I'm in my 30s and fatty liver showed up on my health checkup: what should I do first?
At this year's checkup, I was told I have stage 1 fatty liver. I barely drink, but I really haven't been exercising at all.
My doctor said I'm not at the stage where I need medication yet, and suggested correcting my lifestyle habits for 3 months and then getting retested.
I'm curious what a realistic way to start diet and exercise would be. I've failed at signing up for a gym before. If anyone has seen results with walking or at-home workouts, please share how you did it.
9 answers
The easiest thing is to cut out high-fructose corn syrup. Soft drinks, fruit juice, coffee with syrup. If you don’t drink alcohol but have fatty liver, it’s often largely caused by sugar. I cut that out and lost 12 kg in 3 months.
Walking is great. Just don’t make it a casual stroll—walk at a pace that leaves you out of breath for at least 40 minutes. For me, I got off one stop early on my commute and walked, so I didn’t have to carve out extra time.
Got a source? The claim that "sugar is the cause" is just a personal anecdote, not something to generalize. Fatty liver has multiple causes, including alcohol, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and medications.
If you search "fatty liver" on home-workout YouTube, there are lots of 30-minute videos. I did one every day, and starting in week 2, my belly started to flatten. Don't try to do it perfectly—just starting is the answer.
For me, diet made a much bigger difference than exercise. I only stuck to two things—not eating carbs at night and cutting delivery food down to once a week—and by Stage 1, my levels were normal. You got this.
First, check your liver enzyme levels too. See whether AST/ALT are normal and what your gamma-GTP is. The approach depends on that. There are many studies showing that losing just 5% of your body weight before the retest can improve fatty liver.
Since it's obvious you won't go if you sign up for a gym, the right order is to start with your diet. When you consider how much 30 minutes of cardio actually contributes to fat loss, adjusting your meals is far more effective.
I was also at stage 1 last year, but this year my results came back normal. I didn’t sign up for a gym; I just walked briskly for 40 minutes every evening. For meals, I only cut white rice in half and stopped eating soup, and after 6 months my liver enzyme levels improved too. More than exercise intensity, 'every day' is the real key.
Well, that's a bit... With stage 1 fatty liver, a lot of people get back to normal within 3 months, so it's not really something to be too worried about, but the comments saying 'you just need to walk' seem a bit optimistic. Diet is 80% of it.