Episode #117: Peptides & What You Should Know Before Taking Them.
Peptides have absolutely exploded.
You hear about BPC-157 for injuries. TB-500 for recovery. Growth hormone secretagogues for muscle, sleep, recovery and fat loss. There are tanning peptides. There are GLP-1s. There’s seemingly a peptide being promoted for damn near every problem somebody could have.
And I think the hype has gotten way ahead of where the evidence actually is.
Before somebody hears that and assumes I'm anti-peptide, I'm not.
I genuinely don't care what somebody chooses to put in their body. I have friends who take steroids. I have friends who are natural bodybuilders. I have friends who take peptides and think they're amazing.
If something is safe, proven effective, and can meaningfully improve my results, I'll use it.
My issue is that when I look at a lot of the peptides being promoted right now, I don't think we have enough evidence to make the claims people are making about them. And with some of these compounds, we're talking about people injecting something into their bodies that they bought online because somebody on Instagram or TikTok told them it worked.
That's worth having a deeper conversation about.
In this episode, I wanted to look at the research, talk through what we actually know, give you five questions to ask before considering any peptide, and then spend some time on GLP-1s because I think they deserve their own conversation.
Key Takeaways
1. Most of the fundamentals still matter far more. Training, protein, calories, sleep and recovery are doing the heavy lifting. Cody describes most lifestyle peptides as potentially being a small “magnifier” on top of those behaviors.
2. “There’s a study” doesn’t tell you enough. You need to know whether that evidence came from healthy humans, animals, diseased populations, or preclinical models and whether the outcome being measured even matches your goal.
3. Sourcing matters. A lot. Many of the peptides people are buying online are sold as research chemicals rather than approved products for human consumption, which raises obvious questions about purity, dosing and manufacturing.
4. GLP-1s are a different conversation. There are situations where I believe medical intervention for weight loss makes sense, but taking one still doesn't build the habits, training and nutrition needed to maintain results long-term.
Nothing You Inject Can Do the Work for You
This is probably the most predictable thing I could say on a podcast called Choose Hard, but you still have to do the work.
There is no peptide that's going to replace training hard.
There is no steroid that replaces training hard.
There is no injection that allows you to completely ignore your nutrition, sleep like shit, barely move and somehow build the physique you want.
If you're looking at peptides because you've spent years training intelligently, eating appropriately, recovering well and doing everything else correctly, I can at least understand the conversation.
If you're looking at them because you're hoping to bypass those things, you're putting your attention in the wrong place.
I look at most of these compounds as something closer to the final 1%.
Maybe something can improve recovery slightly. Maybe there's a specific application where it provides some benefit.
But if your training doesn't have progressive overload, you're not eating enough protein, your calories aren't appropriate for your goal and you're sleeping five hours a night, that tiny potential improvement isn't going to rescue you.
Fix the big rocks first.
The Research Isn't As Simple As Instagram Makes It Sound
This is where the peptide conversation gets messy.
Someone finds a study showing that a compound did something interesting and suddenly the internet turns that into:
This peptide heals injuries.
Or:
This peptide burns fat.
Or:
This peptide builds muscle.
Okay. Slow down.
Who was studied?
What was the compound originally being investigated for?
Was the study done in humans?
Were those humans healthy?
Was it an animal model?
What dosage was used?
What outcome did researchers actually measure?
Because those details can completely change what the study means.
BPC-157 is a great example from the episode. There is interesting preclinical evidence surrounding tissue and gastric healing, which is a big reason people have become excited about it. But Cody points out that the evidence in healthy humans is nowhere near as developed as the popularity of the compound might make you believe.
And research takes time.
You don't conduct a legitimate human trial over a weekend. You recruit participants, run the intervention for weeks or months, analyze the data, go through review and eventually publish.
Meanwhile, social media moves at a million miles an hour.
A compound can become massively popular before good human research has had enough time to catch up. Cody specifically calls attention to this gap between peptide popularity and the amount of human trial data available.
That doesn't automatically mean the compound is useless.
It means we should be more careful about how confidently we're talking about it.
Be Careful With the Rat Study Trap
Animal research has value.
