LGD-4033 vs RAD-140
Both are unapproved and prohibited in sport at all times. The only real difference between them is how much has actually been measured, and in whom.
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 reviewRAD-140
Testolone, RAD140
One human trial exists and it was an oncology phase 1 — there is no trial of RAD-140 for muscle building in anyone, while the cholestatic liver injury is a matter of published record.
Full RAD-140 evidence reviewSide by side
| LGD-4033 | RAD-140 | |
|---|---|---|
| Marketed for | Oral muscle building without steroids | Muscle gain, strength, 'steroid alternative' |
| Evidence grade | Clinical data | Preclinical / minimal |
| Family | Hormonal | Hormonal |
| Key human source | Basaria phase 1 RCT, J Gerontol A 2013 | First-in-human phase 1, Clin Breast Cancer 2022 |
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
Neither is approved anywhere and both are named on the WADA Prohibited List under S1.2, prohibited at all times. LGD-4033 has actual numbers: a 21-day placebo-controlled phase 1 in 76 healthy men where 1.0 mg daily added 1.21 kg of lean body mass (p = .047) while leg press strength did not separate from placebo, HDL cholesterol fell about 39%, and total testosterone and SHBG were suppressed dose-dependently. RAD-140 has been given to humans in exactly one registered trial — a phase 1 oncology study in 22 postmenopausal women with metastatic breast cancer — and there is no trial of RAD-140 for muscle building in anyone; what is documented in people is hepatic, with AST elevated in 59.1% and ALT in 45.5% of patients in that trial and at least eight published case reports of cholestatic drug-induced liver injury. Read that as a gap in measurement rather than a ranking: being better studied is not the same as being safer, and in a chemical analysis of 44 products sold online as SARMs only 52% contained a SARM at all.
LGD-4033 fits if
LGD-4033 is the page to read if your question is what an androgen-receptor modulator measurably does to a healthy body over three weeks, because it is the only consumer-available one that has been put through a trial designed to find out.
RAD-140 fits if
RAD-140 is the page to read if your question is how a reputation gets built with no efficacy data underneath it — the anabolic case is inferred from rodents while the liver injury is a matter of published record.