AIMS: To examine the distribution of liver fat (LFAT) in non-diabetic subjects and test whether the fat in the right as compared to the left lobe correlates better with components of the metabolic syndrome or not. METHODS: In this cross sectional study, we determined LFAT by (1)H-MRS in the right lobe (LFAT%(MRS)), and by MRI (LFAT%(MRI)) in four regions of interest (ROIs 1-4, two in the right and two in the left lobe) in 97 non-diabetic subjects (age range 22-74 years, BMI 18-41kg/m(2)) and compared the accuracy of LFAT(MRI) in the different ROIs in diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) using areas under the receiver operator characteristic (AUROC) curves. RESULTS: 38% of the subjects had NAFLD (LFAT%(MRS)). LFAT%(MRI) was significantly higher in the right (5.7+/-0.5%) than the left (5.1+/-0.4%) lobe (p<0.02). The AUROC for LFAT%(MRI) in the right lobe for diagnosing NAFLD was significantly better than that in the left lobe. The relationships between several metabolic parameters and LFAT%(MRI) in the left lobe were significantly worse than those for LFAT%(MRS) while there was no difference between LFAT%(MRS) and right lobe ROIs. CONCLUSIONS: Liver right lobe contains more fat and correlates better with components of the metabolic syndrome than the left in non-diabetic subjects.