How Much Weight Loss is Effective on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease?

Background: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (nafld) is the most common liver disease worldwide with no specific treatment. weight loss is the most effective therapeutic strategy in its management; however, there is no consensus on its specifics. thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the effects of weight loss on liver enzymes, markers of inflammation, oxidative stress and ck18-m30 (cytokeratin 18) as a biomarker of hepatocellular apoptosis. objectives: to study the effect of weight reduction diet as an exclusive treatment for nafld. patients and methods: forty four patients with nafld received a diet including a 500 to 1000 kcal per day intake reduction as30% fat, 15% protein, and 55% carbohydrate for six months. anthropometric parameters, alanine aminotransferase (alt), aspartate aminotransferase (ast), gamma glutamyl transferase (ggt), lipid profile, malondialdehyde (mda), tnf-α, il-6, ck18-m30 were measured at baseline and at the end of the study. at the end of follow up, patients were classified as adherent or nonadherent to treatment according to a weight loss of ≥ 5%, or < 5% of initial body weight, respectively. results: twenty five patients were classified as adherent group and nineteen as nonadherent group (9.7% vs. 1.9% total body weight loss after 6 months, respectively). after 6 months, changes in adherent and nonadherent groups were as follows: reduction in body weight from 93.7 ± 15.8 kg to 84.2 ± 13.4 kg vs. 94 ± 16.6 kg to 92.2 ± 16.2 kg (p < 0.05), bmi from 32.7 ± 3.9 to 29.5 ± 3.2 vs.31.8 ± 5.4 to 31.1 ± 5.3 (p < 0.001), and waist circumference from 105.1 ± 12.6 cm to 97.4 ± 9.8 cm vs.106.8 ± 14.2 cm to 103.7 ± 14 cm (p < 0.001), respectively. diastolic blood pressure was significantly decreased in adherent group (from 80.2 ± 5.1 mmhg to 76.9 ± 5 mmhg; p < 0.001). also, total cholesterol, ldl, triglyceride, alt, ast, ggt and ck18-m30 levels were significantly decreased in the adherent group compared to nonadherent group (p < 0.05). conclusions: this intervention offers a practical approach for treatment of patients with nafld with diet therapy.