Effect of Physical Activity on NAFLD

Subjects who were previously enrolled in the trial NUTRIEP and who still have NAFLD a year after the end of the study, were invited to participate in a program of physical activity to assess the effect of endurance and resistance training on weight and NAFLD score. Participants (100 subjects) were randomized and divided into two groups: the first followed a program of endurance activity consisting in a 30 minute walk, 5 times/week; the second followed a program combining the just described aerobic exercise with a resistance training based on 30 minute of musculation involving all the bigger muscles, 3 times/week. The trial lasted six months and subjects underwent liver ultrasonography (to assess NAFLD score), indirect calorimetry, bioimpedenziometry, the measurement of anthropometric variables (body height and weight) and biological parameters (glucose, insulin, cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, GOT, GPT and GGT) at the baseline and at the third and the sixth month. The aim of the study was to estimate the effect of the two different programs of physical activity on NAFLD score. Secondary end-points included: the effect on basal metabolism, the modification of fat mass (FM), lean mass (LM) and muscle mass (MM) and on several biological markers associated with NAFLD.