Hey everyone, if you’ve been following my peptide deep dives, you know I’m always on the lookout for real, honest data - especially from women, because the peptide and SARM space is overwhelmingly male-dominated and female-specific experiences are rare. As a founder building JustPaid.ai, I’m constantly thinking about optimization, but I’ve also learned that the best insights often come from the people around me who are willing to experiment thoughtfully and share honestly, even when the results aren’t what they hoped for.
Today I’m featuring my friend Vera, a 31-year-old based here in the Netherlands, who ran a two-month MK–677 experiment after watching a Dr. Mike Israetel video about it. She designed actual cycles, got DEXA scanned before and after, tracked her training meticulously, and came out the other side with results that are… well, let’s just say they’re the kind of data point this space desperately needs. Not the hype reel. The real thing.
Here is the video that inspired her experiment:
And because I’ve been deep in the peptide rabbit hole myself, I asked her if I could share her experience here. Because honestly? Her story is exactly the kind of real, unfiltered, no-BS data point that’s incredibly hard to find online, especially from women. The peptide and SARM space is overwhelmingly dude-dominated, and female-specific experiences are rare, messy, and often buried in Reddit threads. So here we are.
Let me introduce you to Vera. 🫶
👋 Meet the Guinea Pig: Vera, 31, Amsterdam
Strength training enthusiast with a relatively low training age, an ambitious goal of gaining 5 kg of lean mass within a year, a Crohn’s disease diagnosis (well controlled, no medication), and a social life that involves (in her words) “dancefloor steps and the ingestion of some other endogenous substances” on weekends. She’s refreshingly honest and I’m obsessed with her energy.
Wait, What Even Is MK–677?
Quick brain dump for anyone who’s new here! MK–677 (also called ibutamoren) is a growth hormone secretagogue - fancy way of saying it tells your body to produce more growth hormone (GH) and IGF–1. Unlike injectable HGH, you just take a pill or liquid once a day taken orally. It works by mimicking ghrelin (the hunger hormone), which signals your pituitary gland to release more GH in natural pulses.
The hype? Potential for lean muscle gain, better sleep, faster recovery, improved bone density, and some anti-aging perks. The catch? It’s not FDA-approved, long-term safety data is limited, and some doctors have raised concerns about insulin resistance and other side effects with extended use. It’s one of those compounds that sits in that fascinating grey zone: promising clinical research, tons of anecdotal data, but proceed with major caution.
Vera went in eyes wide open. Here’s what happened.
The Experiment Design
I genuinely love how methodical Vera was about this. She didn’t just pop some pills and hope for the best - she designed actual cycles, planned her training splits, got DEXA scans, and tracked everything. My little scientist. 🔬
Cycle 1: The Capsule Era (Nov 30 – Dec 30, 29 days)
20mg of MK–677 daily, taken orally as capsules. 4x per week hypertrophy-focused training close to failure, with a lower-upper-lower-upper training split.
Deload: The Party Phase (Dec 30 – Jan 11, 12 days)
No MK–677 doses. Focus on rest, recovery… and partying. 2x per week light full body training sessions (4 sessions total during deload).
Cycle 2: The Liquid Chapter (Jan 11 – Feb 11, 30 days)
20mg of MK–677 daily, taken orally as a liquid. Same training split, same intensity. Slightly adjusted exercise selection — she swapped in belt squats, step-ups, and narrow grip bench press.
Her training programs were thorough - we’re talking SLDLs on a belt squat machine, staggered-stance hip thrusts, cable kickbacks for glute medius, ab wheel work, tib raises… the girl was not messing around. Both cycles followed a lower-upper-lower-upper split with progressive overload built in.
Her baseline going in? A pre-cycle DEXA scan showed 45.64 kg of lean mass at a total body mass of 66.2 kg (27.5% body fat). Her ideal outcome: 0.5–1.0 kg of lean mass gain across both cycles. Ambitious but not insane.
What She Actually Felt
This is the part I find most valuable - because you can read research papers all day, but hearing what it’s actually like to live through it? That’s the stuff that matters when you’re deciding whether something is worth trying.
