Probiotics Can Help Decrease Abdominal Fat
A study randomized 87 overweight individuals to either fermented milk with Lactobacillus gasseri or placebo for 12 weeks, and measured abdominal fat using computed tomography scan. Those randomized with probiotics experienced decreased abdominal fat measurement and body weight.
The study showed that those given probiotics experienced a reduction of belly fat by an average of 4.6%, and lost around 1.5% BMI . That might not sound a lot, but note that the participants in the experiment did not stick to diet nor exercise all they did is drink the probiotics on a daily basis.
Can Probiotics Help You Lose Weight
Maintaining a healthy weight is a complex interplay of how much food you eat, what types of food you eat, exercise patterns, and genetics. Theres been a lot of research on how weight gain, a high amount of belly fat, an elevated body mass index , and obesity impact health, especially with diseases like diabetes, coronary artery disease, and hypertension.
Probiotics Appear To Even Prevent Weight Gain
When it comes to weight loss, you also have to continue to focus on not regaining the weight back once you lose it. While more research is needed, a 2015 study published in the journal Obesity, found that a probiotic supplement taken over a 4 week period reduced weight and fat gain in participants who consumed 1,000 extra calories more than they needed each day. This could indicate that certain probiotic strains may be helpful in preventing weight gain.
According to their website, VSL#3, a commercial multispecies probiotic that contains 8 different strains of bacteria and has a potency of 450 to 900 billion colony forming units . It contains a variety of Streptococcus, Bifidobacterium, and Lactobacillus bacterias.
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How Bad Gut Bacteria May Affect Weight
A healthy gut microbiome consists of an innumerable amount of microorganisms like bacteria and yeasts. Some benefit the body while others dont. When bad bacteria begin to proliferate, an imbalance in the gut occurs. This is called dysbiosis.
Factors contributing to dysbiosis include diet high in sugar and processed foods, use of antibiotics, and emotional and physical stress. These factors are hard to avoid, but the reality is dysbiosis can directly contribute to excess body weight, bloating, inflammation, and belly fat.
Your gut contains two main categories of microorganisms Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. While the verdict is out, some studies suggest that a microbiome containing a disproportionate amount of Firmicutes contributes to obesity in children and adults.
In other words, the composition of your gut microbiota plays a role in metabolic processes which affect your weight. It regulates hormones that affect appetite and blood sugar, and determines how energy is used in your body. Lets get more specific:
How Do Probiotics Help You Lose Weight
Even if youre not a kombucha or kefir stan, youve prob had a healthy dose of probiotics in the likes of yogurt, pickles, or other fermented foods.
Your gut is filled with hundreds of microorganisms as it is most of them friendly little guys that produce important nutrients like vitamin K and B vitamins. They also help break down fiber that your body cant digest.
When you add some more microorganisms to the mix with help from probiotics, its really a party. Heres how that might help with weight loss.
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Probiotics Can Lessen Weight Gain
A 2015 study examined the effects of probiotics in healthy, young, normal-weight adults who were then fed high-fat diet. Participants were randomized to receive either probiotics or placebo. The supplementation and high-fat diet went for 4 weeks. The participants were examined before and after the intervention with x-rays, blood glucose levels, and muscle biopsy. It showed that those who were given probiotics gained less fat and body mass compared to placebo.
This study is interesting because there is placebo control, and the participants were examined with imaging and testing of blood glucose and muscle biopsy to determine the values.
Tips On How To Take Probiotics
Here are my best tips for taking probiotics for the best and optimal results on your weight loss.
It is recommended to take probiotics on an empty stomach. Why? The thing is to boost digestion. When a healthy gut is actively working on probiotic foods on an empty stomach, the digestion process is optimized. As a result, more fat is burned!
Stay away from water that contains chlorine. Chlorine, when consumed, kills the good bacteria in the foods youve eaten. Do you really want to destroy these healthy microbes that exist to make you slim? I bet no!
If you want to take probiotics in the form of pills, make sure to take it in the morning on an empty stomach.
Taking probiotics pill before eating will help you maximize its purpose in your gut. Usually, 30-40 mins before you start eating. This way youre giving it enough time to scroll through the intestinal tract and do its thing!
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Probiotics May Help You Lose Weight Especially Belly Fat
Basically, a healthy balance of gut bacteria helps promote a healthy weight in three main ways :
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Love Your Gut And Lose Unwanted Weight
Maintaining a healthy gut means eating healthier foods, so a good diet is double beneficial. Probiotics specifically crave prebiotics, which are dietary fiber foods that your stomach cannot digest. These foods end up in the gut and are ideal meals for your friendly flora. The more prebiotics you have, the healthier your gut bacteria and you will be.
