mugzy
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Introduction
This is not an all-encompassing article, but rather a collection of various tidbits of wisdom gathered from a volume of experience with the compound 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP).
DNP in recent years has been one of the more controversial drugs in the bodybuilding community. Spoken about in ominous tones of doom, it has been showcased as an extremely dangerous fat loss drug. It's history as an industrial dye and pesticide has been brandied about carelessly, and many consider it unto playing with fire.
DNP can be dangerous, of course, but using proper protocols it can be done safely by the vast majority of the populace. Some very few have reported extreme reactions, though they may be coincidental or using contanimated DNP.
The information in this article is for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to take DNP. Some of this you have likely heard before, but hopefully there are some new tidbits of useful information.
I do not have DNP, I do not sell DNP, and I will not tell you where to get DNP, don't bother asking.
General
Attempt to do some basic verification of whether you have actual DNP and the type you have before you start.
Most likely, the DNP has been cut with some other substance(s) to increase transportability and make encapsulating easier. This means it won't stain as harshly as 100% pure DNP, but the packaging and capsules should have a slight yellow tint even so.
Open up a cap and pour a little of the contents onto a paper towel. The color of the substace can vary between a pale translucent yellow to a very bright vibrant yellow. Usually, the pale yellow tends to be crystal DNP, and the darker yellow the powdered DNP, but there is pale powdered DNP as well. If it's not yellow at all, it's definitely not substantially composed of DNP.
Verify whether you have crystal or powdered DNP. The crystals in crystal DNP are often visible to the human eye, but a 5-10x magnifying glass will easily show the crystalline structure. Rubbing some in between your fingers it should feel like slightly gritty sand, with a similar mouthfeel (though it will dissolve in saliva). Powdered dnp is like powdered sugar in consistency, and will not have any visible crystals. There may however be small clumps.
If you swallow even very small amounts of DNP directly without water or a capsule, you will often find a burning sensation in your throat.
Weight loss on DNP tends to be almost entirely fat. You burn fat by oxidation, meaning you will need more oxygen than usual. Having some cardiovascular conditioning before hand can't hurt. Getting out of breath sitting around means you're hitting near your limit on DNP, be careful increasing the dosage at that point.
I would tend to advocate a 1-2 week power run of 400-600mg/day with 1-2 week breaks between runs. Others have had good luck with 200mg/day over a longer period, but some of the below advice may not be applicable to such cycles.
Realistically, you will burn between 0.5-1.5 pounds of fat a day, depending on dosage and your BF%. DNP is ideal for taking you from somewhere around 14-16% BF to somewhere around 8-12% in 1-3 cycles. Cutting on DNP past that point may be unwise or even dangerous. I would recommend taking the last 5-10 pounds off with traditional competition protocols.
Until 2-5 days (crystal) or 5-8 days (powder) after your last dose, the scale is not reliable. If you're 5 days into a cycle and you've only lost 1 pound, it's still quite possible you're on track.
Starting a cycle
Whenever trying a new batch, always start off small no matter how much experience you have. You may have misdosed DNP, contaminated DNP, or some unknown substance. I would start DNP cycles with a minimum dose about 6 hours before I went to sleep to gauge reaction.
Have a plan. You should always have a good idea of how long you're going to be on and at what dosage. You should clear your schedule as much as possible while you're on, especially for the first couple of days where you will generally feel the worst.
Due to inconsistencies by the manufacturers, it's very difficult to get 100% accurate knowledge of your actual dosage. You may think you're taking 600mg when you're only taking in 200mg, or possibly even the opposite. Again, start with the minimum dosage every single time you start a new batch and work up to tolerance.
After you have some DNP from the exact same package that you've cycled, you can start by front loading your tolerance dose plus 1-200mg with powder for 1-2 days, or just start at your tolerance dose for crystal.
Death can occur from as little as 400mg if supplementation protocols are ignored. Even with ideal supplementation in a very cold environment, I suspect the upper limits of human tolerance to be around 1200mg a day. Some few have taken dosage past this, but it's not likely they were running correctly dosed DNP. Losses do increase with dosage, but it appears to be somewhat logarithmic progression - 800mg does not produce twice the fat loss as 400mg. Most people should not bother going past 600mg, powder or crystal.
Acceptable things to mix with DNP include anabolics, low dose ECY, and low dose (~40mcg) clenbuterol. High dose ECY or clen can cause big time heat issues, don't do it. Make funeral arrangements before doing alcohol, ecstacy, or amphetamines with DNP.
Carb depletion is important, and you should do 3 days of near zero carbs before the cycle. A depletion workout may even be beneficial, but I wouldn't bother. 12 hours after your first crystal dose or 24-36 hours after your first powder dose, you can start on the carbs.
On Cycle
Note on crystal vs. powder: crystal comes on strong, maxes out 2-4 hours after ingestion, but really backs down intensity after 12 hours or so. That said, gram by gram crystal is weaker than powder overall, but you have a much higher intensity peak. Powder maxes out 6-10 hours after ingestion, and comes down a lot slower so that it's difficult to really find a peak, especially when splitting dosages. You feel more or less the same all the time on powder, while crystal has its ups and downs.
With powder DNP, dose throughout the day spaced as evenly as possible. With crystal, you can do this, but you have another option of compressing the DNP into half of the day. This allows you to get in very solid workouts in exchange for a lower maximum tolerated dose. For example, if I were to work out in the mornings, the day before my workout, I would take all my DNP for the day by 5pm or so. 12 hours later, the crystal DNP is clearing and you can get a better workout in.
Post workout, feel free to go crazy with carbs, especially if you're not doing the crystal workout trick above. I'm talking 1-300g of glucose and 50+g of protein. This will make you very hot, so be careful.
One easy way to **** things up is to not watch your electrolyte levels, especially post workout. Sweat plus lots of water intake without electrolytes means nausea, nausea means vomiting, vomiting means dehydration, dehydration on DNP means death. Pedialyte, or an endurance mix meant for marathoners/bicyclists is a great thing to sip on throughout the day.
You will want high carbs in general, no question about it. I would use a 30/20/50 p/f/c split to keep you feeling good and keep the fat coming off.
Low glycemic carbs just aren't that important, and sugar is actually your friend. Don't worry about insulin, blood sugar levels, etc. I would eat 5-6 packages of gummy candy a day and expect great results. Fruit is fantastic due to the fructose and fiber mix. Skim-2% milk is another great choice.
Caveat is that high glycemic carbs will produce a bit more intense feeling of heat, but I believe that they really make a difference in how you feel overall.
Overall calories should be around or slightly above maintenance. One huge mistake is to limit calories on DNP - it's the quickest way to feel like shit and get no better results.
Powder DNP will take around 3-4 days to really hit you. Don't start with the high carb DNP diet until day 2-3, or you'll replenish your muscle glycogen and not maximize your losses; keep carbs below 100g a day or so. Wait around 12 hours for crystal.
Lots of water is beyond mandatory. You will die if you don't hydrate. Avoid temperatures above 20 C, abstain completely from any environment above 30 C. Remember your electrolytes!
Your sleep needs will increase. 10 hours a day is not unusual. This is compounded by the need to wake up every hour or two to piss and drink. It sucks, but it needs to be done so you don't wake up dehydrated and weak.
Supplement fiber, preferably psyllium husk powder on the order of a cup or more a day in 3-4 split doses. Your stool will be extremely loose without it. Fiber supplements like benefiber are crap, you want something that solidifies and volumizes. Everything will pass quickly through you regardless, by the way.
3-5 tablespoons (15ml) of glycerine is perhaps the most essential support supplement for not feeling like crap (thirsty, tired, dehydrated). Approximately two tablespoons of LBAs in glycerine may be substituted for one tablespoon of pure glycerine.
Pyruvate (1-3g/day) is the other must have. One major reason you would use this besides feeling a little better is due to the rumored protection against the (extremely rare) eye problems caused by DNP.
