AOD-9604 Dosage: What the Studies Actually Used (2026)

Here's the short answer. In human studies, AOD-9604 was tested at about 0.25 mg to 1 mg per day, and most protocols circulating online use roughly 300 mcg a day by injection. Those numbers come from research, not from an approved product. pru doesn't currently offer AOD-9604. This page walks through the doses studies used, how the powder is reconstituted and mixed, timing, and the prescription weight-loss route pru does offer.

AOD-9604 dosage at a glance

AOD-9604 is a lab-made fragment of human growth hormone. Human obesity trials tested it at 0.25 mg to 1 mg per day. The dose you see repeated in online protocols is about 300 mcg (0.3 mg) once daily, given as a small subcutaneous injection. There's no official dosing label, because AOD-9604 was never approved as a drug for weight loss.

Want the wider picture on this peptide first? Start with the AOD-9604 guide, or see how it stacks up in best peptides for weight loss. For what pru actually offers, visit weight loss and metabolism.

What doses did AOD-9604 studies use?

Human trials used a daily dose between 0.25 mg and 1 mg. AOD-9604 was developed by Metabolic Pharmaceuticals in Australia. Early phase 2 work suggested a small shift toward fat loss, but the larger, more rigorous phase 2b trial did not beat placebo, and obesity development was stopped in 2007.

So the doses people quote today sit at the low end of what was studied. The 300 mcg figure is a community protocol, not a trial-proven target for weight loss.

What AOD-9604 is and how it works

AOD-9604 is a 16-amino-acid fragment of human growth hormone, built from the tail end of the molecule (the 176-191 region) with a small tweak. The idea was to keep growth hormone's fat-releasing signal while dropping its effects on IGF-1, insulin, and blood sugar. In lab and animal studies it nudged fat cells to release stored fat and made fewer new fat cells.

That clean safety story is why interest stuck around. But a good mechanism on paper isn't the same as weight loss in people. For a peptide with a similar fat-focused pitch, compare tesamorelin vs AOD-9604.

AOD-9604 reconstitution: how the powder is mixed

AOD-9604 ships as a dry, freeze-dried powder that has to be mixed with liquid before use. The standard mixer is bacteriostatic water. The math below is the worked example most online protocols repeat for a 5 mg vial. It's here so the numbers make sense, not as a how-to endorsement.

How to measure an AOD-9604 dose

Once mixed, the dose is measured in units on an insulin syringe, not milliliters. With the 2.5 mg/mL example above, a full 1 mL syringe holds 2,500 mcg, so each unit is 25 mcg. A 300 mcg dose is 12 units. Change the water volume and every number changes with it, which is exactly why sloppy mixing leads to wrong doses.

• 1 mL of a U-100 syringe = 100 units.
• At 2.5 mg/mL, 1 unit = 25 mcg.
• 300 mcg = 12 units; 250 mcg = 10 units; 500 mcg = 20 units.
• Use more water and the same powder spreads across more units, so each unit holds less.

This is where an unregulated vial gets risky. If the label says 5 mg but the vial holds less, your measured units deliver the wrong amount without you ever knowing.

AOD-9604 timing and frequency

Most circulating protocols use AOD-9604 once a day, and often in the morning before eating. The reasoning people give is that growth hormone signaling and fat release run higher in a fasted state. This is protocol lore, not a trial-backed timing rule, since the human trials that did test it still didn't show a weight-loss benefit at the group level.

• Frequency: once daily is the common pattern.
• Timing: morning, fasted, is the usual suggestion.
• Cycle length: online plans often run several weeks to a few months.
• Evidence: none of these timing details changed the phase 2b outcome.

If you're comparing dosing styles across peptides, GLP-1 microdosing covers how frequency and small doses are handled for the medicines pru actually prescribes.

Is AOD-9604 legal, safe, or approved?

AOD-9604 is not FDA-approved as a drug for weight loss or anything else. It picked up GRAS status as a food ingredient, which is a food-safety category and is not the same as approval to treat a condition. It's also banned in sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Across six controlled trials, its safety looked similar to placebo, with no jump in IGF-1 or blood sugar.

So the safety signal is reassuring, but the approval and efficacy picture is not. A tolerable peptide that didn't beat placebo for weight loss is a weak trade if that's your goal.

Does AOD-9604 actually help weight loss?

For weight loss, the strongest human trial said no. The 24-week phase 2b study in about 536 adults found no meaningful weight difference between AOD-9604 and placebo. Earlier, smaller studies hinted at a fat-mass shift, but that didn't hold up when the trial got bigger and stricter. That gap is why AOD-9604 stayed a research peptide instead of becoming a weight-loss drug.

Compare that with today's GLP-1 medicines, where large trials show clear, measured weight change. Roughly 1 in 8 US adults have now used a GLP-1, per KFF. That's the category with real human evidence behind it, and it's the lane pru works in.

How pru handles weight-loss peptides

pru does not currently offer AOD-9604 until there is a safe pathway for physician oversight and FDA-regulated 503A pharmacies. It isn't an approved medicine, and there's no legitimate compounded-prescription version. pru is a telehealth platform for compounded peptides where a licensed physician reviews your fit and an FDA-regulated 503A pharmacy fills what's prescribed. You select what interests you; the physician confirms whether it's appropriate.

For weight loss, pru's live options are compounded semaglutide and compounded tirzepatide. Both are well-studied GLP-1 medicines backed by large human trials. Pharmacy-grade, prescribed, and filled by a licensed pharmacy, not bought from a research-vial site. If you're researching peptides because you want to get ahead of your metabolic health, that instinct is worth trusting, and pru exists to make the proactive, well-supported choice the accessible one.

That's the difference in one line: with pru there's a physician, a licensed pharmacy, and an itemized bill. With a research vial there's none of that. When you're ready to take the next step, weight loss and metabolism is where the physician-reviewed options live.

Related reading

Keep going with these guides on weight-loss peptides and the medicines pru actually offers.

• AOD-9604 guide
• Tesamorelin vs AOD-9604
• MOTS-c guide
• Best peptides for weight loss
• Semaglutide dosage
• Tirzepatide dosage
• Shop compounded semaglutide

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