Cardarine: Benefits, Side Effects and Dosage
Cardarine is a bodybuilding supplement that gets talked about a lot. It has a strong following due to its ability to burn fat and improve sports performance. In this article, we will be talking about what cardarine is, what benefits it offers, what side effects it can cause, and information about dosages, cycle length, stacking, and the average amount of time it takes to work.
Note: My recommended source for cardarine is Sports Technology Labs, with them producing it at over 98% purity. Use discount code: inside15 for 15% off your total order.
Is Cardarine a SARM?
Cardarine is a synthetic compound that modulates your metabolism. It is also known as GW501516. Cardarine is often referred to as a SARM, a selective androgen receptor modulator, but it is actually a PPAR-delta receptor agonist.
PPAR-Delta stands for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta. Agonists are substances that bind to the brain and mimic hormones or neurotransmitters to produce a biological response.
So, cardarine causes a biological response in the receptors of PPAR-delta. This causes your body to increase its energy expenditure, helping to boost your metabolism and burn more fat.
SARMs are selective androgen receptor modulators. They target specific androgen receptors in cells. Cardarine does not target androgen receptors, so it cannot be a SARM.
It is understandable why people get confused, as both cardarine and SARMS affect receptors in cells, and they are both used for improving athletic performance as well as burning fat. Grouping cardarine in with SARMs is clearly wrong, but as it behaves similarly to a SARM, there is no harm in doing so.
Although cardarine is not a SARM, it is still a banned substance by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). If you are participating in any sport that has drug testing, then you should avoid using cardarine, as it can be easily found in hair tests and urine tests.
Cardarine Benefits
While there are a number of benefits that are associated with cardarine, the two biggest benefits I have found are weight loss and sports performance. I have also seen evidence of cardarine helping to lower blood triglyceride levels and help to prevent diabetes, but both of these are directly linked to weight loss, which is more of an umbrella benefit.
Sports Performance
The evidence that cardarine improves sporting performance comes from a number of athletes getting caught using it. There are two reasons why athletes use it 1) to make weight for fights (boxing, wrestling, MMA, etc.) or 2) to improve their endurance performance (cycling, race walking, 800 m race).
Cardarine influences how oxygen is utilised by the body, making you more efficient and allowing you to exercise for longer and/or at a higher intensity than you would normally. As you can imagine, this is incredibly useful for athletes, as it allows them to train harder and longer and perform better.
Any sport that requires aerobic endurance could be improved by cardarine, which is why we see athletes from many different disciplines being caught with it. While there are no human studies on the effects of cardarine on endurance, there is at least one study that found improvements in the endurance of mice [1].
Perhaps the most famous athlete to have been caught using cardarine is Jarrell Miller, nicknamed “Big Baby,” who was scheduled to fight Anthony Joshua in 2019. Miller failed a second drug test a year later, demonstrating just how integral cardarine must have been to his training.
Miller was almost certainly using it to improve his stamina, but it is not inconceivable that he was also using it to drop his body fat. As a heavyweight boxer, he didn’t need to “make the weight” like a flyweight would (for example). But as a man with a high body fat percentage, it may have been advantageous to drop some body fat to help him move faster while in the ring.
He would have expected to burn more calories by training for longer and staying in the fat-burning zone for longer than normal.
This brings us to cardarine’s other main benefit, the one that has made it so famous in bodybuilding circles.
Note: Cardarine can be stacked with SARMs for better fat loss and lean muscle gains. You can find these stacks at Sports Technology Labs (use discount code inside15 for 15% off your order).
Weight Loss
Unless you are a professional athlete, the chances are that your interest in cardarine is going to be based on losing body fat. I have found cardarine to be excellent in this regard, and unlike many SARMs, cardarine has some human studies confirming a fat loss link.
A 2006 study by Sprecher et al. found that cardarine was able to improve HDL (good) cholesterol levels, reduce triglyceride levels, and improve fat utilisation [2]. Annoyingly, the study was only two weeks long and was performed on hospitalised and sedentary people. A study on active individuals that lasted for a full cycle would have been significantly more useful!
Luckily, the bodybuilding community has used cardarine long enough that we have a good idea of how effective it is as a fat burner. While cardarine may not be as effective or as popular as some of the more traditional fat burners used in bodybuilding, it is seen by many as safer and easier to use.
Cardarine works by allowing you to train harder and for longer; this allows you to stay in the fat-burning zone for longer than you would normally. Helping you to burn more calories and therefore create a larger calorie deficit.
If you don’t diet or exercise, then cardarine will not help you burn fat!
Note: Ostarine and SR-9009 are commonly stacked with cardarine to enhance fat loss.
Cardarine is not a SARM
Yes, we know that we’ve already covered this, but it is actually a benefit that cardarine is not a SARM. That’s because many SARMs (though not all) tend to suppress your hormones, meaning you need to follow a PCT cycle afterwards.
Cardarine Benefits: Final Thoughts
Cardarine should mostly be thought of as a supplement that helps to improve your stamina and endurance. However, thanks to this, it can also help you burn more calories during a workout, and when combined with a calorie-deficit diet, it can lead to substantial weight loss. The ability to reduce triglycerides in the blood and improve your cholesterol should also be noted.
