MK-677
A nightly pill that raises growth hormone and IGF-1 all day. Deeper sleep, easier size; respect the hunger, water and blood sugar.
What it is
MK-677 gives you most of what people want from growth hormone peptides, deeper sleep, better recovery and a real push on lean mass, from one capsule at bedtime. The price is a big appetite, a few pounds of water and a nudge to blood sugar that you have to manage, not ignore.
The person MK-677 fits best is the hard gainer: someone who trains, cannot eat enough, sleeps badly and will not inject anything. It is also the choice for the 40-plus lifter who wants the GH-peptide effect without the nightly needle ritual of CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin. It is not a peptide at all, technically; ibutamoren is a small oral molecule that hits the same ghrelin receptor as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, so your pituitary pulses more growth hormone and your liver makes more IGF-1. Because it lasts most of a day, one dose keeps both elevated continuously, which is a different animal from the short pulse an injectable GHRP gives you.
Timeline is fast for the side effects and slow for the benefits. Night one you may sleep like a rock and wake up hungry. By the end of week one, hunger an hour or two after the dose is a daily event and you look a little softer in the face and hands from water. Weeks two and three the water settles if you keep sodium steady. Sleep depth and recovery are usually obvious by week two. The lean-mass and skin changes are an eight-to-twelve-week story, and only with training and protein; MK-677 makes it easier to eat and recover, it does not build muscle on its own. Fat loss is not what it does; a lot of people gain scale weight, some of it water, some of it from the extra eating.
Most people take it once a day at bedtime, 10 mg to start, 15 to 20 mg where most settle, 25 mg if you are specifically trying to put on size and can afford the hunger. Taking it at night lets you sleep through the worst of the appetite. The mistakes: starting at 25 mg and quitting in week two because you feel bloated and ravenous; running it while cutting and wondering why you are starving; and never checking blood sugar. If your hands tingle in the morning or your rings are tight, that is the water and the dose is too high for you; drop 5 mg. Cycles run 8 to 16 weeks, then a few weeks off. Some people feel it soften after a few months, but studies kept IGF-1 raised for a year, so the real reason for the break is blood sugar: fasting glucose and insulin creep up the longer you stay on. Check them, and if they are climbing, take the break sooner.
Human evidence is unusually good for this corner of the site. In trials, 25 mg a day raised IGF-1 by roughly 60 to 73 percent and held it there, and a year-long study in healthy older adults (Nass, 2008) found higher GH and IGF-1, a modest gain in lean mass, more appetite, some fluid retention, and higher fasting glucose with lower insulin sensitivity. That last part is the honest trade: the same study that proves it works also documents the blood sugar cost. It is not an approved medicine anywhere.
Skip it if you are cutting, if you are prediabetic or insulin resistant, if you have a heart condition, or if you hate feeling puffy. For a cleaner GH bump with no hunger and far less water, CJC-1295 + Ipamorelin is the standard answer, and Sermorelin is the gentlest. If stubborn belly fat is the goal, Tesamorelin has the human data MK-677 lacks on that specific question. Anyone with a cancer history should sit out all of these; IGF-1 feeds cell growth.
What people use it for
Growth hormone and IGF-1
Most evidenceThis is proven in people, not inferred from animals. Controlled trials show 25 mg a day raises IGF-1 by roughly 60 to 73 percent and keeps it elevated with once-daily dosing, because the molecule lasts long enough to keep the ghrelin receptor engaged all day. Nothing else on this site raises IGF-1 this reliably without an injection.
Sleep
Some evidenceA small human study found more time in deep, slow-wave sleep and more REM on MK-677, and deeper sleep is the first thing most users report. The effect is noticeable within the first few nights for a lot of people, though a minority find it makes them groggy or gives vivid dreams and move the dose to the morning.
Lean mass and body composition
Some evidenceA year-long trial in healthy older adults found a modest rise in lean mass, with fat mass essentially unchanged. In practice the extra eating and water make the scale go up more than the muscle does. It helps a hard gainer eat and recover; it is not an anabolic steroid and does not act like one.
Blood sugar and insulin
Most evidenceThe same human studies that show it works also show higher fasting glucose and reduced insulin sensitivity. This is a documented effect, not a theoretical one, and the reason to check fasting glucose or HbA1c before and during a longer run. If you are already borderline, this is the wrong compound.
How it works
Where MK-677 sits among the GH releasers
- Raises growth hormone as a daily pill or liquid, no needles
- Convenient and long-acting
- Can increase appetite, water retention, and blood sugar
- Studied in humans but not approved as a treatment
How people use it
Safety, in brief
Things people sometimes notice
- Hunger an hour or two after the dose, strong enough to wake you if you dose too early
- Water retention: a softer face and tight rings in the first two or three weeks
- Grogginess or vivid dreams; some people switch to a morning dose
- Tingling or stiff hands in the morning, a sign the dose is high for you
The full picture — stop signs and who should talk to a doctor first — is on the dosing guide.
Sources
The labels and studies behind this page. Each link opens the original on PubMed, DailyMed or ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Stimulation of the growth hormone (GH)-insulin-like growth factor I axis by daily oral administration of a GH secretogogue (MK-677) in healthy elderly subjects
- Prolonged oral treatment with MK-677, a novel growth hormone secretagogue, improves sleep quality in man
- Effects of an oral ghrelin mimetic on body composition and clinical outcomes in healthy older adults: a randomized trial
- MK-0677 (ibutamoren mesylate) for the treatment of patients recovering from hip fracture: a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled phase IIb study