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i caught my reflection in a full length mirror at my daughters engagement dinner last month and did not recognize the woman looking back. the belly that had been there since 45 was genuinely smaller. my dress fit different. i had not done anything dramatic, i had not been trying harder than usual. something had just shifted over the last 4 months and i finally had to admit it. im 51. that belly had been there for 6 years and the scale had moved maybe 4 lbs in that entire time no matter what i tried. so i want to write this out because what actually worked was not what i was expecting. in the last 6 years i have tried a few things on and off. did weight watchers for about 4 months back in 2021, lost 9 lbs and gained 7 of them back by christmas. did intermittent fasting last year for maybe 2 months, couldnt stick with it because i was hungry by 10am every day. walked more for a while when i got a fitbit. i joined a gym 3 separate times and each time went maybe 6 times before letting the membership run. nothing wrong with any of that, i just am not the person who is going to run 5 miles a day and meal prep 20 containers on sunday. i have been honest with myself about that. i do what i can. the part that got to me was not the weight in general. the weight in general is fine. it was the belly specifically. everything else on me is kind of proportional but my midsection has been sticking out for years in a way that does not match the rest of my body. my husband never says anything obviously but i know he can see it. i have not worn anything fitted since 2019. i mentioned it to my dr at my physical last year and she kind of shrugged and said it could be perimenopause, it could be stress, maybe think about cutting some calories. my labs were mostly okay, a1c was fine, liver enzymes were a little elevated but she said not to worry about it. alt was 52, ast was 41. she said to keep an eye on it. so here is what changed. i was reading something online, a post from a woman who was describing the exact same belly i have been describing for 6 years. hers had been stuck for a decade. and she explained it in a way that i had not heard from any of my doctors which is that the belly is not a diet problem its a liver problem. apparently the liver is the organ that actually metabolizes fat, and when the liver is overloaded from decades of normal life it basically puts fat burning on pause. so the fat just sits there, especially around the midsection, because the organ that is supposed to move it is too busy dealing with everything else. she said the liver doesnt even have to be sick for this to happen. mine is not sick, my enzymes are only a little up. but it is behind. and if it is behind, it is not burning fat the way it is supposed to, which is why a few extra walks and cutting the occasional dessert was never going to fix this. the issue was never my discipline, it was the organ. that honestly changed how i thought about the whole thing. i had been blaming myself for 6 years for not being disciplined enough. it turned out i was trying to burn fat through an organ that was not even doing the job. she mentioned a supplement she had been taking. i am not a supplement person at all, i dont even take a multivitamin consistently, but i was curious enough to look it up. its called Happy Liver from a company called Ritual Labs. i read through the reviews for probably 2 weeks before ordering. 2 capsules in the morning with breakfast, thats the whole thing. 4 months in now. i have lost 13 lbs without doing anything differently. i did not join a gym. i did not start meal prepping. i did not do keto or anything. i eat the same food, walk the dog when the weather is nice, have my glass of wine on fridays. the weight is just coming off now in a way it was not before, and it is coming off the belly specifically which is the part that had not moved in 6 years. there are 3 things in it apparently. milk thistle at a higher grade than what you get at the store, something called curcumin for inflammation in the liver, and something called inositol which from what i understand is the one that actually helps the liver push out the fat its storing inside itself. thats the part that matters for the belly piece because apparently your liver stores fat inside the organ and when its packed with its own fat it cant burn the fat you eat. inositol helps it push that back out. i am probably not explaining that right but thats the gist. my bloodwork from last week, alt is 34, ast is 28. both in range for the first time in years. i told my dr what i was taking and she kind of raised her eyebrows and said interesting, keep doing it. im writing this because i spent 6 years thinking this was my fault and it was never my fault. if you have a belly that doesnt match the rest of your body and you have been trying random things and nothing is moving, it is probably not you either. link to the one im taking: https://rituallabs.shop/products/happy-liver