Research

Energy balance

Losing obesity (achieving non-obesity status) after having been obese in young adulthood normalizes the risk of MASLD, at-risk MASH, and increased liver stiffness to levels comparable to those who were never obese.

If you were obese in your young adulthood but have since lost the weight to a non-obese range, your risk for serious liver conditions (like MASH and fibrosis) is likely the same as someone who was never obese. You do not need to worry about 'permanent' liver damage from your past obesity if you have achieved and maintained a healthy weight.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Losing obesity resulted in normalisation of odds for MASLD, at-risk MASH and increased LSM. These findings underline the importance of preventing and treating young adulthood obesity to maintain liver health.
Laurens A. van Kleef et al. · Liver International · 2024

Why this rating

Large retrospective cohort (NHANES, n=4,580) with robust sensitivity analyses, though reliance on self-reported historical weight introduces recall bias.

Source

<scp>MASLD</scp> , At‐Risk <scp>MASH</scp> and Increased Liver Stiffness Are Associated With Young Adulthood Obesity Without Residual Risk After Losing Obesity

Laurens A. van Kleef et al. · Liver International · 2024

DOI 10.1111/liv.16169

cohort · n=4580Cited 13×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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