Research

Hormonal

Exogenous administration of the weak androgen nandrolone decanoate (ND) to obese postmenopausal women undergoing weight loss increases lean body mass and preferentially reduces subcutaneous abdominal fat, but significantly worsens the lipid profile (increased LDL, decreased HDL).

For obese postmenopausal women, using nandrolone decanoate during weight loss can help preserve or build muscle and reduce subcutaneous belly fat. However, this comes with a significant trade-off: it worsens cholesterol levels (lowering 'good' HDL and raising 'bad' LDL). Given these cardiovascular risks, this treatment is not recommended for this population despite the body composition benefits.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
The ND group also tended to lose more body fat than the other two groups... The ND group preferentially lost SC abdominal fat... and actually gained visceral fat... ND also appears to preferentially produce a loss of SC abdominal fat VS. visceral abdominal fat... accompanied by a worsening of the serum lipid profile
Jennifer C. Lovejoy et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 1996

Why this rating

Randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial with a reasonable sample size (n=30, 27 analyzed) and long duration (9 months).

Source

Exogenous androgens influence body composition and regional body fat distribution in obese postmenopausal women--a clinical research center study.

Jennifer C. Lovejoy et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 1996

DOI 10.1210/jcem.81.6.8964851

rct · n=30Cited 203×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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