We use animal studies for a reason, and there are biological pathways that translate reasonably well between mammals.
But you can't take every outcome in a rat and assume the exact same thing is going to happen in a healthy human trying to get leaner or build more muscle.
Sometimes the population being studied is also completely different from the person buying the peptide.
Maybe researchers are studying diseased animals.
Maybe they're studying an injured population.
Maybe the compound was developed around a particular medical condition.
Then somebody takes that mechanism, extrapolates it five steps further, and starts selling it to a healthy 32-year-old who wants abs.
That's where I start getting skeptical.
The question shouldn't just be, “Does this peptide do something?”
Almost everything does something.
I want to know whether it produces a meaningful outcome for the specific reason you're considering taking it.
Five Questions I Would Ask Before Taking Any Peptide
If you're seriously considering this stuff, I wouldn't start by asking which peptide you should take.
I'd run the decision through a filter first.
1. Where Is It Coming From and How Pure Is It?
This might be the biggest issue nobody wants to talk about.
A lot of lifestyle peptides are purchased online through companies selling them under labels like “for research purposes only” or “not for human consumption.”
Think about what you're doing for a second.
You're putting a substance into your body.
You should probably know what's actually in it.
Cody raises concerns in the episode about inaccurate dosing, contamination, sterility and even whether the product contains what the label says it contains when you're dealing with unregulated sources.
You could theoretically use something from a questionable source for years without having an obvious problem.
That still doesn't make the source trustworthy.
2. Do You Have Professional Oversight?
Reading a Reddit thread doesn't count.
Watching somebody talk about their experience on TikTok doesn't count.
Listening to this podcast doesn't count either.
If I tell you I've seen somebody use BPC-157 and have a great experience, that's one person's experience. You don't suddenly have a green light to go order it online and start injecting yourself.
Ideally, you're having this conversation with an actual licensed physician who understands what you're considering, your health history and the compound itself.
A coach can help you understand research, training and nutrition, but a coach isn't a doctor and shouldn't pretend to be one. Cody makes that distinction explicitly in the episode and recommends seeking qualified medical oversight rather than self-prescribing from information found online.
That seems obvious.
Apparently it isn't.
3. Is There Actual Human Evidence for What You're Trying to Accomplish?
This is where I'd really start digging.
Don't stop at:
“I found a study.”
Cool.
Was it a randomized human trial?
Was it done in rats?
Was it done on somebody with a specific disease?
Did researchers measure the outcome you're actually trying to achieve?
Because if your goal is to lose 10 pounds of body fat and the research was conducted on injured rats to investigate tissue repair, we've got a pretty massive gap between what the study says and what you're hoping will happen.
Some peptides have significantly better evidence than others. That's exactly why I don't think making one blanket statement about every peptide is particularly useful.
Evaluate the actual compound and the actual evidence.
4. What's the Real ROI?
This is one I don't hear people talk about nearly enough.
Forget the science for a second.
How annoying is this going to be?
How much does it cost?
How frequently do you have to take it?
How much benefit are you realistically expecting?
People underestimate the lifestyle friction involved with something that may require frequent injections. I know what that's like because I have to manage TRT, and even doing that three times per week gets annoying.
Now imagine paying hundreds of dollars every month and injecting something every day to potentially get a marginal improvement.
You better have a pretty damn good reason.
Run the best-case scenario.
If everything goes perfectly, what do you actually get from this?
Then compare that against the money, time, inconvenience and potential side effects.
That's your ROI.
5. Are You Actually a Candidate?
This is probably the question that eliminates most people.
Why do you need it?
Seriously.
Do you have an injury?
Do you have a medical condition?
Are you dealing with obesity where medical intervention could meaningfully improve your health?
Or are you already relatively healthy and looking for something that'll help you drop another four pounds or squeeze out slightly more muscle?
Those aren't remotely the same scenario.
There are people for whom certain peptides or peptide-based medications can have legitimate applications.
That doesn't mean every healthy person who wants better gym results suddenly needs to start experimenting with them.
Before adding another drug, injection, supplement or biohack, ask yourself whether you have an actual problem requiring that intervention.
