Short answer: the RAD-140 and cardarine stack is popular for a cut or recomp, and users report fat loss with some muscle and strength kept or gained over 8 weeks. The stack itself has never been studied. RAD-140 has never been tested for muscle in people and raised liver enzymes in most patients in its only trial (LoRusso 2022); cardarine has only been tested on blood fats, and its development was stopped after cancers in long-term animal studies (GSK letter, 2013).
This page lays out what users report for each phase, what each compound is known to do, and the overlapping risks. Check any combination with the stack checker.
Dosages And Cycle Length
Evidence level: anecdotal. No study has tested RAD-140 and cardarine together, or RAD-140 for muscle in people. The doses below are what users commonly report, not a protocol.
| Commonly reported | RAD-140 | Cardarine | Length | After |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cut | 5 mg/day | 10 mg/day | 8 weeks | Users often skip PCT |
| Bulk / recomp | 10 mg/day | 10–20 mg/day | 8 weeks | SERM (Nolvadex or Clomid) |
For scale, the doses that have been studied:
- RAD-140: 50–150 mg a day in women with advanced breast cancer, the only human trial; half-life about 45 hours (LoRusso 2022). No dose has been tested for muscle.
- Cardarine: 2.5–10 mg a day for 2–12 weeks in trials of blood fats (Olson 2012). Doses above 10 mg have not been tested in people.
| Dose studied | Who took part | Duration | What the study found | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 mg/day or 10 mg/day | Healthy volunteers, hospitalized and sedentary (n=24) | 2 weeks | Placebo-controlled HDL cholesterol rose on both doses while it fell 11.5% on placebo. Triglycerides trended down, and fat from a test meal was cleared faster. The authors call it the first report of a PPARδ agonist given to humans. | PubMed 2007 |
| 10 mg/day | Moderately overweight healthy men (6 per group; a PPARα drug and placebo were the other groups) (n=18) | 2 weeks | Randomized, double-blind, three-group parallel Triglycerides fell 30%, apoB 26%, LDL 23%, insulin 11% and liver fat 20%. HDL did not change. Fat burning after a meal rose. | PubMed 2008 |
| 2.5 mg/day | Men with central obesity and abnormal blood lipids (n=13) | 6 weeks per period | Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover Triglycerides, apoB and VLDL fell. HDL cholesterol rose. | PubMed 2011 |
| 2.5, 5 or 10 mg/day | Adults with low HDL cholesterol (under 1.16 mmol/L) (n=268) | 12 weeks | Placebo-controlled HDL rose up to 16.9% (10 mg). LDL fell 7.3%, triglycerides 16.9%, apoB 14.9% and free fatty acids 19.4%. A second study (n=37) found fewer small LDL particles. | PubMed 2012 |
Sources: the studies linked in the table.
More detail: RAD-140 dosage guide and cardarine dosage.
What results should you expect
What the research can and can’t say about each part:
| Effect | RAD-140 | Cardarine |
|---|---|---|
| Muscle | Not measured in people; body weight up 10%+ in monkeys over 28 days (Miller 2011) | Not a muscle builder |
| Fat loss | Not measured in people | Not measured in people; fat burning after a meal rose and liver fat fell 20% in 2 weeks (Risérus 2008) |
| Endurance | Not studied | Mice only (Narkar 2008) |
| Blood fats | Not reported in men | Triglycerides and LDL down, HDL up |
What users report (anecdotal): on a cut, 2–3 lb of lean mass kept or gained with substantial fat loss; on a bulk, around 10 lb of weight and up to 4% body fat lost. The original author of this page reported going from about 20% to 10% body fat in 8 weeks on a cut, more pronounced vascularity, no new strength records on the cut, and gains of at least 20 lb on the big lifts during a bulk. These are personal reports without bloodwork; diet and training drive most of what changes on a cut. Reader transformations with this stack are on the RAD-140 before and after and cardarine before and after pages.
Possible side effects
Suppression
Any suppression in this stack comes from RAD-140; cardarine does not act on the androgen receptor. RAD-140 suppression has not been measured in men, but in young male monkeys 28 days cut testosterone from about 600–800 to 200–300 ng/dL (Miller 2011). Users describe lethargy, low mood and mood swings for up to a month after a cycle (anecdotal). Bloodwork is the only way to know your own levels; see the PCT and bloodwork planner.
