The Peptide Stack That Destroys Liver Fat

Happy Tuesday!

Today I dropped a new episode on Spotify where I walk through my full 12-week peptide stack for liver health.

I discuss what I’m using personally and what I recommend to people dealing with fatty liver, high enzymes, or just wanting to bulletproof their detox system for the next decade.

Liver health is a massive silent crisis.

Roughly 30% of the global population now has NAFLD/MASLD.

That’s around 882 million people as of 2017, and it’s almost certainly worse now.

And it’s more than just alcoholics. We’re seeing NAFLD in kids, teenagers, and “normal” adults walking around with inflamed, fatty livers.

Your liver is the largest detox organ in your body.

It decides how well you handle bad food, environmental toxins, hormones, meds…everything.

So in the new episode, I break down a 7-agent peptide-based stack that goes after liver fat, inflammation, fibrosis, and mitochondrial dysfunction all at once.

Today’s email is the written companion to the episode. Let’s dig in!

Retatrutide

If you’ve listened to me for any amount of time, you know I think GLP-1–based meds are pound-for-pound some of the best longevity drugs we have right now.

But you might not know the data around liver health.

In the Phase 2 data, higher doses (8–12 mg/week) led to ~24% bodyweight reduction and, more importantly for us, ~80%+ reduction in liver fat on MRI.

In one substudy, 89–93% of people with fatty liver no longer met criteria for MASLD after 48 weeks at those doses. That’s wild.

In the liver stack, retatrutide is the foundation.

It removes fat from the liver, normalizes enzyme levels, and resolves the metabolic dysfunction that caused the problem in the first place.

I have people titrate up slowly (never jump straight to 8 mg), but for true fatty liver, those higher doses are where the magic happens.

SGLT2 Inhibitors

Next up are SGLT2 inhibitors (Jardiance, Farxiga, etc.).

These aren’t peptides, but they synergize insanely well with retatrutide.

Mechanistically, SGLT2s act like a sugar drain in your kidneys.

Instead of shoving all that extra glucose into your liver and fat cells, your kidneys pee a chunk of it out.

That means lower fasting glucose and insulin, less conversion of sugar to liver fat, and a metabolic “weight vest” taken off your liver.

A big meta-analysis of RCTs in people with type 2 diabetes and NAFLD showed SGLT2 inhibitors lowered ALT/AST, reduced liver fat on imaging, and improved body composition.

They’re not as dramatic as retatrutide for steatosis, but they quietly prevent new fat from piling back in while we’re draining the existing fat out.

Think of SGLT2 as the “faucet off” drug in this protocol.

Glutathione

Now we get into the detox side.

Glutathione is a tripeptide, but functionally it’s the master antioxidant and the liver’s lead janitor.

Every time you burn fat, process alcohol, or deal with environmental toxins, your liver is cranking through oxidative stress.

Without enough glutathione, that stress turns into damage.

In a pilot NAFLD study, oral glutathione (300 mg/day) significantly dropped ALT and improved triglycerides and markers of oxidative stress. That’s with just oral dosing.

When we use injectable or IV glutathione at 200 mg, 4–5x per week, we are basically bathing the liver in antioxidant support while we aggressively burn fat with retatrutide.

Practically, I see glutathione make the difference between people who feel wrecked on GLP-1s and people who cruise.

It helps clear toxins released by shrinking fat cells, supports mitochondrial function, and keeps your liver membranes, DNA, and enzymes protected while the heavy lifting is done.

MOTS-c

MOTS-c is one of my favorite peptides.

It’s a mitochondrial-encoded peptide that basically tells your cells to behave like you’ve been training hard, even when you haven’t.

I think of MOTS-c as an exercise mimetic and a mitochondrial spark plug.

In a 2024 Cell Reports paper, MOTS-c reversed NASH in mice, leading to less liver fat, less cell death, less inflammation, and less fibrosis.

Another 2025 Scientific Reports study showed MOTS-c plus exercise actually improved diabetic liver fibrosis by activating the Keap1-Nrf2 antioxidant pathway and suppressing TGF-β/Smad pro-fibrotic signaling.

Better mitochondrial function, less scar tissue.

In this stack, MOTS-c is my daily 1 mg “make your liver and muscles act like an athlete” shot.

It increases hepatic fat oxidation, improves insulin sensitivity, and helps shut down the signaling that drives fibrosis.

If retatrutide is draining the fat, MOTS-c is helping your liver burn that fuel cleanly, like a tuned-up engine.

