Probiotics may Help to Overcome Overweight Problem

If you’re overweight and if recently you’ve learned that probiotics can help you overcome your overweight problem, you might be wondering what probiotics are and what they can do. So, let’s know more about them.

What are Probiotics?

Probiotics are nothing but live microorganisms that benefit you when you consume them. That’s why probiotics in Malaysia and other countries are getting increasingly popular. What? To consume microorganisms? You might be thinking about microorganisms as only disease-causing. But understand that there are many microorganisms in this world that are beneficial for humans. A well-known example is the bacteria that help form curd.

How do Probiotics Help Reduce Weight?

Do you know that your intestine contains hundreds of microorganisms and they are there for your health? If they are washed off, you suffer from diseases like diarrhea, vomiting and other stomach problems. These microorganisms are also called intestinal flora and they produce many important nutrients including some types of B vitamins and vitamin K.

These good bacteria in your gut are mainly divided into two types: bacteroidetes and firmicutes. The balance between these two groups is greatly related to your weight.

Studies have shown that people with moderate weight have different gut bacteria than those who are overweight or obese. In majority of overweight or obese people, there were more firmicutes and fewer Bacteroidetes than those with moderate weight. Although the exact relation between obesity and the firmicutes-to-bacteroidetes ratio has not been found, it has been found that obese people have less diverse gut bacteria than lean individuals. In addition, those who are obese and have less diverse intestinal flora tend to gain more weight than those with obesity but have more diverse intestinal flora.

How Probiotics Influence Body Weight

Although this has not been fully understood, probiotics seem to affect appetite and energy usage via the production of butyrate, propionate and acetate, which are short-chain fatty acids. Certain probiotics are believed to inhibit the absorption of dietary fat, increasing the amount of fat excreted in feces.

In short, they make your body absorb fewer calories from the food you consume.

Some other ways probiotics may fight obesity include:

• Help release appetite-regulating hormones peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). Increased amounts of these hormones may help you burn fat and calories.
• Help increase amounts of fat-regulating protein angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) which may cause reduced fat storage.

It has also been proved that probiotics improve the health of your gut lining and thereby reduce systemic inflammation and protect you against obesity and other illnesses.

Studies have also shown promising results about probiotics that they may help reduce belly fat and prevent weight gain.

However, it should also be noted that certain strains of probiotics may even increase the risk of weight gain and obesity. Therefore, it’s important to discuss with your doctor and take the right kind of probiotics if you’ll be taking them for your overweight problem. Happy weight loss with probiotics!