LGD-4033 vs Ostarine
The two SARMs with genuine human trials, asking different questions: three weeks of dosing in healthy men, against two completed phase 3 programmes in patients.
LGD-4033
Ligandrol, VK5211, Anabolicum
The best-studied consumer SARM, and the data says what buyers don't expect: +1.21 kg lean mass in 21 days with no strength gain, alongside a 39% HDL drop and dose-dependent testosterone suppression.
Full LGD-4033 evidence reviewOstarine
Enobosarm, MK-2866, GTx-024
Reliably adds lean body mass and just as reliably fails to improve physical function — the two phase 3 POWER trials found both, which is why no regulator has ever approved it.
Full Ostarine evidence reviewSide by side
| LGD-4033 | Ostarine | |
|---|---|---|
| Marketed for | Oral muscle building without steroids | Muscle growth, recomposition, muscle preservation while cutting or on a GLP-1 |
| Evidence grade | Clinical data | Clinical data |
| Family | Hormonal | Hormonal |
| Key human source | Basaria phase 1 RCT, J Gerontol A 2013 | POWER phase 3 programme, Lancet Oncol 2013 |
marks a row where the two differ. Evidence grades come from our evidence matrix, which grades each molecule on the human data for the use it is marketed for.
Our verdict
Both are unapproved, no regulator has ever approved any SARM for anything, and both are prohibited in sport at all times. LGD-4033's evidence is a 21-day phase 1 in 76 healthy men — 1.21 kg of lean body mass at 1.0 mg with no significant strength gain, HDL down about 39%, testosterone and SHBG suppressed — plus one phase 2 in 108 hip-fracture patients that reported a DXA lean-mass number and no functional outcome whatsoever. Ostarine (enobosarm) went much further and produced the result that defines the class: across POWER 1 and POWER 2, 651 lung-cancer patients, it beat placebo on lean body mass in both trials and on physical function in neither, with the drug arm in POWER 2 scoring 19.5% against its own placebo's 24.8%. The two have never been compared with each other, and both point at the same finding from different distances — the scanner registers more tissue and the person does not perform better.
LGD-4033 fits if
LGD-4033 is the relevant read if you want to see what happens hormonally to a healthy young man given a SARM under controlled conditions, at the only dose and duration anyone has formally measured.
Ostarine fits if
Ostarine is the relevant read if you want the phase 3 answer — the compound taken furthest through clinical development, and the trials that show why preserved lean mass is not the same as a person functioning better.