Everything else suggested in the primary guides are bonuses. Hopefully, you're taking a good multivitamin already. If not, adding one and possibly supplmenting with additional Vitamin C and E may help. ALA may also help. Potassium and taurine may help with cramping or feeling "off".
Dealing with sides
Heat is unavoidable, and very dose dependant. Treat with a cold room, turn on a fan, take off clothes, rub ice on yourself, sit in a batub full of ice, ice water enema, or the ultimate hypothermic of underwater in a bathtub full of salted ice water with a salted ice water enema. Realistically, if you get past rubbing ice on yourself, you've done ****ed up and had best call some paramedics to assist you.
Loose stool is unavoidable, eating more fiber is about all you can do.
Nausea is caused by to little water, or more likely too much water/too little electrolytes - more water, or concentrated electrolytic fluids like pedialite or an endurance drink mix.
Dry mouth/throat develops if glycerine isn't applied regularly, or if you don't have enough water intake. Seems to worsen near/during sleep, even when glycerine is maintained.
Muscle soreness is caused by a lack of calories preventing recovery. Eat more, especially PWO, it won't affect your fat loss much.
Being out of breath even at rest indicates you are near your bodies fat burning capacity. Don't smoke, take it easy, sit or lie down and stay calm while breathing deeply and regularly at a moderate pace.
Rashes indicate an allergy to DNP, you may wish to discontinue use and try again unltil rash no longer develops.
Yellow body fluids sometimes happen I guess, nothing to get worked up over.
Yellow spots/issues in the eyes have been known to occur, stop immediately if you see them. No more DNP for you, ever.
Post cycle
Post cycle doesn't begin until 3 days after your last powder dose, or 1 full day after your last crystal dose. Until then, keep on doing what you've been doing on cycle. Changing your habits earlier than these timeframes is pretty much the only way to really **** up post cycle.
You can transition into a low carb diet extremely easily by eating the appropriate macro split in post cycle.
Transitioning to a regular diet isn't very difficult either. Limiting fat intake and backing off the sugars is simple and effective.
This is not an all-encompassing article, but rather a collection of various tidbits of wisdom gathered from a volume of experience with the compound 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP).
DNP in recent years has been one of the more controversial drugs in the bodybuilding community. Spoken about in ominous tones of doom, it has been showcased as an extremely dangerous fat loss drug. It's history as an industrial dye and pesticide has been brandied about carelessly, and many consider it unto playing with fire.
DNP can be dangerous, of course, but using proper protocols it can be done safely by the vast majority of the populace. Some very few have reported extreme reactions, though they may be coincidental or using contanimated DNP.
The information in this article is for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to take DNP. Some of this you have likely heard before, but hopefully there are some new tidbits of useful information.
I do not have DNP, I do not sell DNP, and I will not tell you where to get DNP, don't bother asking.
General
Attempt to do some basic verification of whether you have actual DNP and the type you have before you start.
Most likely, the DNP has been cut with some other substance(s) to increase transportability and make encapsulating easier. This means it won't stain as harshly as 100% pure DNP, but the packaging and capsules should have a slight yellow tint even so.
Open up a cap and pour a little of the contents onto a paper towel. The color of the substace can vary between a pale translucent yellow to a very bright vibrant yellow. Usually, the pale yellow tends to be crystal DNP, and the darker yellow the powdered DNP, but there is pale powdered DNP as well. If it's not yellow at all, it's definitely not substantially composed of DNP.
Verify whether you have crystal or powdered DNP. The crystals in crystal DNP are often visible to the human eye, but a 5-10x magnifying glass will easily show the crystalline structure. Rubbing some in between your fingers it should feel like slightly gritty sand, with a similar mouthfeel (though it will dissolve in saliva). Powdered dnp is like powdered sugar in consistency, and will not have any visible crystals. There may however be small clumps.
If you swallow even very small amounts of DNP directly without water or a capsule, you will often find a burning sensation in your throat.
