH pulse that compounds with your natural slow-wave-sleep GH surge. The downstream is IGF-1 — which is what actually preserves and rebuilds lean tissue while the GLP-1 keeps appetite controlled. This is the recomposition lever.
The third signal — optional but practitioner-favored for weight-loss paths — is the mitochondrial layer. 5-Amino-1MQ blocks the NNMT enzyme, which under obesity dysregulation drains NAD+ and locks fat cells into storage mode. Blocking NNMT does two things at once: it raises intracellular NAD+ availability (so mitochondria actually work) and it promotes lipolysis on the cells that have been resisting it. The corpus describes the pre-fasted-AM-workout dose as the standout use case. MOTS-c, encoded directly in mitochondrial DNA, is the third option in this lane — it activates AMPK and is the non-GLP-1 metabolic compound for users who want a parallel pathway running.
The Phase 2 stack — Weeks 5-10
| Compound | Dose | Route | Frequency | Evidence Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retatrutide (continuing from Phase 1) | Per Phase 1 escalation — hold or step up based on tolerance | SubQ, abdomen | Weekly (practitioner debate: some run microdose daily) | 🔵 Clinical | Escalate only if tolerance is clean. Corpus: biggest mistake is escalating into nausea instead of holding. |
| CJC-1295 (no DAC / Mod GRF 1-29) | 100 mcg | SubQ | Nightly, before bed, 2+ hours after last meal | 🟢 Expert | Pairs with Ipamorelin in same shot. |
| Ipamorelin | 100–200 mcg | SubQ | Nightly, before bed, fasted | 🟢 Expert | Stacks with natural sleep-time GH surge. No cortisol/prolactin spillover. |
| 5-Amino-1MQ | 50–100 mg | Oral capsule | Daily, fasted AM (pre-workout on training days) | 🟢 Expert | Hunger suppression + NAD+ amplification. Best taken before fasted morning training. |
| MOTS-c (optional parallel metabolic lane) | 5 mg | SubQ, abdomen | 3x/week | 🟣 Experimental | 12–16 week cycle. Add only if recomposition is stalling at Week 6-7. |
| Tesamorelin (alternative GH-axis path if visceral fat is the primary target) | 1 mg | SubQ, evening | Daily, 5 days on / 2 off | 🔵 Clinical | Choose Tesamorelin OR CJC/Ipa — do not stack both GHRH analogs. 8–10 week cycle then break. |
| BPC-157 (foundational, continuing) | 250–500 mcg | SubQ, abdomen | Daily | 🟢 Expert | Continues from Phase 1 — gut and connective tissue integrity under the metabolic load. |
The injection logistics matter more in Phase 2 than they did in Phase 1, because you now have multiple compounds firing into the same abdominal real estate. The practitioner corpus is unambiguous: rotate clockwise around the navel, stay at least 2 inches from the previous site, and never inject through scar tissue or hardened spots. Different compounds get different syringes — do not mix CJC/Ipa with retatrutide in the same draw. The exception the corpus allows is CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin combined in one nightly shot, which is the standard practitioner approach.
The week, repeating
A representative training week, Weeks 5-10:
- AM (fasted, on waking): 5-Amino-1MQ oral. Coffee. Train if it's a training day.
- AM (one specific day/week): Retatrutide SubQ — abdomen, rotate sites week to week. Most practitioners pick the same day every week (Sunday or Monday) so the peak/trough cycle is predictable.
- AM or anytime: BPC-157 SubQ — abdomen, rotate within the rotation pattern.
- MWF or TTS: MOTS-c SubQ — 3 fixed days, abdomen, only if you've added the mitochondrial lane.
- PM (90 min before bed, 2+ hours fasted): CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin combined SubQ — abdomen or thigh. This is the lever that protects lean mass.
Training rule the corpus repeats: GH-axis injection is after training, not before. The nighttime fasted window is the GH-pulse window — front-loading it with a pre-workout dose flattens the pulse against your natural rhythm and you lose the synergy with slow-wave sleep.
What you should feel — week by week
- Week 5: First nights on CJC/Ipa — tingling at the injection site, sometimes a flush. Sleep depth changes noticeably within 3–5 nights. Some users report vivid dreams (slow-wave sleep extension).
- Week 6: Recomposition signal starts to show — same scale weight, but waist and abdominal pinch decreasing. Skin tone often improves. This is IGF-1 doing its work.
- Week 7: Strength preservation becomes obvious. Workouts that should have degraded under continued caloric deficit hold or improve. This is the entire point of Phase 2.
- Week 8: Visceral fat — measurable on DEXA, visible in the morning waist measurement — drops faster than scale weight suggests.
- Weeks 9–10: Body recomposition lock-in. Lean mass holds, fat continues to clear, GLP-1 demand on appetite is lower than it was in Phase 1 (you've recalibrated set point).
What's NOT happening yet
- You are not "bulking." GH-axis stacking on a caloric deficit preserves and slowly rebuilds — it does not pack on mass. If you wanted hypertrophy, you'd be on a different path with different caloric inputs.
- You are not getting linear scale-weight drops. The scale will stall or even tick up briefly around Week 6–7 as water and glycogen redistribute under the GH signal. Waist measurement and morning fasted photos are the truer instruments.
- You are not done with retatrutide escalation if you started it. The corpus is explicit: escalate only when tolerance is clean. Phase 2 is not a forced step-up window. Hold the dose that's working.
- You are not running CJC/Ipa AND Tesamorelin together. Pick one GH-axis lane. Stacking two GHRH analogs is a corpus-flagged mistake — diminishing returns, increased side-effect surface.
- You are not feeling the full IGF-1 effect inside two weeks. GH-axis lean-tissue effects compound. Week 8 looks meaningfully different from Week 5.
Research describes the GLP-1 + GH-axis layered recomposition as a known protocol shape. Track waist, lean mass, IGF-1, and fasting glucose. Adjust.