Fatty Liver / NAFLD Symptoms: Here’s What to Look Out For

The main symptoms associated with NAFLD are pain under the right rib, feeling tired, and bloating or nausea.

There are other less common symptoms reported, like itching or developing red spots but in most cases, a fatty liver doesn’t come with any symptoms – especially in the early stages.

I have had symptoms that can be considered fatty liver symptoms for a long time even before being diagnosed with the condition. Back then, I had no idea what these symptoms meant and they didn’t even seem scary enough to force me visit a doctor.

However, as with any disease, the condition is easiest to reverse when you catch it early on, so if you have any of these symptoms (or any other symptoms), you should visit a doctor ASAP.

Let’s see what are the fatty liver disease symptoms – I had most of these before and after being diagnosed, and most people with a fatty liver will experience at least some of them at one point.

I have to repeat that it’s worth noting that many doctors say that a fatty liver won’t always come with symptoms. So, even if you don’t feel anything, you could still have it (which is the scary part).

At the same time, having more of these symptoms – or some of them being more intense – doesn’t necessarily mean that your fatty liver is in a more advanced state or anything of the sort. But you do need to visit a doctor to tell you exactly where you’re at – or if it’s a fatty liver that’s causing them!

In other words, symptoms depend and vary from person to person. The only way to know if it’s NAFLD/MASLD and how advanced it is, is by visiting your doctor and running all the recommended tests.

Symptoms of a fatty liver

Back to today’s topic, here are the symptoms I had before being diagnosed with a fatty liver:

1. Pain under the right rib cage

We’re talking about a dull pain that’s easy to live with, not too sharp, not something to write home about.

I couldn’t connect it to things I ate or things I did. It was just a strange pain that came and went, sometimes lasting for hours, sometimes not being there for hours.

This is one of the most common symptoms of people dealing with a fatty liver. Some even complain that the pain is really bad and doesn’t let them sleep or wakes them up. So it can vary in severity.

This pain stays with you well after starting your liver-friendly diet and changing your lifestyle, but gets better over time, as your liver heals. I wrote a lot more about this fatty liver related pain in this article in case you want to read more.

But all in all, it’s worth mentioning that of all the symptoms that follow a fatty liver, this is by far the most common, even though some doctors say that the liver doesn’t hurt.

I would say that all the people that I know with a fatty liver have felt this pain under the rib cage.

2. Fatigue

I was always feeling extremely tired. Exhausted, actually, and I always thought that it was me working way too hard – but apparently it was not (just) that.

Usually, if you feel extremely tired – especially without any obvious reason – you might have some liver-related problems. Might, as there are other potential causes for this as well (or just your body needing a rest).

3. Bloating

Before being diagnosed with a fatty liver disease, I started to get bloated at all times, even though in the past that rarely happened to me.

Even so, I attributed my bloating to the fact that I was eating a very unhealthy diet, but apparently that wasn’t the case as many people who have a fatty liver complain about getting bloated.

4. Nausea

Again, this is something that kicked off relatively late and as soon as it did, I decided to visit the doc because there were too many things piling up.

I was always feeling nauseous after eating and I noticed that things were a lot worse after eating greasy foods or larger meals. Things like fast food, or steaks with fries or anything like that – they all made the nausea worse.

I didn’t know back then that we shouldn’t drink alcohol with fatty liver, so I was also drinking beer after the meal or taking a shot before to “help digestion”. Oh my, the damage I was doing without knowing!

Conditions seemed to improve if I took pills to help digestion (I thought that was the problem), but fortunately I decided to go check things out and I am glad I did.

5. Itching

While I didn’t experience this, it is a common cause of liver-related problem, including a fatty liver.

You have inexplicable itching on some areas of your body, usually your arms and legs. This is definitely a sign that you have to visit a doctor! It’s not necessarily a sign of liver problems, but many people I know with a fatty liver have this too.

6. Red spots on the skin

Another symptom that I didn’t personally experience, but many people that were diagnosed with a fatty liver complained that they had it.

Although these red spots are usually associated with other problems (from allergic reactions to a plethora of other things), several people that I had talked to and had a fatty liver also had those, so they could be connected.

7. Your body asking for healthy food

This is something that sounds a bit strange, but some of you might experience it and I certainly did, so I decided to include it on the list, even though it’s not really a medical thing and some might roll their eyes hearing me talk about your body demanding this or that.

I craved things that I never craved before, like eating salads, fresh yogurt and usually light, refreshing foods. I rarely ate fruits back then and I was really surprised to find me craving apples or strawberries back then too.

Of course, I didn’t really listen to my body back then and kept forcing myself to eat pizzas and burgers and all the bad things that people around me were eating…

But since then, I decided to pay more attention to what my body asks. (But not offer it the sugar it wants, for example, as that’s not really the same thing and we always have healthier alternatives).

Wrapping up the symptoms

As you can see, common fatty liver disease symptoms include pain under the right rib and some other pretty generic things like nausea, bloating and tiredness which can be associated with a bunch of other things (or just you going through a bad time).

Except for the pain the upper right side of the abdomen (which I associated with my irritable bowel initially, for example) everything else can be easily ignored as you wait for the problems to pass and they generally do.

But you shouldn’t ignore them! I know now after fortunately deciding to visit the doctor.

As I said, if you have these symptoms, you don’t automatically have a fatty liver or any sort of liver problems. At the same time, many find out that they have a fatty liver during routine checks… so it’s not easy to point a finger on this or that.

You should also visit the doctor regularly and run some tests if you are obese or even overweight (I was way over a healthy weight, for example – see how I looked before reversing my condition) or if you have liver-related problems in your family.

A fatty liver could be completely silent for years and have no symptoms, so simply checking out every now and then, especially if you don’t eat healthy and have an active life, is definitely a good idea.

The sooner you know what you have, the sooner you can start taking the right steps to getting healthy again!

It took me 1.5 years to reverse it and maybe I would’ve been able to do it sooner if I went to the doctor faster, when the first symptoms appeared.

Then stick to your diet and you’ll get healthy again! It’s easier than it might seem at first.

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