At the moment, there is a lack of human studies into the effects of cardarine, particularly over the long term. Many people use cardarine for weeks or even months at a time. So a study that lasted longer than a couple of weeks would be helpful.
Cardarine Side Effects
The most talked about side effect of cardarine is that very high doses cause cancer in mice. This is one of the main reasons why it is not deemed safe for humans. However, the dosages used in mice were significantly higher than those typically used by bodybuilders. Thus, I am skeptical regarding the actual carcinogenic risk as portrayed in this study.
Cardarine may cause liver issues, though this is only likely to affect people who have livers that are already in bad health. If you have had liver problems in the past, then you should probably avoid cardarine.
There is also some evidence that cardarine can affect your sleep quality. This is one reason why many people take it first thing in the morning rather than at night.
Note: If the side effects of cardarine are offputting, users can take a cardarine alternative, such as C-DINE 501516, which poses no side effects.
Is Cardarine Safe?
In the previous section, we looked at the three main side effects of cardarine: cancer, liver toxicity, and insomnia. When laid out like that, it does sound pretty scary. But this is not a fair representation of cardarine’s risk/reward ratio.
The risk of cancer is low, unless you are taking ridiculously high dosages (something that is true of any drug or PED). Liver toxicity is a risk for people with poorly functioning livers and for people who use it too often or for too long.
Insomnia is a risk for anyone, but it can be avoided by taking your cardarine early in the morning rather than late at night.
That doesn’t mean that cardarine is not without some risks, though. It really should be emphasized that cardarine has not been studied enough in humans. Particularly not over long periods of time. There could be side effects that we don’t know about yet.
Anecdotally, I have not found or heard of cardarine’s side effects being dangerous, but that doesn’t mean that is the established truth. What I and clinical studies (and bodybuilders) have found is that if you stick to sensible doses of cardarine and don’t have any pre-existing health problems, you are unlikely to notice any side effects.
Cardarine Dosage
From my own experience and the bodybuilders I have spoken to, 20 mg appears to be the ideal cardarine dosage, but people who are new to cardarine may want to start with 10 mg and work their way up over time. The best way to take Cardarine is in a full 20 mg dose; there is no need to split the dosage into two.
The cycle for cardarine can be anywhere from 1–3 months. While it isn’t particularly dangerous to extend this cycle past the 12-week mark, I have found that results begin to taper off after this period. This is due to your body building up a tolerance.
After your cycle, you want at least a month off; this will help your tolerance drop back down again. Some people have found that they don’t even need a full month for their tolerance to reset, but you will have to find what works for you.
Cardarine Stacks
The most well-known SARM to stack with cardarine is ostarine. A typical protocol is to take 15 mg of ostarine and 10 mg of cardarine. I have found this duo excellent for cutting fat and maintaining muscle mass, and you can avoid drops in performance thanks to the cardarine.
However, as ostarine is a SARM, you may have to deal with a bit of testosterone suppression afterwards. Ostarine is not harsh at all for this compared to other SARMs, but it is still worth consideration. One thing to note is that ostarine, like cardarine, can be damaging to unhealthy livers. So really avoid this stack if you have ever had liver issues in the past.
Note: If a user wants to build muscle, cardarine can be successfully stacked with RAD 140 or S4.
How Long Does Cardarine Take to Work?
Unlike many performance enhancers, cardarine takes very little time before you start to notice results. That’s because endurance performance can be measured quickly. Many people who use cardarine have reported that they saw results within the first 48 hours. This also fits my experience.
If you are taking cardarine to see fat loss results, then this should take the normal length of time (around 12 weeks to notice a difference). This would need to include diet and exercise changes too, by the way!
If you are looking for endurance improvements, then a couple of days is all that you need.
Final Thoughts on Cardarine
Cardarine is a really interesting performance enhancer, with it gaining many fans in the fitness world. Its ability to improve your endurance and stamina is unquestioned. But its use as a weight loss aid is a little more controversial.
If you are looking to lose weight, then your best bet would be to take it alongside ostarine (see the section ‘cardarine stacks’ for more information). This will give you the best of both worlds. Increased fat burning without the drop in performance that is usually accompanied by it.
Cardarine needs more research into its long-term effects before we can describe it as completely safe. But it is one of the few performance enhancers where there aren’t any obvious side effects. Obviously, if you take too much, you are risking cancer or hepatitis, but that is true of any drug.
Unlike most SARMS, there aren’t any noticeable side effects such as tingling in the fingers, headaches, nausea, etc. So, cardarine is a good introduction to this world, as you are basically dipping your toe into the water.
Follow the dosage instructions, only purchase from reputable sellers, be disciplined and consistent with your cycle length, and combine it with a good exercise and diet program. You can expect to see substantially better workout performance within a couple of days.
Note: If you are in the UK, I recommend UKSARMS.com, and if you are in Europe I have found Biaxol.com to be the best company.
Disclaimer: Cardarine is not legal in most countries for human consumption; thus, my experience and analysis mentioned in this article are purely based on giving it to my rat. Obviously.
