Tesamorelin Shrinks Harmful Belly Fat and Liver Fat in HIV Patients on Certain Drugs
1499. Tesamorelin Reduces Visceral Adipose Tissue and Liver Fat in INSTI-Treated Persons with HIV
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Some HIV medicines cause belly fat and liver fat to grow, which can be unhealthy. This study tested a drug called tesamorelin to see if it could shrink that fat. It did — people who took tesamorelin lost belly fat and liver fat, while those who didn’t took more fat.
Surprising Findings
Placebo group gained 10.8% belly fat in just one year — while the drug group lost 8.3%
It’s shocking how quickly visceral fat can accumulate in people on INSTI drugs — and how dramatically it can be reversed with tesamorelin. Most people assume weight gain is just ‘normal’ with HIV meds, but this shows it’s not inevitable.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re on INSTI drugs and gaining belly fat, talk to your doctor about potential interventions — including drugs like tesamorelin.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Some HIV medicines cause belly fat and liver fat to grow, which can be unhealthy. This study tested a drug called tesamorelin to see if it could shrink that fat. It did — people who took tesamorelin lost belly fat and liver fat, while those who didn’t took more fat.
Surprising Findings
Placebo group gained 10.8% belly fat in just one year — while the drug group lost 8.3%
It’s shocking how quickly visceral fat can accumulate in people on INSTI drugs — and how dramatically it can be reversed with tesamorelin. Most people assume weight gain is just ‘normal’ with HIV meds, but this shows it’s not inevitable.
Practical Takeaways
If you’re on INSTI drugs and gaining belly fat, talk to your doctor about potential interventions — including drugs like tesamorelin.
Publication
Journal
Open Forum Infectious Diseases
Year
2023
Authors
Taryn McLaughlin, Steven K. Grinspoon, T. Stanley, Lindsay T Fourman
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Claims (10)
Tesamorelin has robust human evidence demonstrating specific reductions in metabolically harmful fat depots including visceral, liver, and intramuscular fat.
Visceral fat is metabolically active tissue that disrupts insulin sensitivity and metabolic function, and tesamorelin reduces it through mechanisms that improve fat quality, muscle composition, and mitochondrial efficiency, leading to long-term metabolic resilience.
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 404 HIV-infected patients with abdominal fat accumulation, tesamorelin reduced visceral adipose tissue by 10.9% (21 cm²) after 6 months compared to less than 1% in the placebo group, with concurrent reductions in waist circumference and trunk fat and increases in IGF-I levels.
Administration of tesamorelin results in a statistically significant reduction in visceral adipose tissue volume compared to placebo, with a mean reduction of approximately 11% after 6 months of treatment.
In the study, most people with HIV and fatty liver disease on INSTI drugs were taking dolutegravir, which made up 41% of those on INSTIs.