Head to head
5-Amino-1MQ vs Tesamorelin
A comparison decided mostly by evidence: Tesamorelin has been studied in people to a degree the other has not.
Verdict
One has been tested in people; the other has not
What you are actually choosing between
These sit in different classes. 5-Amino-1MQ is a metabolic compound; Tesamorelin is a growth hormone secretagogue. They get compared because of where they overlap, not because they are interchangeable.
The overlap is fat loss and metabolic health. On this site's goal weighting — an editorial priority score, not a measure of effect size — 5-Amino-1MQ rates 4/5 for fat loss and Tesamorelin rates 5/5.
The evidence
This is the part that decides most of it. Tesamorelin has an approved label and the randomized trial package behind it — the label is for HIV-associated lipodystrophy, not general fat loss. 5-Amino-1MQ has animal and cell data only, and no controlled human dosing trials — dose figures are extrapolated from vendor and community practice. That gap is the headline, and it is a statement about the literature rather than a promise about you: a compound with trial data can still do nothing for your case, and one without it is unproven rather than disproven.
How they differ in practice
5-Amino-1MQ is taken by mouth; Tesamorelin is a subcutaneous injection. That is the difference most people actually feel: Tesamorelin means reconstituting a vial and injecting; 5-Amino-1MQ does not require either. If needles are the deciding factor, this line settles it before any of the rest matters.
Tesamorelin has a characterized half-life of 36 min; 5-Amino-1MQ does not have one published here at all. That asymmetry is worth more than it looks — it usually tracks how much formal pharmacology has been done on a compound.
Committed time differs: 5-Amino-1MQ runs 12 weeks, Tesamorelin runs 26 weeks.
Risk and difficulty
The contraindication lists are not the same: Tesamorelin flags active malignancy, which 5-Amino-1MQ does not. If any of those describe you they remove a compound from consideration outright, regardless of everything above.
Source notes
What the evidence actually says
Verbatim, so you can check the verdict above against what it was built from.
5-Amino-1MQ
A small-molecule nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) inhibitor, not a peptide. Evidence is preclinical: it reduced fat mass in diet-induced obese mice without changing food intake, and there are cell and rodent data on muscle stem cells. There are no published controlled human trials, so every dose figure here is extrapolated from vendor and community practice rather than clinical data — treat the range as low confidence. It is taken orally in capsules: 50-150 mg daily, with 100 mg typical, which in the microgram units used throughout this dataset is 50,000-150,000 mcg (100 mg = 100,000 mcg). It is swallowed as capsules rather than reconstituted, so the reconstitution fields do not apply.
Tesamorelin
The only compound in this class with a real FDA label. Tesamorelin is a stabilised GHRH (1-44) analogue approved as Egrifta to reduce excess visceral abdominal fat in HIV-infected patients with lipodystrophy, supported by two phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled trials over 26 weeks with a 26-week extension. Label dosing is 2 mg subcutaneously once daily (Egrifta and Egrifta SV); the reformulated Egrifta WR is 1.28 mg once daily, which is why the range here starts at 1280 mcg. Approved dosing applies ONLY to that HIV lipodystrophy indication - use for general body composition, and any product bought as a research chemical, is off-label and unapproved. Not studied in and not indicated for weight loss in the general population. Note that the Egrifta label directs administration immediately after reconstitution with the supplied diluent; the 30-day figure here reflects bacteriostatic-water reconstitution of multi-dose vials, which is not a labeled practice.
Side by side
The numbers
| Attribute | 5-Amino-1MQ | Tesamorelin |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Metabolic | GH secretagogue |
| Routes | Oral | Subcutaneous |
| Dose range | 50 mg–150 mg (typical 100 mg) | 1.28 mg–2 mg (typical 2 mg) |
| Frequency | Once daily | Once daily |
| Half-life | Not characterized | 36 min |
| Cycle length | 12 weeks | 26 weeks |
| Experience | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| Evidence | Animal / cell data only | Approved (FDA/EMA) |
| Contraindications |
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| Side effects |
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Turn a typical dose into a mark on the syringe: Tesamorelin
Goals
Where they overlap, and where they do not
| Goal | 5-Amino-1MQ | Tesamorelin |
|---|---|---|
| fat loss | 5-Amino-1MQ: 4/5 | Tesamorelin: 5/5 |
| metabolic health | 5-Amino-1MQ: 4/5 | Tesamorelin: 3/5 |
| muscle growth | 5-Amino-1MQ: 2/5 | Tesamorelin: 2/5 |
| longevityone only | 5-Amino-1MQ: 2/5 | Tesamorelin: — |
| recovery and sleepone only | 5-Amino-1MQ: — | Tesamorelin: 2/5 |
| focus and cognitionone only | 5-Amino-1MQ: — | Tesamorelin: 1/5 |
They overlap on 3 goals and diverge on 3. Weights are this site’s editorial priority score out of 5 — how central a goal is to why people use a compound. They are not effect sizes and two 5s do not mean two equal results.
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Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.