Why BMI matters for a fatty liver
Excess body weight is the strongest modifiable driver of metabolic fatty liver disease, and weight loss is the intervention with the most consistent evidence behind it. BMI is the crudest way to capture that — it cannot tell muscle from fat, and it says nothing about where fat sits — but it is the measure most guidelines and thresholds are written around.
| BMI | Category (WHO, adults) |
|---|---|
| Below 18.5 | Underweight |
| 18.5 – 24.9 | Healthy weight |
| 25.0 – 29.9 | Overweight |
| 30.0 and above | Obesity |
Two caveats that matter here. Lower thresholds are used for people of South Asian, Chinese and some other Asian backgrounds, where metabolic risk rises at a lower BMI. And fatty liver occurs in people whose BMI is in the healthy range — “lean” fatty liver is well recognised, which is why waist-to-height ratio is often the more useful number.
Before you act on this
FattyFix publishes general health information. It is not medical advice, it is not a diagnosis, and it is not a substitute for talking to a doctor, pharmacist or dietitian who knows your history. Never delay or stop treatment because of something you read here.
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