• Home
  • Science
  • Science News
  • Weight Loss Attempts Not Working as Desired? Time to Pay Attention to Your Gut Microbiome, Study Suggests

Weight Loss Attempts Not Working as Desired? Time to Pay Attention to Your Gut Microbiome, Study Suggests

The gut microbiome plays a key role in digestion.

Weight Loss Attempts Not Working as Desired? Time to Pay Attention to Your Gut Microbiome, Study Suggests

Photo Credit: Pexels/ Andres Ayrton

There can be several reasons why your weight loss regimen is not yielding desired results

Highlights
  • Gut microbiome comprises trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes
  • It also benefits the immune system of your body
  • Researchers studied 105 people during a commercial wellness programme
Advertisement

COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent stay-at-home scenario forced people to renew focus on themselves and choose healthy options over a sedentary lifestyle. Some people achieved great success in losing that extra flab but others were a little less successful. What could be the reason behind this discrepancy? While there could be several variables — including diet and workout patterns — a new study says the genetic capacity of the gut microbiome is also a significant factor that influences how much weight a person is likely to lose with simple lifestyle changes. The gut microbiome, having trillions of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes, plays a key role in digestion. It also benefits the immune system.

Researchers studied 105 people during a commercial wellness programme, which included healthy lifestyle coaching. Half of them showed consistent weight loss (1 percent of their body weight per month over 6–12 months), the other half maintained a stable body mass index (BMI).

The study was published in the open-access American Society for Microbiology journal mSystems.

Those who lost weight easily had higher bacterial growth rates in their microbiomes. They were also enriched in genes. Those who showed resistance in losing weight had lower bacterial growth rates and higher capacity for breaking down non-absorbable fibres and starches into absorbable sugars, said the study by Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) researchers.

“In this study, we set out to better understand interactions between baseline BMI, metabolic health, diet, gut microbiome functional profiles, and subsequent weight changes in a human cohort that underwent a healthy lifestyle intervention. Overall, our results suggest that the microbiota may influence host weight loss responses through variable bacterial growth rates, dietary energy harvest efficiency, and immunomodulation,” the researchers, led by Dr. Christian Diener, said.

The researchers said they studied factors of successful weight loss that were independent of BMI. People with higher baseline BMIs lose more weight after an intervention. Research has already shown that a change in diet can change the composition of bacteria in the gut. So, this study shows if someone's bacterial gene composition is resisting weight loss, perhaps a change in diet can be helpful.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Telegram Users Can Now Record Livestreams, New Update Brings Chat Themes, More
Facebook India Appoints Former IAS Officer Rajiv Aggarwal as Head of Public Policy
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »