Research
Hormonal
Lean NAFLD, defined as fatty liver in non-obese individuals, is a significant subset of NAFLD (7-20%) and is associated with insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction despite normal BMI.
You do not need to be overweight to develop fatty liver. Lean NAFLD affects 7-20% of NAFLD cases and is linked to insulin resistance and metabolic issues. If you have fatty liver, focus on metabolic health markers like blood sugar and insulin sensitivity, not just your weight.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Lean NAFLD constitutes from 7–20% of NAFLD subjects... lean subjects also owe its genesis to an expanded adipose tissue that defies classical metrics but follow a similar pattern of clinical outcomes.
Why this rating
Based on multiple studies cited in the review.
Source
Epidemiology of non-alcoholic and alcoholic fatty liver diseases
Souveek Mitra et al. · Translational Gastroenterology and Hepatology · 2020
DOI 10.21037/tgh.2019.09.08
narrative_reviewCited 508×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is primarily driven by caloric excess and sedentary lifestyle, with insulin resistance serving as the central pathophysiological mechanism linking metabolic dysfunction to hepatic fat storage and subsequent fibrosis.Good
- Alcohol consumption is a direct cause of liver disease, with risk increasing linearly with dose, and binge drinking independently increases the risk of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) regardless of average daily consumption.Good
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