Your Gut Bacteria May Make It Harder to Lose Weight


(Bunny) #1

Your Gut Bacteria May Make It Harder to Lose Weight

By Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer LiveScience August 1, 2018

For some people on a diet, the pounds just seem to fall off, while others have a much harder time losing weight. Now, a new, small study finds that people’s gut bacteria may play a role in determining how easy, or difficult, it is for them to lose weight.

The study suggests that, among people who have a hard time losing weight, their gut bacteria tend to be better at using carbohydrates, which provide people’s bodies with more energy. This is usually a good thing, as people need energy to fuel their bodies. But for some people trying to lose weight, the ability of their gut bacteria to provide energy may be a weight-loss deterrent, the researchers said.

The study “tells us gut bacteria are likely an important determinant of the degree of weight loss attained following lifestyle and dietary intervention,” said Dr. Purna Kashyap, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and co-senior author of the study. 5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health

The researchers stressed that the findings are preliminary and need to be confirmed with larger studies. But the study suggests the “need to take the microbiome into account in clinical studies [on weight loss]; and it also provides an important direction to pursue in terms of providing individualized care in obesity,” Kashyap told Live Science.

Studying stool

For the new study, the researchers analyzed data from 26 overweight or obese people enrolled in an obesity-treatment program that involved diet, exercise and behavioral changes aimed at helping people lose weight. The researchers also analyzed the participants’ stool samples, which were collected at the start of the study and after three months on the weight-loss program.

During this three-month period, the participants lost an average of 8.2 lbs. (3.7 kilograms). Nine of the participants lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, which the researchers considered a “successful” weight loss. The other 17 participants lost less than 5 percent of their body weight. Among the “successful” weight-loss group, participants lost an average of 17.4 lbs. (7.9 kg), compared with 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kg) in the “unsuccessful” group.

Next, using the stool samples, the researchers analyzed the participants’ gut microbiome for bacterial genes that play a role in breaking down carbohydrates. They found that, in the unsuccessful weight-loss group, there was an increased number of these bacterial genes, compared with the successful weight- loss group. 5 Things Your Poop Says About Your Health

"A gut microbiota with increased capability for carbohydrate metabolism appears to be associated with decreased weight loss," the researchers wrote in the study, published online today (Aug. 1) in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

What’s more, the study also found that people in the successful weight-loss group had higher amounts of a bacterium called Phascolarctobacterium, while those in the unsuccessful weight-loss group had higher amounts of a bacterium called Dialister. (Still, it’s unclear whether Dialister bacteria specifically use carbohydrates in a way that could hinder weight loss, the researchers noted.)

Future avenues

The new study is “supportive of things we’re learning about the microbiome,” said Dr. Vijaya Surampudi, a physician with the Risk Factor Obesity Weight Management Program at UCLA Health who was not involved in the study.

Indeed, the findings agree with other recent studies that suggest gut bacteria may play a role in obesity and weight loss. For example, a 2013 study in mice found that mice who received a “gut bacteria transplant” from an obese human gained more weight and fat mass than those who received bacteria from a lean human. And a 2015 study in people found that bariatric surgery may lead to long-term changes in people’s gut bacteria that could contribute to weight loss.

However, Surampudi agreed that the new study was small, and that more research is needed to confirm the findings.

One day, it might be possible to identify people who would respond, or not, to a given diet, Surampudi said. For example, if the new findings turn out to be true, it may mean that people who have more carbohydrate-using bacteria would respond better to a low-carb diet, she said.

“We [could] use the microbiome to help us navigate which diet approach would be better for people,” Surampudi told Live Science, though more research is needed before this approach could be used in patients.

Kashyap agreed that if future studies confirm the findings, “we may need to modify [a person’s] the weight loss plan based on an individual’s gut bacteria; or try to change the makeup of the gut bacteria using targeted approaches like probiotics before instituting a weight loss program.”

Original article on LiveScience.

Related:

  1. The underlying biological reasons why it’s extremely difficult to restore gut diversity once it’s been lost.

Tim Ferriss -- a double dose!
How come some people do not gain substantially by eating carbohydrates and sugar?
(Todd Gamel) #2

After reading this article, it appears that they of course gave their participants a high carbohydrate diet, or at least the standard low-fat diet. This of course is just a guess on my part as they do not specify what kind of diet they placed the participants on. The following quote from their article leads me to this conclusion.

“The study suggests that, among people who have a hard time losing weight, their gut bacteria tend to be better at using carbohydrates, which provide people’s bodies with more energy. This is usually a good thing, as people need energy to fuel their bodies. But for some people trying to lose weight, the ability of their gut bacteria to provide energy may be a weight-loss deterrent, the researchers said.”

The author of the article goes on to state…

“A gut microbiota with increased capability for carbohydrate metabolism appears to be associated with decreased weight loss,” the researchers wrote in the study, published online today (Aug. 1) in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Since the majority of us here are on a reduced carbohydrate diet and burn fat and ketones for fuel, I am not sure how much this gut bacteria could affect our weight loss. Having said that, if you have that type of “good gut bacteria” as they call it and you are already keto, then you may have a small additional increase in weight loss, and that would be great, but I would guess it would be really small as we are carbohydrate restricted.

I would have liked to see this kind of research done with participants who were on a ketogenic diet to see if they found the same types and numbers of gut bacteria in the stool, or would a low carbohydrate nullify their findings. Unfortunately, we will probably never know, there just does not seems to be money for low carbohydrate research.


(Bunny) #3

From a ketogenic point of view I am thinking it (gut flora biome) has to do with how fats (LCHF) are digested and how it interacts with the gut flora biome, digestive enzyme breakdown (pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin, lipase and amylase) in the stomach before the dietary fats penetrate the mucosal wall in the small intestines to be transported (the gut flora biome sends a set of instructions) to the liver (to make ketones) or to store it in adipose tissue?


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

You are absolutely right. According to the article in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings,

The nutritional intervention involved a volumetric approach that included larger amounts of fruits, vegetables, and low energy density foods with lesser intake of foods with greater nutrient density. The goal was to reduce energy intake while achieving a high food intake volume.

N = 25 in this study, so it’s not very high powered. Also, there was no control group, so this is an indication of possible association, not causality.

To see the full article:
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(18)30148-4/fulltext


(Jane) #5

I remember reading about a woman who had a serious issue with her bowels and her doctor recommended a fecal transplant so she had one from her daughter’s stool.

The mom had never been overweight her entire life but her daughter was. After the fecal transplant the mom ballooned up and couldn’t manage to lose weight even restricting her calories.

I know people who eat a high carb diet their entire lives and stay thin without dieting or a lot of exercise. I am not one of those fortunate ones!