MK-677 dosage and evidence
Written by Aaron CuhaReviewed Sep 2026
The short answer
MK-677 is a daily pill that raises growth hormone and IGF-1. It is not a peptide. It was tested in people for years but was never approved.
Evidence grade for MK-677: Limited. The rule: people have taken it in a published study, but fewer than 100 of them. The sum on this page: 2 completed trials, 65 people given it. A grade counts how much has been done to people, not whether it works.
- People given it
- 65
- Human studies
- 2
- Found nothing
- 1
Dose
No human dose established
Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose.
2 completed trials, 65 people given it
11 effects reported, 7 unwanted, 4 wanted, by people using it, not a trial
Goal pages: Fat loss and metabolism, Muscle and strength, Brain, memory and mood, Hormones and growth hormone, Heart and circulation, Bone and joints, Sleep
In plain English
In plain English, from Aaron
This is how I would explain it to a friend. The evidence, with the numbers, is further down the page.
MK-677 is a pill that makes your body release more growth hormone. It copies the hunger hormone ghrelin, so it also makes you hungry. One dose lasts about a day. It is not a peptide, and it is not a shot, which is why people like it. A drug company took it all the way through big trials and it never got approved.
What people take it for
- Muscle and size without needles.
- Deeper sleep.
- Stronger bones and better recovery from injury.
- Slowing the drop in growth hormone with age.
What studies in people showed
This one has real human trials, and they are why it did not get approved. The biggest was 123 older people getting over a hip fracture. Walking speed improved but most measures of function did not. That trial was stopped early over a heart failure safety signal. In the two year trial, 65 adults aged 60 to 81 took 25 mg a day. Growth hormone and IGF-1 rose to young adult levels. Lean mass went up 1.1 kg, while the dummy pill group lost 0.5 kg. But strength did not improve. Function did not improve. Fasting blood sugar went up, and the body got worse at using insulin. On sleep, a small study had each person try both. It found a high dose raised deep sleep by about 50 percent and dream sleep by more than 20 percent in young people. So the sleep claim has a trial behind it. The muscle claim gives you a kilo of lean mass and no strength. The blood sugar problem is real and it is in the trial.
What people report
Reports, not study results
The good
- Deep sleep and vivid dreams, the most consistent report.
- Hunger, which some people want when they are trying to eat more.
- A fuller look in the muscles within weeks, mostly water.
- Hair, skin and nails growing faster.
The bad
- Ravenous hunger, especially the first weeks. People who want to lose fat gain weight on it.
- Holding water: puffy face, hands and feet, and a jump on the scale.
- Blood sugar goes up. Fasting glucose and insulin resistance rose in the two year trial. People with any blood sugar problem should not touch it.
- Numb or tingling hands and stiff joints.
- Feeling sluggish and tired during the day.
- The heart failure signal that stopped the hip fracture trial early.
- What is sold online is a grey market chemical and nobody checks what is in it.
Where these come from: The blood sugar, lean mass, strength and heart failure items come from the trial results published in 2008 and 2011. The hunger, water, tingling and tiredness reports come from user forums, mostly r/PEDs, r/Peptides and r/nootropics, and from clinic write-ups, and they match the trial side effect pattern.
My bottom line
It works on sleep and it raises growth hormone, and it also pushes your blood sugar the wrong way and got a heart failure flag in older people. A kilo of lean mass with no strength gain is not muscle in the way that matters. I would not put this in my body, and if you have any blood sugar issue you should not either.
An opinion, not a finding. I am a coach, not a doctor.
What it has been measured to do
Measured in people
Goals MK-677 has been tested for in people, biggest studies first. We count only what the studies on this page say, so the real numbers may be higher.
- Keeping or building muscle65 people · 1 study · 1 found nothing
- Blood sugar and insulin65 people · 1 study · 1 found nothing
- Growth hormone and IGF-165 people · 2 studies · 1 found nothing
- Sleepno headcount stated · 1 study
- Getting strongerno headcount stated · 1 study
- Bone strengthno headcount stated · 1 study
- Heart attacks and strokesno headcount stated · 1 study
What people using it report
Real people telling you what happened to them. Nobody checked it, and the people who post are not a fair sample, so it cannot prove anything works. It is still the best guide on this page to what people actually do with MK-677, what they expect, and what goes wrong. The full account, including the negative reports, is below.
28 of the 36 indexed goals have no study of any kind behind MK-677
No study in people, animals or cells on this page reports a result for these. That does not prove MK-677 does nothing for them. It does mean anything you have heard about MK-677 and one of these did not come from a study cited here.
Show full evidence
What is MK-677?
