Weight, diet, physical activity and liver disease

Keeping your weight in a healthy range helps to reduce the risk of liver disease and liver cancer. Having a healthy weight means it isn't too high or too low for you. Eating a well-balanced diet and being physically active both help manage your weight – whether that’s losing weight or keeping it in your healthy range.

When someone is overweight, fat can build up in their liver. This causes non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In most people, NAFLD doesn’t become serious – but over time a small proportion of people with NAFLD develop liver cancer or liver failure.

Excess weight can combine with other risk factors to increase liver damage, for example people who both drink too much alcohol and have a weight in the obese range have a much higher risk of liver disease.

If you aren’t sure if your weight is healthy, visit our Keeping a healthy weight page to find out more about body mass index (BMI) and waist size.