Research has identified specific bacterial strains that seem to help with weight loss. The Lactobacillus bacteria family has been shown to help with weight loss and specifically the loss of belly fat.
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This family of bacteria is commonly used in fermented foods as well as probiotic supplements and impacts your metabolism to cause reduced fat absorption. You end up expelling more fat, so less is stored, meaning you have less to burn off.
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Probiotics For Weight Loss: How Do They Work
Exactly how probiotics encourage weight loss is not 100 percent clear, but several theories exist. Some studies have suggested that probiotics may block fat absorption and increase the excretion of fat through the stool, thus lowering the number of calories absorbed by your body, Axe says. Other research shows that probiotics can increase secretion of a hormone called GLP-1 which helps promote satiety and bump up metabolism and fat burning. Interested in losing weight?
Do Bad Gut Bacteria Cause Belly Fat And Weight Gain
Research shows that there are differences in the microbiota of obese individuals and lean individuals, but the data doesnt establish any kind of cause and effect. The human microbiome is extremely complex with 1000s of bacterial species and large differences in gut flora across populations of people, so this type of research can be tricky.
In fact, while one study found lower levels of Bacteroidetes species in the guts of obese and higher levels of Firmicutes species in lean and anorexic individuals, another study found the opposite with higher levels of Bacteroidetes in obese and overweight subjects. [3
So, research into gut bacteria populations is fascinating, but it doesnt provide us with any clinical take-aways.
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Probiotics And Weight Loss
Probiotics can help support weight loss by preventing inflammation. Chronic inflammation can result from an unhealthy gut, specifically a gut that is out of balance and favors harmful strains.
Harmful bacteria that thrives on sugars and fat cause inflammation, which weakens and damages your intestinal walls. When this happens, tears in your gut lining develop, known as leaky gut syndrome. Toxins are then free to move about the body after leaking through, triggering further inflammation.
Inflammation and the storage of fat cells have a longstanding relationship and both contribute to the existence of the other. Inflammation interferes with your metabolism in a way that promotes fat storage while fat cells release inflammatory chemicals to further perpetuate inflammation in your body.
The only way to break the cycle is to prevent inflammation and work on reducing fat storage. Both can be achieved with a combination of exercise, probiotic support, and a balanced diet.
Probiotics have become popular in recent years as studies continue to uncover the many benefits they have for your health. While they primarily support gut health and digestion, the benefits of a healthy gut extend far beyond your digestive tract. With regular probiotic support, your gut will flourish and you will notice many other benefits to your overall health.
You will have more energy because healthy bacteria promote optimal nutrient absorption and more efficient metabolism.
Probiotics Cant Help Weight Loss If Your Forget To Take Them
It may seem simple, but remembering to take your daily probiotics can be the biggest hurdle on the way towards better gut health and weight loss. Thats why we optimized our 21-Day Cleanse Programto include a daily potent probiotic that only needs to be taken once per day while reaping the benefits of a cleanse.Additionally, our cleanse shakes found in our 21-Day Program contain an all-organic antioxidant blend with free-radical-fighting ingredients to deepen your detox and improve your results such as spirulina, acerola, and inulin, a prebiotic that helps boost the efficacy of our new probiotic formula.
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Common Sense Advice On Probiotics For Weight Loss
One clue you may benefit from a probiotic: If youve recently taken antibiotics. Antibiotics destroy many strains of gut bacteria, including helpful ones so next time you are prescribed antibiotics, ask your doctor if you should take probiotics at the same time. Its also smart to eat in ways that promote a healthy gut, says Dr. Kahan. Diets rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans tend to promote healthy gut microbiome, he says.
Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Dallas Morning News,Los Angeles Daily News
How To Take Probiotics For Weight Loss
In addition to taking a probiotic supplement for weight loss, you still need to do all the healthy things that are key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, which Foroutan says include:
- eat a healthy diet
- learn how to relieve stress
- get adequate restorative sleep
- establish healthy bowel function
With all that in mind, who’s ready to learn how these live microorganisms may be able to help you on the weight loss front? Read on for nutritionist’s insight and the research, along with five of their expert-recommended probiotic supplements.
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So What Should I Eat For Weight Loss And Gut Health
Doerfler recommends the following plan for people who want to drop a few pounds while improving their digestive health.
1) Eat at least one serving of oats and barley a day. She explains these carbs are more beneficial than other types of whole grains because they are loaded with soluble fiber, which helps you poop.
2) Incorporate three to four servings of fruit and three to six servings of vegetables into your meals. You can easily achieve this by eating one serving of fruit at every meal. Veggie intake can be split up between lunch and dinner.
