Hwy
@vancitybb - don't this as an attack on you as it isn't but if you don't have the ability to push more food, and your goal is to put on muscle and keep it, I would get this sorted before I was adding in PED's. This isn't the conservative side of me, this is the side that says unless you are competing, are sick and can't eat, or something is causing a problem - see your doctor/a legit nutritionist who understands strongmen and bodybuilding and explain your goals and the need for nutrients and calories.
Off topic a little, but I tried MK677 years ago a few times and gave it a long enough run to realize, I wasn't gaining any muscle (no bloods on either of three main brands I tried to check my IGF as there is evidence it does increase IGF as much a low dose of HGH), it didn't help with my sleep, recovery, and I only found it acted like an excellent relaxation medication. That is what I got out of it.
Anyway, others love the stuff but the only thing it did was make me more chill, which I don't need, and increased my BP and that was on 3 - 60 days trials (can't recall the dosage but it was the standard at the time).
Eating is the most important factor - how much, how little, what you eat or as important as sleep, and of course none of this will do much without some exercise but I suspect that is a given. I consider it number 1 for me. I am not competing and can put away a few 1000 cals in a meal if I want to so if I wanted to, number of cals is not an issue. I get up at 4 - eat at 5 AM after I have time to relax and drink coffee and get ready for the day's work. I eat a last meal before I call it a night and as much as I would prefer a healthy smoothie - it would have me up all night urinating sacrificing sleep that I need to recover. I try to eat 6 real meals a day and some are small as I am not trying to push more food.
Before I add in a drug to increase appetite:
1. I would cut most of my drinking from all meals - nothing wrong with a few mouthfuls of H20, but otherwise, leave it for the hours between meals.
2. If you aren't make it a priority to prepare meals ahead of time so you can make a healthy, calorie high, macro/nutrient dense meal in a short amount of time so you can work, live, and don't spend your day in the kitchen. If you want suggestions - happy to do so.
3. There are specific foods that are high in protein and calories that are excellent addition - eat more of them.
I am not an advocate of mass gainer drinks full of crap calories, but I do have whey protein and am the first to admit I wish I didn't, but with my work/life schedule, I need to use it to make sure I provide my body with what is required to repair hence I use it in my smoothie. There are items you can add to your smoothies, that you won't taste, are extremely healthy for you, and will add 100's of cals to each one.
4. Doing the prep work - means you can guarantee 6 meals a day or even 7, maybe one is just a snack but a snack can be 500-600 cals and take 3 minutes to eat if you eat the right food.
5. If you are stuck with a pharmaceutical solution because you simply can't eat anymore, which is the hardest part of putting on size (working out is short and 4 days a week for most / maybe an hour or two each workout session, increasing the amount of PED's will give you short term gains, but you will not keep them unless you have increased your cals to match the extra ability to grow so you put on lean muscle and then when you PCT or go back to TRT - hopefully you keep 80-90% (keeping the same healthy diet - of what you added once the water weight disappears.). One medication is used both in the human and veterinarian world for people who can't eat enough and it is not addictive, not harsh on the body, and the only downside if you only take small dosages is it makes you sleep like a baby. (If you are on medication - talk to your doctor as too many medications that impact your serotonin and other mood altering drugs can be a problem).
Remeron/Mirtazapine - is the go to from doctors for people who complain of not being able to sleep. In high doses, it is an anti-depressant but the sleep dosage is 7.5 mg at night. No question, it makes you hungry as I wake up wanting to eat 4-5 hours after I took it. Easy to get of the drug, albeit you may have rebound insomnia. I cut it down to 3.75 mg for 3 days and stopped and had 2 days of shitty sleep but it went back to normal.
I took it for sleep - not to eat more.
Just suggestions but would not add MK677 to increase your ability to eat.
Do you know your maintenance calories - non PED? If you do, slowly increasing the amount over your maintenance with progressive overload - pretty much impossible not to put on size.
How many times do you eat a day?
Steak is hard to beat for calories / protein, liver is up there if you like it, the right nuts are an excellent source of healthy fats and are an extremely dense calorie/good snack to have between meals.
For heart health and for overall health, EVOO is great to add in a couple times day - a tablespoon of the high quality will give you approx. 120 cals.
There are some people here you can hire who have forgot more than most know about diet and how to create one for you to achieve your goals.
@Funnyman is a wealth of knowledge as well as many other members who are kind with helping out. If it was me and my diet was hitting a wall, I would reach out to Funnyman and ask his opinion. He is a paid coach, but for what you get - the money is pennies compared to the return.
Wishing you the best luck - suspect you are explaining a problem many have when bulking and good for you for looking at diet vs. just increasing steroids.
I see no need to take insulin - I don't even like talking about it, unless you are competing, have a buddy system and get advise from experienced users.
Apologies, as this isn't really an experience scenario, just an opinion.
If digestion becomes an issue, I know people like to take betaine HCL and digestive enzymes. I don't personally know of a more ''natural'' supplement that will stimulate your hunger like MK677. I know Tresiba/Lantus (slin) definitely stimulates mine lol.
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