A lot of big guys look good when they’re wearing a sweatshirt, but take off the top and you find that their muscles are hidden under a layer of lard! Compare that to a guy who’s not as big but who’s shredded to the bone and I’ll bet that’s the guy you want to look like.
It’s getting to that shredded condition that’s the problem for a lot of people – that’s where SARMs come in! In this article, I’ll reveal the 3 best SARMs for fat loss that won’t rob you of your hard-earned muscle mass.
TL;DR: Best SARMS for Cutting
- Andarine S4 is the best overall SARM for cutting.
- Ostarine MK 2866 is the best SARM for beginners while cutting.
- Cardarine is the best SARM for women while cutting.
Comparison of the 3 Best SARMs for Cutting
Andarine S4
Andarine S4
Andarine is considered to be the best SARM for fat loss and reducing water retention.
Ostarine MK 2866
Ostarine MK 2866
Ostarine has been shown to be extremely effective in increasing lean muscle mass and reducing body fat.
Cardarine (GW501516)
Cardarine (GW501516)
Cardarine is the best SARM for women to use while cutting and it provides a massive energy boost to help burn more calories during training.
Best SARM for Cutting – Andarine S4
Andarine S4 was originally considered to be a selective androgen receptor modulator for bulking, yet its cutting properties quickly became apparent. Anadarine was originally developed as a form of treatment for muscle-wasting diseases and it’s considered to have anabolic activity that is similar to testosterone.
Andarine enhances fat loss by decreasing lipoprotein lipase (LPL) levels while also decreasing water retention. Thankfully, it does not convert into estrogen or dihydrotestosterone and you won’t experience any bloating with its use.
It’s important to know that Andarine may lead to vision problems at a dosage higher than 50 mg per day. Specifically, it can cause yellowing of vision, but this effect is temporary and goes away once a person goes off cycle. [1]
The recommended dosage for Andarine for fat loss and cutting phases is 30-50 mg per day taken over an 8-12 week cycle.
Best SARM for Beginners – Ostarine MK 2866
Ostarine is considered to be the mildest selective androgen receptor modulator available on the market. As a result, it is usually recommended as an introductory compound for beginners and is excellent for fat loss during someone’s first cutting phase.
When cycled in conjunction with a caloric deficit, it will keep you feeling powerful and full of energy while also preserving muscle during the fat loss process. Ostarine appears to speed up the oxidation of fatty tissue while also slowing down the accumulation of fatty acids.
The generally accepted dosage for cutting for men is 25 mg per day over an 8-12 week cycle. Women should reduce the dosage to 10 mg per day. [2]
Best SARM for Women – Cardarine – GW501516
Cardarine is the best selective androgen receptor modulator on the market for women who are cutting. This SARM is a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonist (PPAR agonist) that will provide you with a massive energy boost to help you enhance fat loss.
It selectively attaches to androgen receptors in your muscle cells, leading to enhanced uptake of glucose and amino acids. This results in increased protein synthesis and retention of muscle while cutting.
An extra benefit of Cardarine is that it will increase your good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol while reducing your bad low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. [3]
While men generally take 20 mg of Cardarine per day over an 8-12 week cycle, I recommend that women cut that in half to 10 mg per day.
SARMs for Cutting
Your goal for cutting should be to reduce your body fat percentage as much as possible while limiting the loss of lean body mass. This is not an easy process as there is usually some trade-off in terms of lean muscle mass when you get ripped.
The three SARMs that we have highlighted here, however, will make use of their anabolic properties to ensure that you keep your muscle as you are getting more defined. However, in order for SARMs to be effective while cutting, it is essential to train hard consistently and diet diligently.
Mechanism of Action
SARMs are selective androgen receptor modulators. Unlike anabolic steroids, they are able to selectively attach to your cell’s androgen receptors making them extremely targeted in their mechanism of action. [4]
Different cutting SARMs have different specific mechanisms of action. Cardarine, for example, provides greater endurance and training energy to help you burn more calories while, at the same time, boosting amino acid and glucose uptake.
SARMs Powder
SARMs are available in tablet, powder, and liquid form, with the powdered version generally being the cheapest option. However, if you choose to buy your SARMs in powder form, you will have to do some extra work before you start your cycle.
You’ll have to dose them out into capsule form to ensure that you are getting the right daily dosage. That means you will need to purchase the following:
- Gelatin capsules
- A micro measuring scale
- A micro measuring scoop
Liquid SARMs
The liquid form of SARMs is the most popular because it is easier to measure out dosages. For example, if you were taking 25 mg per day, you can easily measure that in the syringe that comes with your bottle of liquid compound.
However, if you’ve got 20 mg tablets, then you will have to chop one in half every day to get your 25 mg dosage.
SARMs Cycle
SARMs cycles should last between 8 and 12 weeks. If you are a new SARMs user, start with an 8-week cycle.
If you tolerate this cycle with no problems, stretch it out to 10 weeks on your second cycle. On your third cycle, you can extend it out to 12 weeks.
Even though SARMs are much less suppressive than steroids, you should still generally follow a cycle with a 3 week PCT cycle.
SARMs Cutting Stack
To get the absolute best bang for your SARMs buck in terms of cutting, I suggest stacking the three compounds that I’ve highlighted in this article. You should only do so, however, if you have already completed a couple of cycles with stand-alone SARMs such as Ostarine or Cardarine.
Here’s an example of a SARMs stack for cutting that can be used for 8 weeks:
- Andarine – 30 mg per day – split into four equally spaced doses
- Cardarine – 20 mg per day 30 minutes before working out
- Ostarine – 25 mg per day
You should follow this stack with a 3 week PCT using 10 mg of Clomid per day.