3) Eat one serving of yogurt each day for a healthy dose of probiotics.
The Concentration Of Bacteria In A Probiotic
When weighing which probiotic to purchase, you should consider the number of bacteria that are viable in the probiotic supplement or foods.
Put in another way, this essentially means that the number of bacteria that is capable of multiplication even under controlled circumstances should be promising. This will be achieved through considering the colony forming unit of the particular probiotic.
For avoidance of doubt, colony forming unit is a unit that is used to approximate the number of viable bacteria in a given sample. If you are a beginner in the weight loss journey, you should consider probiotics with colony forming units of up to 10 million.
You should then gradually proceed to probiotics with more colony forming units with passing time, for more rapid weight loss. Remember, the more the colony forming units a probiotic has the better!
The Strain of the Probiotic
For a fact, there are more than 50 probiotic foods and supplements that are likely to help you shed the extra weight that you do not want, and see to it that you achieve your body goals.
However, the right question is for how long do you want to wait before you finally have the perfect body that you have always dreamt of? Is it days, weeks, months or years? Perhaps, my guess is as good as yours.To shed off that unwanted weight as quickly as possible, you ought to purchase the right strain of probiotic. Yes they may all working but definitely some strains are more effective than others.
Lactobacillus Plantarum
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How Much Weight Can I Lose By Taking Probiotics
The benefits of probiotics are better known for digestive health, and for things like reducing bloating.
But as outlined above, having the right probiotics in your gut can impact your weight, and lead to healthy weight loss.
How much, you ask?
More research may be needed before accurate estimates can be made, as the amount of studies that indicate weight loss via probiotics are still limited.
That being said, a 2019 meta-analysis and review on the effects of probiotics for weight loss found that probiotic supplementation helped people lose on average between 0.25 to 0.73 kg .6
Another study found that probiotics may help individuals lose up to 1 kg of fat mass when taken regularly.7
These arent exactly dramatic figures, but when you consider that these results were from simple gut bacteria alone they become slightly more promising!
Combining several of the best probiotic strains for weight loss with a comprehensive diet and exercise program could very well help drive rapid weight loss.
A natural weight loss supplement is another way to complement a healthy diet and exercise program.
How Does Probiotics Help Weight Loss
There are two main categories of good bacteria that are associated with: bacteroidetes and firmicutes. Both of these families of bacteria play important roles in the digestion process and affect body weight.
Several research studies have shown that people who are obese tend to have a higher ratio of Firmicutes to bacteroidetes compared to people of normal weight. One study also shows that people who took probiotics supplementation were able to lose 50% more weight compared to those who didnt and continued to lose weight over the maintenance phase of the study.
While the exact mechanism of how probiotics affect weight loss is still to be further studied, there are several potential reasons for the connection.
- Your body produces hormones to affect whether you feel full or hungry. Probiotics may help release the satiety hormone that helps reduce appetite and burn fat and calories.
- Additionally, probiotics can help to inhibit fat absorption so that more fat is expelled from the body as waste.
- Probiotics help to boost mechanisms in the body that reduce fat storage .
- Research shows that people with low bacteria diversity tend to show higher overall insulin resistance and may be at higher risk of metabolic syndrome and inflammation in the body.
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Using Probiotics For More Weight Loss
Theres a vast amount of research still being done on the ways probiotics influence weight loss, metabolic function, and obesity. But many initial findings show that probiotics for weight loss are beneficial, especially to lose belly fat.
Scientists have identified several strains that can support a healthy weight, such as many types of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus gasseri, and L. rhamnosus. If you want to get started with a probiotic to help you lose weight, its always good practice to let your doctor know so he or she can best advise you. You can also incorporate more fermented foods into your diet like yogurt or sauerkraut.
How Gut Bacteria Help You Lose Weight
Many of the bacteria that live in your digestive system help your body perform functions it could necessarily carry out on its own, including producing certain B vitamins and certain fatty acids.
They also help break down fiber, which your body cant digest, turning it into beneficial short-chain fatty acids like butyrate
Probiotics seem to influence appetite and energy usage via the production of short-chain fatty acids like butyrate. When the good bacteria digest starches, they produce butyrate. This decreases insulin resistance and regulates the hormones that control appetite .
So, if you dont have enough of these bacteria, then you might not get the signal that you are full, prompting you to consume more calories which contribute to weight gain.
Its also thought that certain probiotics may inhibit the absorption of dietary fat, increasing the amount of fat excreted with feces. In other words, some bacteria extract fewer calories from the foods you eat. Certain bacteria, such as those from the Lactobacillus family, have been found to function in this way.
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