Research

Hormonal

Engaging in resistance physical activity at least once a week is inversely associated with the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), independent of BMI, nutritional intake, and insulin resistance markers.

To reduce your risk of fatty liver disease, incorporate resistance training into your routine at least once a week. You do not need to lose weight on the scale for this to help; the act of resistance training itself appears to protect the liver, likely by improving how your body handles fat and insulin. While aerobic exercise is good, resistance training showed a stronger independent link to lower liver fat in this study.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Adjusting for sex, engaging in any kind of sports (odds ratio [OR] 0.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.44-0.96 per 1 standard deviation increment in PA score) and resistance exercise (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.38-0.85) were inversely associated with NAFLD. These associations remained unchanged after adjusting for homeostasis model assessment, most nutritional factors, adiponectin, and resistin. Only the association with resistance PA remained significant with further adjustment for body mass index (OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.44-0.85).
Shira Zelber‐Sagi et al. · Hepatology · 2008

Why this rating

Cross-sectional observational study; cannot establish causality, but adjusts for significant confounders like nutrition and BMI.

Source

Role of leisure-time physical activity in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A population-based study

Shira Zelber‐Sagi et al. · Hepatology · 2008

DOI 10.1002/hep.22525

cross_sectional · n=349Cited 300×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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