Muscle and body composition
CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin
Also written CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin, CJC ipamorelin, cjc 1295 ipamorelin
CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin are two peptides usually sold together in one 10 mg vial, 5 mg each. Both make your pituitary release growth hormone, but through two different switches, which is why they are paired. People use them for recovery, sleep, body composition and fat loss. It is typically taken at night.
This is the most common pairing in the growth-hormone category, and unlike most stacks it was not invented on a forum. The two peptides push the same gland using two separate mechanisms, so together they produce a larger release than either does alone. Clinics and compounding pharmacies have prescribed the combination for years, which is why it turns up on telehealth sites rather than only on peptide shops. Nobody ever gave it a nickname, so people search for it by both compound names.
What is in it
CJC-1295
The GH amplifier
Copies the signal your brain sends to tell the pituitary to release growth hormone. It raises the size of each release rather than adding new ones.
- Dose reported in research
- 100 mcg/injection (no DAC) or 2 mg/week (DAC)
Ipamorelin
The selective GH releaser
Presses a different switch on the same gland, the one your stomach normally uses when you are empty. It is the selective one: unlike the older peptides in its family, it largely leaves cortisol and prolactin alone.
- Dose reported in research
- 200–300 mcg 1–3x/day
How it is thought to work
Your pituitary releases growth hormone in bursts rather than a steady drip, and two separate switches control those bursts. This pairing presses one each, which is the whole argument for it.
Two switches, one gland
CJC-1295 copies the signal your brain sends down to say "release now". Ipamorelin presses the other switch, the one your stomach normally uses when you have not eaten. Because they act on different receptors, pressing both produces a bigger release than pressing either twice, and that is a pharmacological argument rather than a story assembled after the fact.
Ipamorelin is the selective one. The older peptides in its family also pushed cortisol and prolactin up, which is exactly what you do not want from something taken to recover better. Ipamorelin largely leaves both alone, and that is why it displaced them.
The part that decides everything, and it is not the dose
CJC-1295 exists in two versions that behave nothing alike. With DAC, it hitches onto a protein in your blood and keeps growth hormone raised for days on end. Without DAC, often sold as mod GRF 1-29, it clears in minutes and gives you a single pulse.
Nearly every blend sold alongside ipamorelin contains the short-acting one, while a lot of the dosing advice online quotes studies that used the long one. That single mismatch is why guidance on this compound contradicts itself everywhere you look, and checking which version is in your vial resolves most of the confusion by itself.
Worth saying plainly: whether holding growth hormone up continuously is better than the pulses your body produces naturally, or worse, has not been established. The DAC version deliberately overrides a pattern that appears to matter, and nobody knows the consequence. That is a genuine unknown rather than a technicality.
Why people pair them
This is the rare stack whose rationale holds up. The two act on different receptors on the same gland, so one raises how much is released while the other adds a release, and the combined effect is larger than either alone. That is a real pharmacological argument rather than a story assembled after the fact. It is also why the pairing survived while others faded, and why compounding pharmacies formulate it as a single vial.
Straight answer
Get the DAC question straight before you read any dose.
CJC-1295 comes in two forms and they behave very differently. The version with DAC stays active for days and holds growth hormone elevated; the version without it, often sold as mod GRF 1-29, clears in minutes and produces a pulse instead. Blends sold with Ipamorelin nearly always use the no-DAC form, but plenty of pages quote a dose for one while naming the other. That single ambiguity is the main reason dosing advice for this pair contradicts itself, and it is worth checking which one your vial contains before anything else.
What people are usually trying to fix
Each of these has its own guide covering every peptide studied for it, not just these two.
Worth knowing first
- Check which CJC-1295 you have before you read any dose
- With DAC and without DAC are effectively different drugs. One holds growth hormone elevated for days, the other produces a pulse and clears in minutes. A dose copied from a forum is meaningless until you know which one is in the vial in front of you.
- The muscle-gain figures circulating for this pairing are not in the paper they cite
- The review usually credited with them reports lean-mass gains in people who are wasting or carrying a lot of extra weight, and appetite stimulation. It contains no body-composition percentage for healthy adults who train, which is the group buying this stack.
- Do not add a second ghrelin-receptor compound
- Ipamorelin, MK-677, hexarelin and GHRP-2 or GHRP-6 all press the same switch. Running two of them together is redundant on that receptor and adds appetite and side effects without adding a mechanism.
- Banned in sport, and not only in competition
- Both compounds sit on the prohibited list at all times, not just on race day. If you are tested, this pairing is not a grey area.
The evidence behind CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin
This pairing has better underlying evidence than most on the hub: both halves have been studied individually in humans, and the reason for combining them is a real mechanism rather than a story. What is missing is a study of the two together. Note also that the human CJC-1295 trial used the DAC form, while blends sold with Ipamorelin almost always contain the version without it.
Studied in people
1 of 1The only kind that directly answers whether it works in humans.Studied in animals
1 of 1Results in animals do not automatically hold in people.Questions people ask
Why are CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin taken together?
They trigger growth-hormone release through two different receptors on the pituitary. CJC-1295 increases how much comes out per release, and Ipamorelin adds a release. Because the mechanisms are separate, the combination produces more than either on its own. It is one of the few peptide pairings with a genuine mechanistic reason behind it rather than a story built afterwards.
What is the difference between CJC-1295 with DAC and without?
DAC is an attachment that makes the peptide last much longer, days rather than minutes. With DAC you get a sustained rise in growth hormone; without it, often labelled mod GRF 1-29, you get a short pulse that more closely resembles the body's own pattern. Blends paired with Ipamorelin almost always use the no-DAC version, and doses quoted for one do not transfer to the other.
Why is it taken before bed?
Your largest natural growth-hormone release happens in early deep sleep, so night dosing is intended to land alongside it rather than fight it. The same reasoning is behind the advice to avoid eating just before: a rise in blood sugar blunts growth-hormone release. Both of those are reasoned from how the hormone behaves, not from a trial of this combination.
What is in a CJC-1295 and Ipamorelin vial?
The standard blend is 5 mg of each in a 10 mg vial. You will also find them sold separately, which lets you dose them independently but means reconstituting two vials instead of one.
Is it legal?
Neither is an FDA-approved drug. Both have been prescribed through compounding pharmacies, and their compounding status has been in flux, so the position depends on where you are and how it was obtained. Both are also banned in competitive sport at all times. We do not sell them.
Which of these suits you is a different question
A stack is a guess made on your behalf by someone who has never met you. The parts of it that are actually individual, how you process a compound and which of these your genes have anything to say about, are readable, and they do not change over your lifetime.
Upload data you already have from 23andMe or AncestryDNA and we score 39 peptides against your own variants, including which ones your results give no reason to bother with.