MK-677 is a daily pill that raises growth hormone and IGF-1. It is not a peptide. It was tested in people for years but was never approved.
MK-677 is a pill that copies ghrelin, a hunger hormone. That makes the pituitary gland release more growth hormone. Unlike the shots in this family, it works as a pill and lasts about a day. The longest study gave it to 65 adults aged 60 to 81 for up to two years. Growth hormone and IGF-1 rose to young-adult levels. Lean mass went up about 1.1 kg, while people on a dummy pill lost about 0.5 kg. But they did not get stronger or move any better. Their fasting blood sugar went up, and their bodies handled insulin worse. A study in 123 older people recovering from a broken hip was stopped early. Doctors were worried about heart failure in people taking it. In a small sleep study, young adults got about 50% more of the deepest stage of sleep. It was never approved. People are interested in it for muscle, bone and sleep.
How does MK-677 work?
It switches on the ghrelin receptor, the same switch the hunger hormone uses. That raises growth hormone and IGF-1. It also makes you hungry.
What do people who took MK-677 report?
This is what real people say happened to them, good and bad. Nobody measured it. A report cannot tell a real effect from the lift people get just from expecting it to work, from a diet or training change made at the same time, or from what was really in the vial. We still put it near the top. It is the next best thing to a study in people: what happens when real people use it, including what goes wrong.
- Amounts described run from about 10 mg to 25 mg taken at night, with 50 mg treated as the upper end. A recurring argument is that the higher figures buy very little, because the published rises in growth hormone and IGF-1 at the low end are already most of what the high end produces, while the unwanted effects scale faster than that.
- Water retention is the single most repeated complaint. People describe puffiness, swollen ankles, numb or tingling fingers, and weight appearing within weeks that they do not read as tissue. Some report it settling after the first couple of months and others report it never settling and stopping because of it.
- Appetite increase is described as dramatic, and is raised both as the point of using it and as the reason for stopping. Eating during the night and losing control of intake over long runs come up repeatedly.
- Blood sugar is what the more medically literate posters keep returning to. Raised fasting glucose and worsening insulin sensitivity are discussed as the expected trade rather than as a rare event, and running metformin alongside is described as a common response to that.
- Sleep depth and vivid dreaming are the positives reported most often, along with easier recovery. Reports of nothing changing also appear, including month-long runs with no change to sleep, where the person themselves raised product quality or simple non-response as the explanation.
- A persistent split runs through these threads between long-term enthusiastic users and clinicians posting in the same thread who counsel caution about glucose and about sustained IGF-1 elevation. Both groups are regulars and neither position is fringe.
Sources: Multi-page MK-677 side effects threads and a separate low-dose healthspan thread on ExcelMale, found by site-restricted search and read directly, September 2026. Nothing above is attributed to any specific post and no post is reproduced.
The evidence, in charts
Fig. 1a · how many people
65people, across 1 study in people cited here
| Study | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Annals of Internal Medicine 2008 | 65 | 100% |
The whole total is one study of 65. Counts are the number of people each study on this page says it signed up. That includes studies that only watched people and gave nobody the compound. 2 more studies in people give no headcount and are not counted here. Studies still signing people up are left out, and only studies cited on this page are counted.
Fig. 1b · evidence mix
All 3 sources here are studies in people.
- Study in people · done in people3100%
Counted from the list of sources on this page. It counts only what we cite, so there may be more studies out there. A review counts once, however many studies it sums up.
Fig. 2 · evidence over time
The studies cover 3 different years, 1997 to 2011, counted from the list of sources on this page. The newest source on file is from 2011, more than five years ago. Research on it may have gone quiet.
Fig. 3 · legal status at a glance
US
Not approved
UK
Not approved
AU
Not approved
CA
Not approved
Not approved in any of the four countries shown. This is what the law says, not a verdict on the science. See Legal status below for the full text and any notes.
Fig. 4 · how much does what
Nobody has tested different amounts in people
This chart would show how the effect changes as the amount goes up. For this compound, nobody has measured that in people. So we leave it empty. We will not borrow an animal chart and pretend it works the same in people.
Fig. 5 · what the molecule is
- Kind of compound
- Small molecule
- Molecule weight
- 624.8 Da
- Half-life
- About 24 hoursLong, 1 to 7 days
- Chain length
- None on file
No amino acid sequence is on file for MK-677, which is expected: a small molecule is not built from amino acids.
The studies we cite
- Study in people2008Effects of an oral ghrelin mimetic on body composition and clinical outcomes in healthy older adults: a randomized trial
It shifted muscle and fat, and it did not make anyone stronger or more able. 65 adults aged 60 to 81 took MK-677 or a dummy pill daily for up to two years. Growth hormone and IGF-1 climbed back to young-adult levels. Lean tissue rose about 1.1 kg while the dummy group lost about half a kilo. Strength and everyday function did not improve at all. Fasting blood sugar rose and the body handled insulin worse. That last sentence is the part people skip.
