Managing MASH Means Changing My Lifestyle
What I Wish I Knew: Focus on Sustainable Changes
Certain lifestyle changes can help you manage MASH and your overall health. Starting small can help you stick to your goals.
- Weight loss: If you're overweight, losing just 5 to 7 percent of your body weight can help improve your liver health. “Sometimes people feel like they need to lose 80 pounds, but your initial weight loss goal can be much more modest and still offer improvements,” says Dr. Wegermann. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, 5 percent of your body weight would be 10 pounds.
- Diet modifications: Following a Mediterranean diet is often recommended for MASH. It focuses on fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, legumes, whole grains, and healthy fats, such as olive oil and fatty fish, and also limits saturated fats and processed foods. If overhauling your diet seems intimidating, start small by avoiding sweet beverages, reducing snacking, and substituting empty carbs for higher protein options, says Wegermann.
- Exercise: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, such as brisk walking or biking, each week. “People often feel like that means they have to go to the gym for 30 minutes a day … but that’s hard to do right off the bat,” says Wegermann. “So, if you have 10 minutes, do 10 minutes. That’s better than zero minutes.” Not to mention, you don’t even have to go to the gym: Taking a walk counts as exercise!
What I Wish I Knew: It’s Okay to Ask for Help
These specialists can also help you navigate any roadblocks that may be preventing you from making healthy lifestyle choices. “Some of my patients live in food deserts and have trouble accessing fresh fruits and vegetables,” says Wegermann. “They may have never learned how to cook fresh food. They may be relying on fast food due to their work schedule. So there can definitely be a lot of barriers.”
Jonathan G. Stine, MD, MSc, FACP
Medical Reviewer
Jonathan Stine, MD, MSc, FACP, is an associate professor of medicine and public health science at Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania.
As an internationally recognized liver expert with a research and clinical focus on metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and exercise, he has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, including multinational consensus guidelines.
Dr. Stine is the recipient of multiple research grants and awards from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the American Cancer Society, and has maintained continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2018.
Stine is the MASLD consultant to the American College of Sports Medicine’s “Exercise is Medicine” initiative, and recently co-chaired the International Roundtable on MASLD and Physical Activity for ACSM. He serves as the Fatty Liver Program director as well as the Liver Center Research director for Penn State.
