Consuming Probiotics Promotes Weight Loss and Reduces BMI

Probiotics are live microorganisms that have health benefits when eaten. They are found in both supplements and fermented foods.

The digestive health benefits of probiotics have been widely debated. Probiotic supplements, often added to yoghurts, may support general wellbeing in addition to improving immunity. However, evidence for the beneficial effects of probiotics has been lacking.
 
Researchers from the Department of Cardiology, Taizhou People’s Hospital, Taizhou, China combined the findings of 25 randomized human trials investigating the impact of probiotic consumption on body weight and BMI in over 1,900 healthy adults.

 

“To date, quite a few researchers have investigated the effects of probiotics on body weight and BMI, without a consistent result,” lead author Qingqing Zhang notes.

 

What is significant about this study is, that based on findings from the 25 included trials, the researchers found that consumption of probiotics did lead to a modest decrease in body weight and BMI.
 
Both human and animal studies have found that normal-weight people have different gut bacteria than overweight or obese people. In those studies, people with obesity had more firmicutes and fewer bacteroidetes, compared to normal-weight people.

 

There are also some animal studies showing that when the gut bacteria from obese mice are transplanted into guts of lean mice, the lean mice get fat.

 

All of these studies suggest that gut bacteria may play a powerful role in weight regulation.

 

It is thought that certain probiotics may inhibit the absorption of dietary fat, increasing the amount of fat excreted with feces. In other words, they make you “harvest” fewer calories from the foods in your diet. Certain bacteria, such as those from the Lactobacillus family, have been found to function in this way.

 

Although the amount of weight loss documented in this study was minimal, even a small reduction can have enormous public health benefits by reducing weight-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

 

Interestingly, ingesting more than one type of probiotic and taking probiotics for 8 weeks or more resulted in increased weight loss.

 

The authors conclude: “Consuming probiotics could reduce body weight and BMI, with a potentially greater effect when multiple species of probiotics were consumed, the duration of intervention was ≥8 weeks, or the objects were overweight.”

 

Full bibliographic information:
Effect of probiotics on body weight and body-mass index: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials, Qingqing Zhang, Yucheng Wu & Xiaoqiang Fei, Volume 67, Issue 5, 2016 published by Taylor & Francis. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09637486.2016.1181156