Table 1.

Characteristics of the included studies

Study	Design	Enrolled (n)	Participants	Intervention characteristics			Control	Method for NAFLD diagnosis
				Physical activity type	Sessions per week	Intervention duration (weeks)
Sullivan 2012 [14]	monocentre	18	Obese adults with NAFLD	Aerobic	5 times	16	Continue current activities of daily living	1H MRS
Pugh 2013 [8]	monocentre	13	Adults with NAFLD	Aerobic	3–5 times	16	Basic lifestyle advice	Biochemical tests
Pugh 2014 [15]	monocentre	31	Obese adults with NAFLD	Aerobic	3–5 times	16	Conventional care	MRI
Zelber-Sagi 2014 [16]	monocentre	82	Adults with NAFLD	Resistance	3 times	12	Sham exercise (stretching)	Ultrasonography
Shamsoddini 2015 [17]	monocentre	30	Male adults with NAFLD	Aerobic +Resistance	135 min	8	No intervention	Ultrasonography
Cuthbertson 2016 [18]	monocentre	69	Adults with NAFLD	Aerobic	3 times	16	Conventional counselling	MRI
Shojaee 2016 [19]	monocentre	27	Male adults with sedentary lifestyles and NAFLD	Aerobic + Resistance	4–5 times	16	Standard care	Ultrasonography or Liver biopsy
Zhang 2016 [20]	monocentre	220	Obese adults with NAFLD	Aerobic	150 min	48	No intervention	1H MRS
Jia 2018 [21]	monocentre	461	Adults with NAFLD	Aerobic + Resistance	≥3 times	24	Standard care	Ultrasonography