Metabolic processes that break things down — the opposite of the anabolic (building) state that GH secretagogues and IGF-1 are often used to promote.Excessive catabolic signaling — from cortisol, myostatin, inflammatory cytokines — drives muscle wasting in disease states. Several GH secretagogues and IGF-1 analogs are studied in genuine catabolic disease contexts (HIV wasting, cachexia, sarcopenia). The performance community uses "anti-catabolic" language to describe any compound that might preserve muscle, but catabolic signaling exists for physiological reasons — chronic suppression carries its own consequences.