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Hip - I have the same experience. Is there anything that can be done about it?
What I do myself is spend 60 days, once each year in the summer, on a juice and vegetables fast, where I eat only fruit juices/smoothies, plus some raw vegetable salads, consuming only around 700 kilocalories in total each day (the normal daily intake for a man is 2200 kilocalories).
By doing this I find I rapidly lose around 12 kg (= 26 pounds = nearly 2 stone) over the 60 day period, and my belly fat mostly disappears over these 60 days. I also feel better and a little more energetic on this juice/raw vegetable diet, ie, my ME/CFS symptoms improve slightly (it's probably because this juice and vegetable diet is also an anti-inflammatory diet that it benefits my ME/CFS).
However, over the rest of the year, even though I do not eat that much, the weight is slowly put back on to my belly area again. So this means I have to repeat my 60 day fast again next year. This juice and vegetables fast is a little hard going only in the first week, but after that you quickly adapt to it, and I find I don't miss the meat and carbs at all.
I have been looking around for supplements or drugs that might stop or reduce the accumulation of belly fat. So far, I have only come across these:
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Metformin, which if you take daily can reduce any belly fat caused by insulin resistance (since metformin reduces insulin resistance). But this I guess will only work if you have insulin resistance-induced central obesity.
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Chromium picolinate, which combats insulin resistance. Again, I presume this will only work if you have insulin resistance-induced central obesity.
• African mango (Irvingia gabonensis), which is thought may combat leptin resistance.
• HIgh cortisol has been linked to putting on belly fat, so if you are someone with elevated cortisol, you might prevent belly fat accumulation if you take some cortisol lowering supplements like
phosphatidylserine.
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Human growth hormone injections (very expensive) burn off belly fat.
There may be other mechanisms that cause accumulation of abdominal fat, but so far I have only come across the insulin, leptin, cortisol, and growth hormone pathways.
I have not, however, actually experimented with taking the above drugs and supplements for an extended period, to see if they do actually ward off the belly fat.
Rather, I just burn off that unsightly belly bulge each year with a 60 day fruit juice and vegetables fast.