Newly diagnosed NAFLD

[Jheilman]

I was officially diagnosed with NAFLD yesterday, March 17th. I had been experiencing some RUQ pain and saw my Dr. about it. An ultrasound and MRI later and it's official. There was some focal sparing which was worrisome, but the MRI showed no foreign mass. So that's good news! So I have started my journey on the healthy liver road and have dramatically changed my diet. My old eating habits were pretty bad! Lots of bread and sweets and sodas. Hardly any vegetables other than the occasional salad. Now I am following a mediterranean style diet, with loads of veggies, fruits and lean meats like fish and chicken. I have lost 18 lbs in two weeks so far. I am a bit over weight, but not anything out of the norm. I'm new to this forum and look forward to all the advise I can get from people with experience in NAFLD.

[nash2 Partner]

Glad you are taking it seriously. It is usually manageable with a good diet. Lots of information is available. Here is a link to our view of how to be as easy on your liver as you can fattyliverfoundation.org/li...

Wayne

[popthefrog]

What has helped me the most as a 27 year old with fatty liver for 4 years (I just started doing something about it months ago).

1) No booze

2) Working out, I do weights and cardio

3) Eating the same breakfast everyday and meal prepping Lunch and Dinner

4)Buying a food scale to accuractly weigh portions to enter into MyFitnessPal

5) Allow myself 1 to 2 cheat meals a week but I record them as best i can calories wise.

6) Never give up. It sucks and don't listen to anyone who says it wont suck.

Doing this I have dropped 25Lbs so far and my liver enzymes and other bloods are within normal range.

[Jheilman in reply to popthefrog]

I've never been in bad health and exercise regularly. I'm a firefighter and the extra cortisol that my body dumps into my system every time we have a call, and then not exercising when that happens has not helped the liver. I'm not so much concerned on dropping weight, as I am fat percentage. I'm 5'6" and 160 lbs and I have a fair bit of muscle, so BMI is a little skewed in my case. But I did not eat healthy at all. So that's what I'm focusing on. No simple carbs, very few saturated fats and low sodium. My liver enzymes last time I had them checked were both under 20. Oh, and I've stopped drinking all alcohol too. I'm hoping to completely resolve it.

[Ihavebigfeet]

I’m about a month ahead of you on the journey, I have cirrhosis and hemochromatosis, our diet history sounds similar. Finding new foods to meet our needs is definitely an adventure but I must admit so far I’m really enjoying it I wish I’d had motivation to do this years ago might have prevented much of this. On the go moods and meals are the biggest challenge because it’s not always possible to have along what we need. I was told granola bars and the like are ok as long as they are whole grain and processed as little as possible

[Calimom20]

My husband (retired fire chief) is on a common journey. He saw doctor for RUQ pain, bloods were all normal but his fibroscan showed 23 kpa, cirrhosis. He is 57, good BMI, 22. He has always been a healthy eater and occasional drinker, but never more than 2 drinks in an evening. He is now retired so stress has gone down considerably. We are waiting for him to see a liver specialist next month. I just keep hoping the fibroscan was wrong, but the RUQ pain makes me think otherwise. He also feels like he is losing weight, but I think that may be because he is having some health anxiety from his preliminary diagnosis of cirrhosis.

[Jheilman in reply to Calimom20]

I believe some of us are just genetically predispositioned to get it. My father was diagnosed with NASH at the age of 63, and died 3 years later from severe cirrhosis. I don't think he made diet changes and he was severely overweight. I think firefighters are at great risk because of the almost constant cortisol dumps our body does. I haven't had a fibroscan yet, but I'm hoping for no fibrosis. Fingers crossed. Hope your husband's condition is better than expected, and if not just remember, life healthy and he should be fine.