SS-31

If MOTS-c is software, SS-31 is hardware repair.

SS-31 is a mitochondria-targeted peptide that binds to cardiolipin in the inner mitochondrial membrane and stabilizes the electron transport chain. That means more ATP, fewer leaks, and less ROS.

In metabolic disease models, SS-31 has been shown to reduce mitochondrial ROS and lipid peroxidation, increase ATP, and preserve mitochondrial structure in liver tissue.

A 2024 review on MASLD highlighted SS-31 as a key candidate for restoring mitochondrial function and mitigating liver injury by targeting oxidative stress at its source.

I like SS-31 at 5 mg per day in this context.

Think of it as putting a high-end filter in the liver’s engines while we run them hard. It protects hepatocytes during rapid change, reduces ongoing damage that leads to fibrosis, and pairs beautifully with MOTS-c.

MOTS-c revs the engine, SS-31 keeps it from blowing up.

Ovagen

Ovagen is a Khavinson bioregulatory peptide derived from liver and GI tissue.

It’s basically a tiny “liver code” that tells hepatocytes to normalize function, reduce scarring, and regenerate.

Animal data from Khavinson’s group show that Ovagen reduces elevations in liver enzymes, oxidative stress, necrosis, and collagen deposition in toxin-induced liver damage.

It appears to work at the DNA/chromatin level to upregulate repair and antioxidant genes specifically in liver tissue.

In this stack, I use 2 mg per day as a gentle but persistent “regeneration signal.”

While retatrutide, MOTS-c, and SS-31 are changing the environment, Ovagen is whispering to the liver, “Rebuild the tissue the right way, don’t overscar, restore normal structure.” 

It’s subtle but, in my opinion, crucial for long-term reversal of damage.

Livagen

Another Khavinson peptide, Livagen is more of an epigenetic tuner.

It helps decondense chromatin (the way your DNA is packaged) and re-activate healthy gene expression patterns in aging or damaged cells.

In liver models of fibrosis and hepatitis, Livagen has been reported to normalize oxidative stress, improve liver function test results, and reduce fibrotic changes.

It seems to push cells back toward a more youthful phenotype, which means better antioxidant defenses, more balanced immune signaling, and improved metabolic handling.

At 2 mg per day, Livagen is like the conductor for the orchestra we’ve assembled.

As the fat comes off, mitochondria recover, and scars begin to remodel, Livagen helps ensure the new liver that grows back is younger in behavior.

It’s anti-aging at the gene expression level in the liver.

Summary

Conclusion

If you take nothing else from this email (or the new Spotify episode), let it be this.

Your liver is incredibly resilient if you give it the right environment.

This stack is not magic. It doesn’t replace diet, movement, or getting your life together.

But it does act as a powerful catalyst.

Retatrutide and SGLT2 drain the fat and fix the metabolic firehose.

Glutathione, MOTS-c, and SS-31 protect and upgrade your mitochondria while toxins and fat are cleared.

Ovagen and Livagen tell the liver to rebuild.

For some of you, this protocol will literally be the difference between slowly sliding toward cirrhosis…and giving your liver a second life.

For others who are already pretty healthy, running a cycle of this once in a while is like a full system reboot for detox and longevity.

As always, none of this is medical advice, and you should work with a smart, licensed practitioner.

But I want you to know these tools exist. You are not stuck with a fatty, inflamed liver forever.

There is a path back, and I genuinely believe stacks like this can be the starting line for turning your whole life around!

Best,

Hunter Williams

Further Reading

• Retatrutide (triple agonist & liver fat):

  MASLD substudy – ~80% liver fat reduction, 89–93% resolution of fatty liver at higher doses

• SGLT2 inhibitors & NAFLD:

  Meta-analysis of SGLT2i in T2D + NAFLD (liver fat & enzymes)

  Additional NAFLD review on SGLT2i

• Glutathione in NAFLD:

  Honda et al. – Oral glutathione improves ALT and triglycerides in NAFLD

• MOTS-c & liver:

  Lu et al., Cell Reports – MOTS-c alleviates NASH and mitochondrial defects

  Chen et al., Scientific Reports – MOTS-c mimics exercise to improve diabetic liver fibrosis

• SS-31 (Elamipretide) & mitochondrial liver health:

  Review on mitochondrial dysfunction in MASLD and SS-31

• Livagen (epigenetic liver peptide):

  Livagen as a potential liver/GI/immune bioregulator