Aggression
You can thank RAD 140 for this one. I remember doing an eight week log on RAD 140 and the irritability and aggression experienced were quite frustrating.
Irritability and aggression are common user reports with RAD-140 (anecdotal; mood was not a reported trial outcome). Users say it eases after stopping.
Liver toxicity
The bigger liver signal is RAD-140: in its trial, AST rose in 59% and ALT in 45% of patients, with serious rises in 23% (LoRusso 2022), and cholestatic liver injury has been reported in users, one case needing intensive care (case report 2026). In 2-week cardarine trials liver fat fell, but a man using cardarine with ostarine had severe liver and muscle damage (Kintz 2021). No supplement such as milk thistle has been shown to prevent SARM liver injury; a liver panel before and during use is how problems are caught.
Cancer (cardarine)
GSK’s two-year studies found tumors in many organs of rats at every dose tested, and liver and stomach cancers in mice (SOT 2009 abstracts). That is why development stopped and why WADA took the rare step of warning athletes in 2013 (WADA alert).
RAD 140 + Cardarine stack PCT
Cardarine does not need a PCT, so the question is RAD-140. Users on the lower “cut” dose often skip PCT, while those on 10 mg usually keep a SERM such as Nolvadex or Clomid ready; the author of the old version took none. None of this has been studied: RAD-140’s effect on testosterone in men is unknown, and recovery after stopping has never been measured. Read RAD-140 PCT for what is known.
Conclusion
The RAD-140 and cardarine stack pairs an untested muscle compound with a fat-metabolism drug that was abandoned over animal cancer findings. Users report fat loss with muscle kept during a cut, and some strength gains on a bulk, but there are no studies of the combination, and both parts carry liver signals. If you are weighing it, compare the evidence for each compound in the SARMs database, and see the RAD-140 stack page for other combinations.
Frequently asked questions
What results can you expect from a RAD-140 and cardarine stack?
Unknown; never studiedEvidence: User reports
There is no study of the stack; users report fat loss with 2–3 lb of muscle kept or gained on a cut. Most of the fat loss on a cut comes from the diet, and cardarine's measured effects in people are on blood fats.
What doses do people use for RAD-140 and cardarine?
No studied dose for the stackEvidence: Limited
No dose of the combination has been studied; the doses users report are anecdotal. The only RAD-140 trial used 50–150 mg a day in women with advanced breast cancer, and cardarine trials never went above 10 mg a day.
Do you need PCT after RAD-140 and cardarine?
UnknownEvidence: Animal
Cardarine does not act on testosterone. RAD-140 cut testosterone by about two-thirds in monkeys but has not been measured in men, so whether a PCT is needed is unknown; bloodwork is the only way to check.
Is the RAD-140 and cardarine stack safe for the liver?
Not shown; both have liver signalsEvidence: Human data
RAD-140 raised liver enzymes in most patients in its trial and has been linked to cholestatic liver injury. Severe liver damage was reported in a man using cardarine with ostarine.
Does cardarine cause cancer?
In rats and mice; unknown in humansEvidence: Animal
In GSK's two-year studies, rats developed tumors in many organs at every dose tested and mice developed liver and stomach cancers, which is why development stopped. Human long-term data do not exist.
Sources
- A First-in-Human Phase 1 Study of a Novel Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM), RAD140, in ER+/HER2- Metastatic Breast Cancer
- Design, Synthesis, and Preclinical Characterization of the Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM) RAD140
- Lipid effects of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-δ agonist GW501516 in subjects with low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol: characteristics of metabolic syndrome
- Activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)delta promotes reversal of multiple metabolic abnormalities, reduces oxidative stress, and increases fatty acid oxidation in moderately obese men
- AMPK and PPARdelta agonists are exercise mimetics
- Health Canada: GW501516 – Serious risks associated with use of unauthorized product (GSK letter, 24 May 2013)
- Rat carcinogenicity study with GW501516, a PPAR delta agonist (Geiger et al., abstract 895) and Mouse carcinogenicity study with GW501516, a PPAR delta agonist (Newsholme et al., abstract 896), The Toxicologist 2009
- WADA issues alert on GW501516 (21 March 2013)
- Unregulated gains: a case of RAD-140-induced liver injury
- Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Delta Agonist (PPAR- δ) and Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator (SARM) Abuse: Clinical, Analytical and Biological Data in a Case Involving a Poisonous Combination of GW1516 (Cardarine) and MK2866 (Ostarine)
