Obesity and Probiotics

Fecal Transplants has shown the obesity is very microbiome controlled. With no change of diet, a lean mouse with a fecal matter transplant from a fat mouse, became fat.

Image from Obesity and Gut Bacteria: Fecal Transplant Causing Obesity? [2015]

Like the song about White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane (referencing Alice in Wonderland book), we need to make sure we take the right (probiotic) pill.

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all

Severity of Issue

Human Studies

When used as single-strain, all probiotic interventions showed positive effects in decreasing body weight, BMI, waist circumference, body fat mass or fat percentage. These strains belonged to the genera Lactobacillus (L. rhamnosus CGMCC1.3724 (LPR) [25], L. gasseri BNR17 [38], L.gasseri SBT2055 [27], L. sakei CJLS03 [46] and L. plantarum Dad-13 [49]), Bifidobacterium (B. lactis Bb-12 [36], B. animalis ssp. Lactis 420 (B420) [51], B. animalis CECT8145 [39]) and Pediococcus (Pediococcus pentosaceus LP28 [34])…. a maximum dose of 5 × 1010 (50 BCFU)

many of the studies the probiotic/synbiotic intervention was accompanied by dietary or physical activity interventions, which may have hidden the real effect of the probiotic strain(s) used.

Effects of Probiotics and Synbiotics on Weight Loss in Subjects with Overweight or Obesity: A Systematic Review [2021]

Probiotic supplementation may also cause weight gain. Jones et al. [122] conducted trial in 19 obese adolescents, administering three packets per day of a mixture probiotics (L. acidophilus BA05, L. plantarum BP06, L. paracasei BP07, L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus BD08, B. breve BB02, B. longum BL03, B. infantis BI04, and S. thermophilus BT01) for 16 weeks. Compared to placebo, observed a statistically significant increase in body weight in people using VLS#3. 

Probiotics for the Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Humans—A Review of Clinical Trials [2020]

“The case from Rhode Island (or mom gets fecal transplant and gains weight).. When Stacy returned to clinic 16 months later she had gone from 136 pounds to 170 pounds” [2015]

From Perplexity: “Systematic reviews and meta-analyses highlight that combinations of various Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus strains tend to be more effective than single-strain probiotics for reducing body weight, BMI, waist circumference, and body fat mass”

Vet Studies

These appear to lack dietary or physical activity interventions and thus may be preferred combinations.

Model

My model is simple, events pushed someone into a obesity dysbiosis where it become “stuck”. The dysbiosis has a distinct metabolite mixture that alters the human brain to prefer foods that feeds the dysbiosis. The metabolites results in higher efficiency of fat and protein absorption which the body then stores.

If you can alter the bacteria (and thus metabolites) to less efficiency then weight loss may occur naturally. There is some evidence that this may be possible with appropriate probiotics.

Exploration

Going to bacteria shifts seen with Obesity, the most repeated taxa showing the same direction of shift reported from studies are:

  • Akkermansia muciniphila – LOW, available as a probiotic
  • Pseudomonadota  – HIGH
  • Alistipes  – Low
  • Faecalibacterium prausnitzii  – Low

And Bifidobacterium are mixed, some high and some low.

Using the new Microbiome Taxa R2 Site, I looked at the top 4 and which probiotics shifts in the right direction:

So the common candidates come down to

Bottom Line

Without dietary or physical activity interventions, I believe that the Vet/Dog Studies probiotic pairs are likely the best (study evidence based) with the suggestions from the above exploration being very reasonable.

I have personally tried those combination and slowly loss weight with no clear dietary or physical activity interventions. The source that I used (I trust Maple Life Science for being correctly identified and fresh from the fermentation vat): Click to go to ordering page [No financial interests].

With “Plan B” being

Take at least two at the same time. Be Lean!

AI Review of the above is available here.