Weight loss on DNP tends to be almost entirely fat. You burn fat by oxidation, meaning you will need more oxygen than usual. Having some cardiovascular conditioning before hand can't hurt. Getting out of breath sitting around means you're hitting near your limit on DNP, be careful increasing the dosage at that point.
I would tend to advocate a 1-2 week power run of 400-600mg/day with 1-2 week breaks between runs. Others have had good luck with 200mg/day over a longer period, but some of the below advice may not be applicable to such cycles.
Realistically, you will burn between 0.5-1.5 pounds of fat a day, depending on dosage and your BF%. DNP is ideal for taking you from somewhere around 14-16% BF to somewhere around 8-12% in 1-3 cycles. Cutting on DNP past that point may be unwise or even dangerous. I would recommend taking the last 5-10 pounds off with traditional competition protocols.
Until 2-5 days (crystal) or 5-8 days (powder) after your last dose, the scale is not reliable. If you're 5 days into a cycle and you've only lost 1 pound, it's still quite possible you're on track.
Starting a cycle
Whenever trying a new batch, always start off small no matter how much experience you have. You may have misdosed DNP, contaminated DNP, or some unknown substance. I would start DNP cycles with a minimum dose about 6 hours before I went to sleep to gauge reaction.
Have a plan. You should always have a good idea of how long you're going to be on and at what dosage. You should clear your schedule as much as possible while you're on, especially for the first couple of days where you will generally feel the worst.
Due to inconsistencies by the manufacturers, it's very difficult to get 100% accurate knowledge of your actual dosage. You may think you're taking 600mg when you're only taking in 200mg, or possibly even the opposite. Again, start with the minimum dosage every single time you start a new batch and work up to tolerance.
After you have some DNP from the exact same package that you've cycled, you can start by front loading your tolerance dose plus 1-200mg with powder for 1-2 days, or just start at your tolerance dose for crystal.
Death can occur from as little as 400mg if supplementation protocols are ignored. Even with ideal supplementation in a very cold environment, I suspect the upper limits of human tolerance to be around 1200mg a day. Some few have taken dosage past this, but it's not likely they were running correctly dosed DNP. Losses do increase with dosage, but it appears to be somewhat logarithmic progression - 800mg does not produce twice the fat loss as 400mg. Most people should not bother going past 600mg, powder or crystal.
Acceptable things to mix with DNP include anabolics, low dose ECY, and low dose (~40mcg) clenbuterol. High dose ECY or clen can cause big time heat issues, don't do it. Make funeral arrangements before doing alcohol, ecstacy, or amphetamines with DNP.
Carb depletion is important, and you should do 3 days of near zero carbs before the cycle. A depletion workout may even be beneficial, but I wouldn't bother. 12 hours after your first crystal dose or 24-36 hours after your first powder dose, you can start on the carbs.
On Cycle
Note on crystal vs. powder: crystal comes on strong, maxes out 2-4 hours after ingestion, but really backs down intensity after 12 hours or so. That said, gram by gram crystal is weaker than powder overall, but you have a much higher intensity peak. Powder maxes out 6-10 hours after ingestion, and comes down a lot slower so that it's difficult to really find a peak, especially when splitting dosages. You feel more or less the same all the time on powder, while crystal has its ups and downs.
With powder DNP, dose throughout the day spaced as evenly as possible. With crystal, you can do this, but you have another option of compressing the DNP into half of the day. This allows you to get in very solid workouts in exchange for a lower maximum tolerated dose. For example, if I were to work out in the mornings, the day before my workout, I would take all my DNP for the day by 5pm or so. 12 hours later, the crystal DNP is clearing and you can get a better workout in.
Post workout, feel free to go crazy with carbs, especially if you're not doing the crystal workout trick above. I'm talking 1-300g of glucose and 50+g of protein. This will make you very hot, so be careful.
One easy way to **** things up is to not watch your electrolyte levels, especially post workout. Sweat plus lots of water intake without electrolytes means nausea, nausea means vomiting, vomiting means dehydration, dehydration on DNP means death. Pedialyte, or an endurance mix meant for marathoners/bicyclists is a great thing to sip on throughout the day.