65 adults aged 60 to 81 on MK-677 25 mg daily for up to 2 years: GH and IGF-1 rose to young-adult levels and fat-free mass increased 1.1 kg vs a 0.5 kg loss on placebo, but strength and function did not improve and fasting glucose and insulin resistance rose.
- Study in people2011MK-0677 (ibutamoren mesylate) for the treatment of patients recovering from hip fracture: a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled phase IIb study
The trial was stopped early over a heart safety signal, and most of what it measured did not improve. 123 older people recovering from a broken hip took MK-677 or a dummy pill. Walking speed improved and IGF-1 rose. Most other measures of function did not move. The study was halted before it finished because of concern about congestive heart failure in treated patients. Stopping early leaves the benefit thin and the harm not properly measured.
123 elderly hip-fracture patients: gait speed improved and IGF-1 rose, but most functional measures did not, and the trial was terminated early over a congestive heart failure safety signal.
- Study in people1997Prolonged oral treatment with MK-677, a novel growth hormone secretagogue, improves sleep quality in man
MK-677 deepened sleep in young adults. Young and older volunteers each took the drug and a dummy in turn, so every person acted as their own comparison. In the young group the deepest stage of sleep rose by about half, and dreaming sleep by more than a fifth. The figures reported are for the young subjects, not the older ones. The study was small and short, and it measured sleep stages rather than how rested anyone felt.
Crossover study in young and older adults: high-dose MK-677 increased stage IV sleep by about 50% and REM sleep by more than 20% in young subjects.
Where to buy MK-677
7 sellers list MK-677 in our latest read. They are ranked by trust score, then by archive rating, then by certificate tier, then by the lowest price per milligram. Archive evidence is counted before source-backed. Each path is out of 4, and the two are not added. A higher price does not raise the score. The letter is the certificate chip. 0 of them have a published certificate that names MK-677.
Some seller links may pay this site when you buy through them. A payment never changes a seller's tier or rank, and no seller has a say in any page.
| Seller | Trust score | Vial sizes | From, per mg | Certificate for MK-677 | Seller link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supernova Sciences | 65 FairSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 10 mg | $9.00 | None found for MK-677 | View |
| Pivot Labs Global | 53 FairSource-backed 2 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 12.5 mg | $11.2 | None found for MK-677 | View |
| Iron Peptides | 49 WeakSource-backed 3 of 4. Archive evidence 2 of 4.A | 30 mg | $2.97 | None found for MK-677 | View |
| SSP Research | 49 WeakSource-backed 2 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.B | 10 mg | $7.00 | None found for MK-677 | View |
| PeptiMed | 41 WeakSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 10 mg | $12.0 | None found for MK-677 | View |
| LabRat Peptides | 28 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 1 of 4.C | 10 mg | $8.00 | None found for MK-677 | View |
| Modern Aminos | 28 InsufficientSource-backed 1 of 4. Archive evidence 0 of 4.C | 25 mg | $3.56 | None found for MK-677 | View |
- LC Lab-confirmed: the issuing laboratory echoed this certificate back
- A Current certificate, independent laboratory named, laboratory not yet checked
- B Certificate published, but no laboratory link, older than a year, or the laboratory did not recognise the published lookup
- C No certificate could be read
Every listing and vial size for MK-677 · How the trust score is counted
Sellers named on the price pages are ranked by certificate tier, then price, and any affiliate income is disclosed there. Naming a seller is not a recommendation to buy or use anything.
Common questions
Has MK-677 been tested in people?
Yes. 65 people given it across 2 completed trials cited here, 1 of which found nothing. MK-677 is a daily pill that raises growth hormone and IGF-1. It is not a peptide. It was tested in people for years but was never approved.
What is the MK-677 dosage?
No human dose established. Amounts that were given in studies sit in Human evidence on this page. None of them is a personal dose. 2 completed trials, 65 people given it
Is MK-677 FDA-approved?
Not FDA-approved (it failed to win approval after final-stage studies)
Is MK-677 a peptide?
No. It is a small molecule, not a peptide. But it works on the same ghrelin switch as the growth hormone peptides, so people often group it with them.
Do you cycle MK-677?
Studies in people do not set an on and off schedule. The longest study on this page gave it every day for about two years to 65 older adults. That is not a cycle. On and off plans shared online have not been tested. This site does not invent a schedule. Full cycling page at /cycling.
Latest reading on MK-677
Blog posts about MK-677, newest first.