MOTS-c + 5-Amino-1MQ + Epithalon — the longevity trio, results after 6 months

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
1/28/2026 · 3214 views

Full writeup because I'm sick of piecemeal threads.

Stack: MOTS-c 10mg 2x/week, 5-Amino-1MQ 100mg daily (oral), Epithalon 10mg/day in a 10-day pulse every 3 months. Running for ~6 months, one cycle off of MOTS-c in the middle.

Context: 41M, lean, already in shape, labs unremarkable, sleep decent. I was not trying to fix something, I was trying to see if an "optimizer" stack does anything when the substrate is already reasonable.

Measured:

  • Resting HR down from 54 to 50 avg over 60 days.
  • HRV up from ~62 to ~72 (Oura, 60d rolling avg).
  • DEXA: -1.2% body fat, +0.4kg LBM (could be measurement noise).
  • VO2max test: essentially unchanged (49 → 50).
  • ApoB unchanged. HbA1c unchanged. hsCRP dropped from 0.8 to 0.4.

Subjective: Better sleep quality especially around Epithalon pulses. Recovery between workouts noticeably faster. "Energy" which is a useless word but there it is.

What I can't tell you: which compound did what. Or whether any of it would show up in a proper trial. This is n=1 with no blinding.

Questions: anyone else running this trio? Anyone split-tested the components?

20 Replies

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
1/29/2026

Fair question. No alcohol change (zero either way). Sleep time +15 min average but bedtime consistency improved which might matter more. Training volume constant. Caloric intake within 100kcal/day.

S
Joined 2026
115 posts
1/30/2026

HRV +10 on Oura can also come from sleeping an extra 30 min/night or cutting alcohol. Were any lifestyle variables stable?

E
Joined 2026
36 posts
1/30/2026

This is the kind of write-up the category needs. HRV +10 over 60d is a real number. But I'd caution anyone reading this: if you stack three interventions you cannot attribute the result. You can only say the stack did something.

R
Joined 2026
37 posts
1/30/2026

5-Amino-1MQ alone gave me a ~0.8kg fat drop over 12 weeks at maintenance calories. Mechanism (NNMT inhibition) is interesting. Downside: it's an NNMT inhibitor and long-term human safety data is nonexistent. Cycling it aggressively.

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
1/31/2026

No illness. Diet basically the same. I don't want to overweight the CRP — it's one reading, within normal variance. The HRV and RHR numbers I trust more because they're rolling averages of thousands of datapoints.

P
Joined 2026
50 posts
1/31/2026

The hsCRP drop is the most interesting number to me. Was there anything else in your life that changed? Diet, sick kids at home, anything?

N
Joined 2026
31 posts
2/1/2026

Curious whether you tried MOTS-c alone before stacking. I split-tested MOTS-c vs NMN alone and the MOTS-c arm was more impactful on exercise tolerance. NMN arm was more impactful on sleep HRV weirdly.

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
2/2/2026

Ran MOTS-c alone for 8 weeks before adding the others. Exercise tolerance bumped noticeably. Body comp didn't move alone. Stack is where things compounded.

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
2/2/2026

Planning exactly that. Pulling 5A1MQ for 12 weeks starting next month, keeping the other two stable. Will report back.

S
Joined 2026
15 posts
2/3/2026

Would you consider dropping 5A1MQ for a cycle and keeping MOTS-c + Epithalon, then re-adding? That's the only way to isolate its contribution.

C
Joined 2025
41 posts
2/3/2026

10mg 2x/week on MOTS-c — why that frequency vs 5mg every other day? Half-life is short enough that split dosing should matter.

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
2/3/2026

Inertia honestly. Started there, never tested alternatives. If I had to guess, more frequent smaller doses are probably better but I don't have data to back that up.

T
Joined 2026
26 posts
2/5/2026

My Epithalon protocol is identical (10mg x 10 days quarterly). My RHR drop was ~4 bpm and stable. It's the most consistent wearable signal I've gotten from any peptide so I'm now a believer for sleep/autonomic purposes at least.

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
2/7/2026

Agreed. I flagged it as possibly noise in the OP for that reason. The HRV and RHR are the real numbers.

D
Joined 2026
45 posts
2/7/2026

DEXA at -1.2% BF and +0.4kg LBM is within the noise floor of most scanners (CV ~1-2% on BF). I'd repeat the scan at 12 months to be confident. Doesn't mean nothing happened, just means don't bank on it yet.

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
2/10/2026

Fair. I wouldn't present this as evidence to start the stack either. I'd present it as "here's what happened, for one person, make of it what you will."

P
Joined 2026
16 posts
2/10/2026

Everyone's going to hate this but: three compounds started together, subjective improvements, objective improvements that could be accounted for by lifestyle consistency alone. I'm not saying nothing is happening. I'm saying this data wouldn't convince me to start the stack.

G
Joined 2026
22 posts
2/25/2026

As someone considering this exact stack — what's the all-in monthly cost at those doses?

M
Joined 2026
32 posts
motsc_opsMember
2/25/2026

Ballpark: MOTS-c ~$180/mo, 5A1MQ ~$120/mo, Epithalon amortized across the year ~$30/mo. Call it ~$330/mo total. Not cheap. Not insane either.

F
Joined 2026
13 posts
3/7/2026

Appreciate the transparency on cost. Most longevity posts skip that part.

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