Fatty Liver

[Trees139]

I have just turned 60 and have been diagnosed with a fatty liver and that I need to lose weight, can anybody help with what I should/shouldn't be eating as I have to admit it is scaring the life out of me. -x-

[Bolly]

Your portion sizes should be no more than the size of your clenched fist. If you have more food on your plate than that at meal times you are serving up too much food. Not eating sugar or any foods with sugar in will really help. Research the 5:2 diet, lots of people find it suits them. If you are someone who diets best with support, join a programme like Slimming World or weight Watchers. Good luck!

[Trees139 in reply to Bolly]

Many thanks for the advice I'll give it a go -x-

[briccolone]

hi welcome to the club...I wouldn't be too scared-you can google yourself to death on this....about a third of the population has fatty liver and that's probably a conservative estimate.

I was diagnosed with fatty liver last year-I'm 59 now but probably had it for years. Mine was diagnosed with ultrasound but I had high GGT due to excess drinking which almost certainly was the cause.

As Bolly says-I found the 5:2 diet very efficacious-over a 6-12 week period together with no alcohol I lost 11kg and all my symptoms disappeared-I'm not saying I eradicated the fatty liver. My symptoms included digestive issues and right quadrant pain.

Do you know what casued the fatty liver? Is it just excess weight? Exercise and good diet cam make significant improvements-the important thing is stick at and choose a regime that is sustainable. If you drink alcohol-cease or keep it to high days and holidays and don't binge! Take it from me.

good luck

[Trees139 in reply to briccolone]

Hi thank you for your comments and encouragement. My GP thinks that my diagnosis is probably due to a weight problem but I have to admit to being a bit of a binge drinker in the past and only went to see my GP as when I had even a small amount of alcohol I had a pain in my Liver. I am now very focused on eating healthily and have cut out alcohol completely so lets hope a new me starts to emerge. -x-

[briccolone in reply to Trees139]

Yep binge drinking does you in ....anything more than 3 units is not to be recommended. You should be OK if you follow the advice given cheers

[khoidong]

Eat fiber rich veg .Avoid meat items. Fish is okay. Don't be upset with medical advice. Feel normal .Don't just feel depressed. Take life NORMAL. Don't be upset. They always talk wits out of you. Take LFT and USG of the whole Abdomen. Let us share the results. Cheer up. Life is mysterious and BEAUTIFUL.

[Splodge60]

At the moment I am getting a bit irritated and annoyed. People (ie GPs, Radiologists, Registrars, Consultants and so on) often treat people with liver disease as idiots or imbeciles. Often, medical professionals in this field seem to treat patients as if the least knowledge given is the best thing they can do for the patient. Take ‘fatty liver’. Time and again I’ve seen people on here terrified that they have a diagnosis of fatty liver when it is not often something to be terrified of. Yes, it does require lifestyle changes if it is to go away but, and I can’t stress this enough, ‘fatty liver is not a diagnosis ‘. It like saying ‘you’ve got a few weeds in your garden’. What kind of weeds? Which is the worst kind? How do I get rid of them, etc etc. You know weeds are bad for your garden, but, which ones. Similarly, we know that ‘fatty liver’ per se is bad for you, but how bad, what kind of fatty liver is the worst, what are the short and long term implications of having a fatty liver (weeds in your garden). Questions questions questions, you should be asking them or trying new ideas to get rid of the weeds. There are 2 major types of ‘fatty liver’.....NAFLD. Many many more people are being diagnosed with fatty liver when it is NAFLD that they have, the Less serious of the two types and requiring different weed killer to NASH, the more serious of the two types. Get my drift. The doctor has a duty of care. When he/she says you have fatty liver, he should, as a matter of respect for you, determine which of these 2 problems you have. Which weed is, therefore, causing the problem with your grass. Times and research have changed. It used to be (when I was diagnosed with NASH 16 years ago), that the only way you could tell if it was NaSH was to do a biopsy of the liver. I had this and was duly diagnosed with it. Nevertheless, after those 16 years with hardly any input from the doctors and me struggling to learn which weed killers work best, from doing my own research, I am still baffled by a lot of stuff concerning fatty liver because the doctors can’t be bothered to do the right tests, can’t be bothered to explain things clearly and, can’t even be bothered to give you adequate monitoring. A lot of their comments and suppositions about YOUR liver health is based on their own thoughts and ideas, not rigorous testing and sufficient care. Like I said, I’m irritated and annoyed by all this condescending attitude that they are the professionals and by default that means they know what’s best for you. They do not, so don’t let them get away with such shoddy incompetence and lack of care for you any more.