Probiotics: Helpful for Weight Loss?

Probiotics can be found in fermented food products such as yogurt or as supplement tablets. Photo Credit: WebMD.com

 

           Concerns for healthy living and the desire for ways to reach (or keep) one’s ideal weight are widespread. Recently, advertisements supporting the use of probiotic products for weight reduction are reaching new heights of popularity. People are wondering if they have perhaps been self-sabotaging their diets the majority of their lives by excluding rich sources of friendly bacteria from their daily food routines. The question for scientists studying the effects of this trendy new diet staple:  “Will probiotic products actually help me lose weight?”

            A review article by Parks & Bae (2015) attempted to answer this question by compiling recent research and comparing their results. They described probiotics, the live microorganisms that can have beneficial health benefits when consumed as a part of the diet, as being capable of actually changing the bacterial composition of our digestive tracts. Certain factors such as weight change, dietary intake, and surgeries affecting the GI tract can affect the gut bacteria; another factor, dietary supplementation of probiotics, may affect the gut bacteria in ways that ultimately lead to weight loss. What is even more intriguing is that this weight loss may be independent of the amount of food actually consumed.

            When 9 studies were reviewed (4 of those studies included in the meta-analysis) for the effect of probiotic use on body weight, research showed that there were overall no differences in the weight of study participants who were users of probiotics versus non-users. Though the researchers stated that the short duration (ranging from 3 to 8 weeks) of studies reviewed may have led to the resulting lack of effect probiotic usage on weight loss and BMI, ultimately a lack of restraint when making food choices in participants of both the control group and the supplement-treated group may have led to a lack of weight loss or weight gain, rendering the probiotic’s effect insignificant.

For now, research is still seeking to identify the specific mechanisms by which probiotics and friendly bacteria influence the gut as a whole, contributing to weight control. Factors such as composition of food usually consumed, exercise level, and stress level may affect the gut bacteria and the counter the beneficial effects of probiotics. This review concluded that probiotics, whether in the form of food products or capsules, are not effective when used as a weight loss aid; however, research is still being done in this trending interest area, and benefits of probiotics may extend beyond the bathroom scale. These incomprehensibly small gut-protectors may prevent inflammation that can contribute to several related dysfunctional states, such as type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and for that reason, they shouldn’t be completely discounted from a healthy diet.

Full Research Review HERE: Probiotics For Weight Loss: A Systematic Reveiw and Meta-Analysis