Have you ever been on a diet with someone who just seemed to always beat you in the weight loss game even though you ate and exercised the same amount? Now especially, after the holiday months, many people attempt to lose weight only to give up after a few months of high effort and low payoff. It is the plight of many to see other’s work rewarded while there own efforts go seemingly forgotten. However, a recent story shared by NPR has shed new light on the role that the millions of bacteria living in our bodies, known as the microbiome, has on dieting. This finding has major implications on the future of dieting.
NPR describes a study lead by Purna Kashyap, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic, in which people who were enrolled in a lifestyle-intervention program for weight loss were tracked for both weight loss and gut bacteria. The participants were advised to follow a low-calorie diet, and followed closely for about three months. “We found that people who lost at least 5 percent of their body weight had a vastly different gut bacteria as compared to those who did not lose 5 percent of their body weight,” Kashyap explained in a published Mayo Clinic journal. The successful dieters had an increased abundance of a bacteria called Phascolarctobacterium, whereas another bacteria, Dialister, was increased in those who were unsuccessful in their weight loss efforts. It was hypothesized that there were likely other bacteria who were also culprits in effecting the weight loss of some over others.
This major effect that gut bacteria has on weight loss can be explained when we think about the way the body digests much of its food. We as humans are reliant on many bacteria to break down the food that we cannot digest or absorb ourselves. The more efficient the bacteria is at digesting food into forms that we can absorb, the more calories we obtain from the food that we eat. The new study suggests that certain bacteria may be more efficient at creating these “extra” calories for us to digest. While its not simple for scientists to manipulate the mix of microbes in our guts, identifying the organisms that are thought to be beneficial in weight loss or gain can become monumental as new drugs are created to target the weight loss or gain of the body.
micro biology 