BPC-157 and TB-500: Promising Doesn't Mean Proven
BPC-157 is probably one of the peptides I find more interesting.
It's commonly discussed alongside TB-500—the combination people sometimes refer to as the “Wolverine stack”—particularly in conversations around injury and tissue recovery.
I've seen anecdotal experiences where people swear by BPC-157.
I've also seen people use it and notice absolutely nothing.
There could very well be something there.
But again, that's why we need to separate promising from proven.
Cody discusses reviews finding interesting preclinical results around BPC-157 while also emphasizing the lack of comprehensive human clinical trials. And when you start dealing with compounds that influence tissue remodeling and blood vessel growth, blindly assuming more is better becomes an especially bad idea.
We need better human data.
Until we have it, I'd rather admit what we don't know than pretend the science is settled because the compound is popular.
Then we have peptides being used for completely different reasons.
This part of the peptide world gets even weirder.
A compound shows some effect in an animal study, and somebody finds a way to market that effect toward fat loss, muscle gain or appearance.
Cody uses melanotan/MT-2 as one example in the episode. He discusses animal research where weight loss occurred alongside severe suppression of food intake and nausea, while also covering significant safety concerns associated with human use.
If the reason an animal lost weight is because the compound made it too sick to eat, I'm probably not putting that one at the top of my fat-loss protocol.
That's why reading past the headline matters.
GLP-1s Deserve Their Own Conversation
GLP-1s are where I'm much more willing to acknowledge a legitimate use case.
If somebody needs medical intervention to lose a significant amount of body fat and improve their health, I think there are scenarios where using a GLP-1 under appropriate medical supervision can make sense.
The context matters.
If somebody has 50, 80 or 100 pounds to lose and this helps them finally create enough momentum to improve their health, I'm not going to sit here and tell them they're somehow morally superior for refusing medical help.
But I'd still want a plan surrounding the medication.
You need resistance training.
You need adequate protein.
You need to learn how to eat.
You need habits that can survive after the drug isn't doing all of the appetite regulation for you.
Because losing weight doesn't automatically teach you how to maintain weight loss.
I want to make this distinction: GLP-1s may make sense for someone who genuinely needs medical assistance, particularly with proper support, but they don't develop the habits and discipline needed to sustain the result afterward.
The GLP-1 Muscle-Loss Conversation Matters Too
There's another piece of the GLP-1 conversation that deserves attention: what happens to lean tissue while somebody is losing weight.
Any aggressive calorie deficit creates some risk of losing lean mass.
That's already something I pay attention to with coaching clients, which is why resistance training and adequate protein matter so much during a fat-loss phase.
In the research Cody discusses in this episode, he raises concern that GLP-1-assisted weight loss may increase the amount of lean tissue lost, particularly when people aren't resistance training or prioritizing nutrition.
That doesn't mean somebody who medically needs a GLP-1 should immediately stop taking it.
It means the rest of the program becomes incredibly important.
If you're losing a substantial amount of weight, I want you lifting.
I want you eating enough protein.
I want somebody monitoring the process.
And I want the goal to be improving your health and body composition instead of blindly celebrating every pound that disappears from the scale.
Because we care about what you're losing too.
I'm Not Trying to Talk You Out of Peptides
That's really the point of this entire conversation.
I'm not trying to scare everybody away from peptides.
I'm also not going to hype them because they're popular.
I want you to think harder before using them.
Look at the research.
Look at the population being studied.
Look at the source.
Look at the potential side effects.
Talk to somebody qualified.
Calculate the actual ROI.
Then ask whether you've already handled the things that have decades of evidence behind them.
Are you training consistently?
Are you progressing your lifts?
Are you eating enough protein?
Are your calories aligned with your goal?
Are you sleeping enough?
Are you recovering?
If those things aren't in place, I wouldn't spend hundreds of dollars trying to optimize the final 1%.
I'd go master the other 99%.
And if you eventually reach the point where you've handled all of that and there's a legitimate, evidence-supported reason to consider something else, have that conversation with a qualified medical professional.
Just don't confuse hype with evidence, because your health deserves a higher standard than that.