Counseling patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease on how to increase physical activity leads to health benefits that are independent of changes in weight.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common form of chronic liver disease in developed countries. It is associated with obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, and is characterized by elevated liver enzymes.

Currently, patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are encouraged to alter their lifestyles, but the focus has been on weight loss through dietary changes. But when patients were encouraged to be active for at least 150 minutes per week, they showed improvements in liver enzymes and other metabolic indices which were not connected to weight loss.