The Good Stuff ✨
Strength went up. Like, noticeably. Vera saw 5–10% increases on most compound lifts across the duration of the experiment. She hit personal bests she was genuinely proud of. That’s not nothing, especially for someone with a relatively new training habit.
Weekly workouts (Cycle 1):
Weekly workouts (Cycle 2):
Dreams got wild. Starting around day 4, her dreams became significantly more vivid. This is actually one of the most consistently reported effects of MK–677 - it’s thought to be related to improved deep sleep and REM enhancement. (Side note: I find this oddly appealing? Who doesn’t want blockbuster dreams?)
The Less Fun Stuff 😬
Water retention was real. From day 5, her whole body felt fuller and puffier. The scale jumped 3 kg by day 18 - way too fast to be actual tissue gain. Post-cycle, this weight dropped right back off, confirming it was mostly water. The bloat was distributed pretty evenly, so it wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely noticeable.
Morning grogginess was the worst part. As someone who’s already “very much not a morning person” (her words, my entire identity), the MK–677-induced lethargy and sleepiness, especially in the mornings, was the most disruptive side effect. By the end of cycle 2, this peaked hard. She described feeling lazy, uncomfortable, and unmotivated. She pushed through anyway because she’s a legend, but it was rough.
Hunger increased, but manageable-ish. Compared to the horror stories of people “literally chewing through their kitchen countertops,” Vera’s appetite increase was relatively mild. However, she did consume, and I quote from her notes, “most of a salami pizza directly followed by a large slice of homemade lasagna” in one sitting on a particularly peckish evening. Relatable queen.
Blood pressure ticked up slightly. She monitored this regularly (smart!) and noticed a slight increase in systolic pressure, especially during cycle 1. Other commonly reported side effects like headaches, numbness, tingling, and edema? Either very mild or not present at all.
The second cycle followed a very similar pattern of strength increase and side effects. Towards the end of cycle 2, the morning grogginess and lethargy peaked and she described it as the worst stretch of the whole experiment.
Post-cycle weight? Her body bounced from +3 kg during the cycles back to about +1.5 kg above her starting weight within a week of stopping. That meant most of the rapid weight gain was water retention. The remaining 1.5 kg made her cautiously optimistic about potential lean mass gains.
Daily log (Cycle 1):
Daily log (Cycle 2):
The Moment of Truth: DEXA Results
Okay. So. After dragging herself through the grogginess, hitting PRs, navigating Dutch DEXA scan bureaucracy (apparently you need to find a “loophole” in the system to get a non-medical scan in the Netherlands. Very on-brand for our country), Vera got her post-cycle scan done and…
Yeah. Let that sink in. Lean mass went from 45.64 to 45.65 kg. That’s essentially zero change. Meanwhile, fat mass increased by about 1.5 kg. The strength gains were real, but they didn’t translate to measurable hypertrophy within this timeframe.
“+ 1.5 kg of fat mass and no measurable increase in lean mass was of course not my desired outcome.”
— Vera, understatement champion 😅
Honestly? I have so much respect for Vera sharing these results. It would’ve been way easier to quietly shelve this experiment and never talk about it. But she didn’t, because she knows how valuable negative (or neutral) results are in a space that’s drowning in survivorship bias and bro-science success stories.
Vera’s Honest Reflections: What Went Wrong?
This is where it gets really interesting, she did a proper post-mortem. Here’s her breakdown, ranked by how much she thinks each factor impacted her results:
1. Sleep Was Suboptimal (The Big One)
She frequently got less than 7 hours during the cycles. Fitting in four workouts a week alongside a full-time job, commuting, a busy social life, and trying to avoid peak gym hours in January (if you know, you know) made sleep optimization really hard. And sleep is non-negotiable for muscle building - this was likely the biggest saboteur.
2. Diet Wasn’t Precisely Tracked
She’s confident she hit her calorie and protein targets most days, but she didn’t track precisely. That means potential under- or overestimating on some days. In a short cycle where margins are thin, consistency matters enormously.