You will want high carbs in general, no question about it. I would use a 30/20/50 p/f/c split to keep you feeling good and keep the fat coming off.
Low glycemic carbs just aren't that important, and sugar is actually your friend. Don't worry about insulin, blood sugar levels, etc. I would eat 5-6 packages of gummy candy a day and expect great results. Fruit is fantastic due to the fructose and fiber mix. Skim-2% milk is another great choice.
Caveat is that high glycemic carbs will produce a bit more intense feeling of heat, but I believe that they really make a difference in how you feel overall.
Overall calories should be around or slightly above maintenance. One huge mistake is to limit calories on DNP - it's the quickest way to feel like shit and get no better results.
Powder DNP will take around 3-4 days to really hit you. Don't start with the high carb DNP diet until day 2-3, or you'll replenish your muscle glycogen and not maximize your losses; keep carbs below 100g a day or so. Wait around 12 hours for crystal.
Lots of water is beyond mandatory. You will die if you don't hydrate. Avoid temperatures above 20 C, abstain completely from any environment above 30 C. Remember your electrolytes!
Your sleep needs will increase. 10 hours a day is not unusual. This is compounded by the need to wake up every hour or two to piss and drink. It sucks, but it needs to be done so you don't wake up dehydrated and weak.
Supplement fiber, preferably psyllium husk powder on the order of a cup or more a day in 3-4 split doses. Your stool will be extremely loose without it. Fiber supplements like benefiber are crap, you want something that solidifies and volumizes. Everything will pass quickly through you regardless, by the way.
3-5 tablespoons (15ml) of glycerine is perhaps the most essential support supplement for not feeling like crap (thirsty, tired, dehydrated). Approximately two tablespoons of LBAs in glycerine may be substituted for one tablespoon of pure glycerine.
Pyruvate (1-3g/day) is the other must have. One major reason you would use this besides feeling a little better is due to the rumored protection against the (extremely rare) eye problems caused by DNP.
Everything else suggested in the primary guides are bonuses. Hopefully, you're taking a good multivitamin already. If not, adding one and possibly supplmenting with additional Vitamin C and E may help. ALA may also help. Potassium and taurine may help with cramping or feeling "off".
Dealing with sides
Heat is unavoidable, and very dose dependant. Treat with a cold room, turn on a fan, take off clothes, rub ice on yourself, sit in a batub full of ice, ice water enema, or the ultimate hypothermic of underwater in a bathtub full of salted ice water with a salted ice water enema. Realistically, if you get past rubbing ice on yourself, you've done ****ed up and had best call some paramedics to assist you.
Loose stool is unavoidable, eating more fiber is about all you can do.
Nausea is caused by to little water, or more likely too much water/too little electrolytes - more water, or concentrated electrolytic fluids like pedialite or an endurance drink mix.
Dry mouth/throat develops if glycerine isn't applied regularly, or if you don't have enough water intake. Seems to worsen near/during sleep, even when glycerine is maintained.
Muscle soreness is caused by a lack of calories preventing recovery. Eat more, especially PWO, it won't affect your fat loss much.
Being out of breath even at rest indicates you are near your bodies fat burning capacity. Don't smoke, take it easy, sit or lie down and stay calm while breathing deeply and regularly at a moderate pace.
Rashes indicate an allergy to DNP, you may wish to discontinue use and try again unltil rash no longer develops.
Yellow body fluids sometimes happen I guess, nothing to get worked up over.
Yellow spots/issues in the eyes have been known to occur, stop immediately if you see them. No more DNP for you, ever.
Post cycle
Post cycle doesn't begin until 3 days after your last powder dose, or 1 full day after your last crystal dose. Until then, keep on doing what you've been doing on cycle. Changing your habits earlier than these timeframes is pretty much the only way to really **** up post cycle.
You can transition into a low carb diet extremely easily by eating the appropriate macro split in post cycle.
Transitioning to a regular diet isn't very difficult either. Limiting fat intake and backing off the sugars is simple and effective.
