Fatty Liver Diet – The Costly Mistake People Make When Following A Diet For Reducing A Fatty Liver

Combining the right fatty liver diet with a consistent weight loss program is the best way to reduce the effects of steatosis. Steatosis is the medical term used to describe the process by which lipids are abnormally retained in cells. When fat in the liver exceeds 5-10% by weight, the result is fatty liver disease (FLD).

FLD is generally broken into two types: those cases resulting from excessive alcohol intake (alcoholic fatty liver disease) and those cases resulting from a wide variety of other causes such as insulin resistance and metabolic syndromes (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease).

In many cases, excess fat in the liver is benign and an asymptomatic disease. A definitive diagnosis requires a liver biopsy, and many patients don’t know they have the condition until it worsens.

FLD treatment often involves changes in diet, reductions in alcohol consumption, exercise routines for weight loss, and methods to keep blood sugar under control. When treated early, the condition is often reversible, but if left untreated the condition can progress to cirrhosis or even liver disease and complete liver failure.

This disease affects around 20% of the population worldwide, but occurs in as many as 75% of people who struggle with obesity. It is also commonly linked to people with combined hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus (type II), and/or high blood pressure.

One mistake many patients make when following a fatty liver diet plan is attempting to lose weight too quickly. A 10% weight reduction has been shown to help reduce liver size, but the weight should be lost gradually over time instead of all at once.

When rapid fat loss occurs through intense workouts or starvation diets, fatty acid production increases in the liver to make up for the lost fat which causes FLD to worsen. Under these conditions, fats are converted into energy quickly, but incompletely. This incomplete conversion allows more fat to find its way into the liver.

A proper fatty liver diet should be well balanced. Fats, proteins, and carbohydrates all need to be accounted for. A general recommendation is to maintain a diet consisting of 20-30% fats, 60-70% complex carbohydrates, and 20-30% protein. These numbers are not set in stone and can be adjusted, but fatty foods should make up no more than 30% of the overall caloric intake.