3. The Cycles Were Probably Too Short
Research suggests MK–677’s effects peak after several weeks of consistent use, and strength gains often precede actual hypertrophy. One-month cycles might simply not be long enough to see measurable muscle growth, especially from a relatively lean starting point. The DEXA operator noted that her body may have prioritized fat storage (including visceral fat) before muscle building at her body composition.
4. Crohn’s Disease May Have Been a Factor
Even well-controlled autoimmune conditions can interfere with muscle protein synthesis due to chronic low-grade inflammation. Research indicates that people with Crohn’s often need higher protein intake (1.8–2.2g/kg) and more aggressive caloric surpluses to see real muscle gains - more than the 1.5g/kg she was consuming.
5. DEXA Measurement Sensitivity
It’s possible some changes were within the scan’s margin of error. DEXA is good, but it’s not perfect: small changes in hydration, time of day, or machine calibration can affect results.
My Take (Your Friendly Neighborhood Non-Doctor)
Okay so here’s what I think about all this, and remember, this is me processing, not prescribing. 🙃
Vera’s experiment is a really important data point, especially for women. The peptide space is so full of hype and male-dominated anecdotes that it’s easy to assume these compounds work the same way for everyone. They don’t. Female physiology, hormonal profiles, autoimmune conditions, life context - it all matters. A lot.
Her biggest lesson, and one I keep coming back to in my own optimization journey - is that no compound can outrun bad fundamentals. Sleep under 7 hours? Imprecise nutrition tracking? Short cycle length? These aren’t minor details when we’re talking about marginal gains. They’re the foundation. MK–677 isn’t going to override biology. Nothing will.
I also love her honesty about what she’d do differently: a lower dose (15mg instead of 20mg, which aligns better with female dosing research), a longer cycle (6+ weeks minimum), and running the experiment during a period where she can truly dial in sleep and diet. That kind of thoughtful iteration is exactly how you approach self-experimentation responsibly.
The fact that she got stronger but didn’t gain measurable lean mass is actually fascinating, and something that comes up in the research - strength gains can precede and exist independently of hypertrophy, especially in newer lifters. Her “training age” was relatively low, which means some of those PR bumps might have been neuromuscular adaptation rather than muscle growth.
The Bottom Line
MK–677 is not a miracle drug. (Are we sensing a theme with this blog? Nothing is a miracle drug. The miracle is doing the boring basics consistently. I will keep saying this until it’s tattooed on my forehead.)
But it’s also not useless, and I think with the right conditions (adequate sleep, precise nutrition, longer cycle, appropriate dosing), Vera’s next experiment could yield very different results. She knows that. She’s already thinking about it. Quote: “If there would be a next time. Perhaps some day, when I finally reach the raving retirement age.” Icon behavior.
If you’re considering MK–677 yourself - please do your research, chat with your healthcare provider, and understand what you’re getting into. It’s an investigational compound with real side effects and limited long-term safety data. And if you do decide to go for it, go in with Vera’s level of planning and honest self-assessment. Track everything. Get your baselines. And for the love of everything, sleep more than she did.
Thanks for letting me share your story, V. You’re the real MVP. 🧡
Got questions about Vera’s experiment? Want to share your own peptide experience? Drop me a comment — especially if you’re a woman experimenting with these compounds. We need more of these honest conversations.
Disclaimer
This is not medical advice. The content on this Substack is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions regarding your health or the use of peptides.
My experiences with peptides are personal and may not be typical. Individual results can vary widely based on personal health conditions, lifestyle, and other factors. Do not rely on my experiences as a guarantee of similar outcomes.
The information provided here does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by any regulatory authority, including the FDA or other health organizations. MK–677 (ibutamoren) is an investigational compound that has not been approved by the FDA for human use. It is banned by WADA and classified as a prohibited substance for athletes.
I am not liable for any losses, injuries, or damages arising from the use or misuse of information shared on this Substack. Readers are solely responsible for their own actions and any decisions made based on this content.
The compounds discussed are for research purposes and may not be intended for human use. Please ensure compliance with all local laws and regulations regarding the purchase, possession, and use of such substances.
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