Covid drove me out of the gym and I added weight without knowing it. BMI reached 30.
Doc blood test showed only AltPhos abnormal, but the other two were approaching abnormal. Prediabetic via blood glucose 101. This was January this year.
Ultrasound fibrofatty changes to liver. Fibroscan 8.4 kiloPascals F2 and CAP 320. March this year.
I was told another Fibroscan and blood work would be needed in 6 months. This past Sept a few weeks ago.
I did the reading and learned weight loss methodology. The gym is 20%, diet 80%. Remember that if you are trying. The gym's 20% is very important because it kills appetite, but those calories burned are not where the weight gets lost. It's diet.
Whole wheat bread, brown rice. Those are two very easy changes and they are important. You have eaten your last beef for a long time. Turkey, chicken, tuna are the replacements and I found that easy. Make sandwiches at home. Transition to mustard from mayo. Make changes that are easy. Like bread type, rice type, no cookies and cake, which can be not easy. Peanut butter may help. Your salad dressing is EVOO, not Ranch. Be disciplined and here's what happens:
Currently BMI 25.3. Dropped 40 lbs since Jan and 26 since March. More than 10% body weight lost in 6 months March to Sept.
September blood work, blood glucose 97, not on any meds at all. AltPhos normal. The usual two dropped well below the abnormal threshold.
Fibroscan 6.1 kiloPascals F0/F1. CAP 235. Hepatologist said I no longer need monitoring. Only if weight returns. As long as I don't get hurt and have the gym, not likely. She labeled me a successful patient. She said not unheard of and she has seen it before, but ONLY if people do as their told and attack diet and exercise. Not many do, and this is wrong. This was NOT a struggle. Just decide and use your head and make substitutions as above. Don't Go Under 1500 calories/day. That will erode your resolve. Aim between 1500 and 2000. This is always a caloric deficit.
Bottom line. You CAN drop fibrosis measure in 6 months, but when you're told to lose weight, lose it. That is the only available treatment and . . . it is effective. It really is.
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Rodmail
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Congratulations and thank you for sharing your motivational story with us. I lost over 45lbs and lately I’ve gained about 5lbs back but I stull calorie track and have remained at 95% on my strict diet. I have slips every now and then, but I’ve managed to improve my liver and overall health a lot. Consistency is key. I used to feel pain almost all the time, but it’s rare, at most I feel it every few months nowadays.
I find eating 1500 calories very difficult. It seems like everything I would like to eat are things that are not good. Are you getting recipes from internet? Sounds like you’ve got this down pat!
Our industrial food system has produced a taste habit that is really unhealthy and it is a challenge to change it but it does get easier. I was diagnosed in 2015 and still have occasional yearnings for the good old days but some nuts and a spoonful of olive oil manages it quite nicely for me. I went from a 21.5 kpa to 9.6 and lost 30% of my weight which has been stable now for 6 years.
1) I am 68. 6'1" currently about 195 with clothes. Clothes are an oddly big deal. Try to weigh naked, same time of day, empty bladder. Don't introduce variables that camouflage reality.
2) I was babbling a bit in my post. My urging is, as another mentioned, consistency. Don't go to the gym and leave dripping with sweat. The goal is not a super intense workout. The goal is go on schedule and never miss. NEVER miss. If you miss, get angry and add a session, immediately.
3) A personal habit is Subway sandwich after the gym. Every time. 6" sandwich, whole wheat bread, no mayo, mustard, chicken or turkey (and tuna once every other week, there is mayo in their tuna), and load it up with every veggie they have. That's your reward for your workout, not McDs.
4) Frozen foods -- 80% are crushed pasta. You are allowed zero pasta. It is processed wheat, like white bread. Not allowed. Ditto rice. Some frozen items are chicken and rice -- but that's white rice. Not allowed. There are frozen food items with "riced cauliflower". This has nothing at all to do with rice and is the easy replacement. There are little 1 minute microwave containers of brown rice. And $10 packages of Tyson skinless chicken slices (I think some skin gets past their process, but it's not much). Anyway, THAT is your chicken and rice.
5) Re-emphasize. Easy changes. It's easy to go to brown (whole grain) bread rather than white. It's easy (once you find the little 1 minute brown rice cups) to do your own chicken and rice. Desperate for calories? Almonds or peanuts, both which inevitably will be salted, but that didn't seem to hurt my efforts, and unsalted would have because . . . an attack on resolve. Make easy changes. "Easy" means changes that do not attack your resolve. If you hate mustard, I can't help you. If you are okay with mustard, that is your new mayo.
6) Peanut butter, or almond butter (taste surprisingly similar) on a slice of brown bread seems to kill my cake craving. Do a lot of reading and you'll find peanut butter is okay, in moderation.
Okay that's my elaboration. Oh, one more thing. The scale. Every day. Let it control your life, or you won't have a life left.
my scores for my fibroscan is8.9kPa , 239 mean, for liver and the did fibroscan 1st time on spleen, results were 98.3kPa. I have been on low carb diet since 2019. I have lost 70lbs with 50 lbs to go. I have only started having an occasional slice of keto bread, otherwise I eat no rice,potato,pasta,sugar or other breads. No flour except almound or croconut . My scores show my NASH is F-2 moderate liver disease and I have reversed my fatty liver by staying strict to this new way of life not a diet for now but a new way of life for the rest.of my life.
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