SARMs vs Prohormones
A lot of people are confused about the difference between SARMs and prohormones. SARMs are selective androgen receptor modulators that work by selectively sending signals to muscle cells in the body to stimulate muscle growth and fat loss.
Prohormones are precursors to anabolic hormones in the body. When taken into the body, they convert into that hormone.
Many of the original prohormones that were very effective at building muscle have now been banned. The new generation of prohormones is, as a result, far milder.
Prohormones are toxic to the liver and cause a far greater degree of testosterone suppression than SARMs. [5]
SARMs vs Steroids
Steroids are synthetic copies of the male hormone testosterone. Unlike SARMs, they will invade all areas of the body and this is the main reason that they carry far greater safety risks than SARMs. [6]
Anabolic steroids are also illegal, whereas SARMs can be sold for research purposes. Steroids carry risks even when they are administered by doctors at clinical dosages.
However, the bodybuilding community generally injects themselves with steroids at much greater dosages than what is clinically recommended.
SARMs Side Effects
Though they are much safer than both SARMs and prohormones, there are some side effects with the usage of SARMs. They are an artificial chemical compound and putting any artificial chemical into your body carries some risk, regardless of what anyone tells you.
With that being said, you are not likely to experience any serious side effects with SARMs so long as you stick to the recommended dosages.
The only major side effect with SARMs that has come to light is the vision problems that occur when you take Andarine S4 at a dosage of more than 50 mg per day. People experience a yellow tinge to their sight and difficulty adjusting to light and darkness, however, this effect goes away when you go off cycle.
The other obvious side effect of SARMs is that they may cause suppression of the body’s natural production of testosterone. It should be noted that this effect is far less pronounced than if you were to use either prohormones or anabolic steroids.
SARMs PCT
Post-cycle therapy is used after a cycle of steroids, prohormones or SARMs in order to bring the body’s natural levels of testosterone back to normal after suppression. Due to SARMs suppression being nowhere near as pronounced as with steroids or prohormones, you do not have to do PCT for as long or with as strong a dosage.
Generally, a 3 week PCT with Clomid will be sufficient to bring your testosterone levels back to normal. As testosterone is a male and not a female growth hormone, women do not need to use PCT following a cycle of SARMs.
SARMs Results
Though they are not as pronounced as steroids, the results that you will get from a SARMs cycle are still pretty amazing. It is not unknown for a person to drop as much as 4-5 % body fat over a 12-week cycle.
SARMs Forum
The best thing that a person considering the use of SARMs can do is to get as educated as possible about their use. There is no better way to do that than to interact with people who are using them and there are a number of SARMs forums online to allow you to do just that.
The biggest and most popular SARMS forum is isarms. It features a steroids and SARMs information forum, a SARMs expert podcast, underground source talk and a SARMs buyer review forum.
Where to Buy SARMs (Bodybuilding)
SARMs can be legally sold, but only for research purposes. There are a number of places to buy SARMs online but you should keep in mind, however, that this is an entirely unregulated market.
The best SARMs website that you should buy your product from is Science.bio. This American company has been selling SARMs since 2013 and has excellent customer feedback.
They also provide a money-back guarantee and free shipping within the continental USA.
Take-Home Message
SARMs will get you cut faster and more safely than any other legal compound that’s out there. However, you should only consider taking them for fat loss if you have completed puberty, are training intensely and consistently, and are on a healthy, calorie-reduced diet.
I recommended that you start with Ostarine for an 8-week cycle and then switch to Anadarine for another 8 weeks. On your third cycle, give our ultimate cutting stack a try.
At the end of it, you’ll be ripped to the bone and preserve your hard-earned muscle!
Andarine S4
Andarine S4
Andarine is considered to be the best SARM for fat loss and reducing water retention.
Ostarine MK 2866
Ostarine MK 2866
Ostarine has been shown to be extremely effective in increasing lean muscle mass and reducing body fat.
Cardarine (GW501516)
Cardarine (GW501516)
Cardarine is the best SARM for women to use while cutting and it provides a massive energy boost to help burn more calories during training.
References
[1] Thevis, M., & Schänzer, W. (2010). Targeting new performance enhancing drugs in doping controls: Selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs). Spectrosc. Eur., 22, 6.
[2] Hoffmann, D. B., Komrakova, M., Pflug, S., von Oertzen, M., Saul, D., Weiser, L., … & Sehmisch, S. (2019). Evaluation of ostarine as a selective androgen receptor modulator in a rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Journal of bone and mineral metabolism, 37(2), 243-255.
[3] Chen, W., Gao, R., Xie, X., Zheng, Z., Li, H., Li, S., Dong, F., & Wang, L. (2015). A metabolomic study of the PPARδ agonist GW501516 for enhancing running endurance in Kunming mice. Scientific reports, 5, 9884. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09884
[4] Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs): USADA. (2020, July 27). Retrieved from https://www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/education/selective-androgen-receptor-modulators-sarms-prohibited-class-anabolic-agents/
[5] Ziegenfuss, T. N., Berardi, J. M., & Lowery, L. M. (2002). Effects of prohormone supplementation in humans: a review. Canadian journal of applied physiology = Revue canadienne de physiologie appliquee, 27(6), 628–646. https://doi.org/10.1139/h02-037
[6] Hartgens, F., & Kuipers, H. (2004). Effects of androgenic-anabolic steroids in athletes. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 34(8), 513–554. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200434080-00003
The author
Steve Theunissen
