Losing Weight: Why Your Gut Matters

How many times have you made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and failed to make it past the first week?

Any health-related New Year’s resolution that makes a lasting impact on your wellness requires a vision of what you want to achieve along with a plan and a set of measurable goals to help you get there.

Much of your success in carrying out your weight-loss resolutions depends on incorporating better a healthier diet and more movement into your daily routine.

But, did you know the difference between losing weight and keeping it off for the long haul could depend on the health of your gut too?

Your Gut As A Biomarker For Healthy Eating

Stanford University researchers explored a simple question — what allows some people to lose weight while others don’t? — in a review of data to find some answers in a recent study appearing in Cell Reports Medicine.

Scientists reviewed health data on more than 600 patients who ate a low-carb or low-fat diets largely made up of high quality, minimally processed foods for a year.

For the first six months of data, patients who strictly followed either a low-carb or low-fat diet lost weight but only for the short-term. Yet some patients failed to lose more weight after a year while others did, despite maintaining their exercise goals and cutting calories.

How could this happen?

“We found specific microbiome ecologies and amounts of proteins and enzymes at the beginning of the study period — before people started following their diets — that indicated whether they would be successful at losing weight and keeping it off,” says Dalia Perelman, co-author of the Stanford study and a research dietician.

Another predictor of weight-loss success: The ratio of inhaled oxygen to exhaled carbon dioxide (the respiratory quotient) that determines whether fats or carbs are a patient’s main source for fuel.

A higher ratio means your body burns more carbs, but a lower one indicates your body burns more fat.

The Future

Researchers believe knowing this data before starting any weight-loss plan could be the first step toward more personalized diets, with an eye toward what kinds of quality, healthy foods you can include rather than what foods you should exclude, Perelman says.

But, at the same time, the health of your gut matters, especially at the beginning of your weight-loss journey. And, if you’re older, you’ll need some extra help due to the naturally declining amount of beneficial bacteria in your gut.

If you want to give your weight-loss plan a gut-healthy start, consider EndoMune Metabolic Rescue. This newest member of the EndoMune family is uniquely formulated with 1 billion CFUs of Bifidobacterium lactis and 600 mg of XOS, a proven prebiotic that stimulates the release of hormones in your gut and reduces your appetite naturally by promoting more fullness.

Research suggests the potent ingredients that make up EndoMune Metabolic Rescue may help you improve your fasting blood sugar and insulin levels and lose weight within 30 days.

Resources

Cell Reports Medicine

Stanford Medicine: Scope

CTV News

Mayo Clinic Health System