When belly fat decreases in people with HIV, liver fat also tends to decrease, showing a connection between these two types of fat.

A hormone treatment called tesamorelin lowers liver fat by 2.9% more than a placebo in people with HIV who have excess abdominal fat after six months of treatment.

Whether HIV patients had hepatitis or not didn't change the benefit of visceral fat loss on liver enzymes when taking tesamorelin.

Continuing tesamorelin for a full year helps HIV patients with belly fat lose nearly 18% of their dangerous internal belly fat, with no loss of benefit over time.

If HIV patients stop taking tesamorelin and switch to a dummy pill, their dangerous belly fat quickly returns to previous levels.

Only HIV patients whose belly fat shrinks by at least 8% after taking this drug also get healthier-looking fat on scans — others don’t benefit in this way.