Gut bacteria and weight loss

[Mychildkeepswhining]

I have been reading through a few threads recently whereby slim people have been sharing their lifestyle factors/ways of eating which keeps them this way and have come across a few posts citing gut bacteria as a reason. This has sparked an interest as have never considered this before. Can anyone shed any further light on this? I.e if I start taking a probiotic daily will this help me stay slim?

I know my original post was about weight and staying slim but since reading through these replies I think that is now less important than being/feeling healthy by making changes to my diet. To not have that bloated/sluggish feeling would be fantastic (whatever dress size I am). I'm very eager now to make these changes so a huge thank you to all who replied x

Don't forget a thermometer! I got yogurt maker from lakeland. All excited, ready to make and... Damn. Thermometer.
As I said, there is quite a growing number of fermenters on instagram and lots are doing kombucha and kefirs (including water kefir) and many more interested things. I am gearing up for lemons, but they take so long I don't think I am that patient. Good luck!

I’m really interested in this area.

I don’t know that much but I know once I cut out processed food and refined carbohydrates from my diet, not only did I lose weight, my whole ‘system’ was better - bowels etc. I never have flatulence either. Like never!

I also never get ill. I just don’t pick up colds like I used to, in 4 years I’ve had 2 things... I had rona and it lasted for 5 hours?!! Had a fever, went to bed one afternoon and got up and was fine. Then the other thing was I was given antibiotics for a wisdom tooth infection, and within a few days I had a cold.

It may be coincidence but my gut feeling (ahem) was that the antibiotics had disturbed my micro biome, bowels etc were also worse for a while.

The doctor in the house thing mentioned above is Rangan Chaterjee, he does lots of promotion around this. Had people on his podcast about it and here’s a link to one of the talks he’s done

blog.cytoplan.co.uk/greeting-from-both-myself-and-my-microbiome-dr-rangan-chatterjee/

They looked at this on trust me I'm a doctor - the guy ate Tesco's own brand porridge for breakfast every day and improved his gut biome significantly after two weeks. Cheap as chips and works. Other pre biotics include bananas and anything super fibrous. Psyllium husks etc (not food but could be mixed in with food). Lentils etc too.

The book 10% Human is all about this and fascinating though it doesn't give any clear answers especially to weight loss. Talks about faecal transplants a lot but if you have bad eating habits a shiny new gut biome won't stay optimum for long.

It's not always a good idea to have breakfast if you're dieting (it's been proven now, and advice to have it has been debunked especially for women over a certain age - we aren't toiling in the fields any more though coffee/tea is still an absolute must for me a good idea) so I've not done the porridge thing but the gut changes SO MUCH in how you feel etc. And since Jan 2nd is the New year I think some kind of gut biome based calorie restricted diet is in order! Anyone care to join?

@TuxedoPantherSheHer your in depth knowledge is incredible! I'm in business and my first thought is you could make a fortune as a gut biome advisory service! Because clearly different bacteria create totally different problems! It's a very complex field that's for sure.

So, I crave sugar and other shit especially carbs. Don't eat much animal meat currently. Eat almost no veges. Am tired and get tired plus don't sleep. Don't feel happy or positive that often. No wind or bloating and never had problems with digestion though in the last year have needed PPIs (the -ozole type ones) to cope with drinking too much on holidays though it's improved.

So your two examples didn't quite ring true for me. I'm overweight but can't claim I don't know how I got there. Used to be high energy/slim and still have a decent metabolism I think.

I think various bouts of antibiotics as a child and medication as an adult has really messed up my gut. I'm healthy though. At least I used to be. Bacteria wise where should I be looking?

@SueDiNimm. I’m not really clear what kind of symptoms you’re asking about.

@TuxedoPantherSheHer well sugar cravings, and wanting the wrong food. Mood, energy and motivation mostly though. Getting nothing done and having no energy to do it. Bad sleeping sometimes. General low level unhealthiness (Achilles tendons are killing me right now). 'Inflammation' (inverted commas because I'm not sure I buy a lot of the nonsense around health). Fungal stuff.

My dog has had malaszia (sp) which was helped greatly with hypoallergenic food and is being eliminated with raw food. But I'm a lot less virtuous with my own diet. Plus am comfort eating.

I'm ditching sweeteners thanks to MN and will force myself to up my fruit and veg intake. Not sure if there's an effective broad spectrum probiotic or if they just get washed out.

@SueDeNimm Im Ah, Ok. I think that’s quite broad.

Some single strain probiotics have clinically proven and targeted effects on specific conditions and symptoms. There is good research evidence for those in particular circumstances.

I’m not a fan of probiotic products containing multiple strains as a general health measure. Not because there is necessarily anything wrong with them, just because it’s difficult to tell whether something is helping or not.

So some strains in the product might be helping, some might be hurting but the effects all get bundled up together.

Things can happen e.g. food poisoning that affect the microbiome and specific probiotics can provide targeted support for those type of events.

When you talk about mood etc, there is a strain that has been shown to regulate serotonin production recently, but I don’t think it’s commercially available yet.

As you mention, there are life changes and choices that promote healthier gut functioning and in the context of a generally healthy life they can make a massive difference.

Jason Hawrelak is a good person to Google if you want to know more about probiotics in general. He runs a service called Probiotic Advisor.

Brilliant, that's great. I'm not seeing multi strain probiotics touted as the answer to all problems either and it's such a complex area overall. Oddly enough I usually have an iron stomach and rarely get sick and am not sure I've ever had 'real' food poisoning.

I think at least I need to start with the basics of a lot less sugar, no artificial sweeteners and more pre biotic food. Thank god Stilton and yoghurt are 'good' foods. And fruit.

Did you get your vitamin D checked? You are very much describing me when I had extremely low levels. Including catching every virus passing in the vicinity of me, which was unusual as I was rarely ill before. And yes. Antibiotics decimated my intestinal zoo last time. Interestingly not when I had them when I was young. I am now trying to eat similarly to that time and it appears to be working. Lots of basic veg. I wonder if me eating veg and fruit from garden without washing it had an effect on my biome too.

@TuxedoPantherSheHer it must be fascinating to work with these. And very difficult to learn about them. So much information. Wow

@SchrodingersImmigrant That’s very kind. I just had some health problems and decided to try to help myself via reading and research. It has improved my life immeasurably and I am so grateful for the wealth of info that’s out there now about this. Even ten years ago, almost nothing.

Yesterday morning I went shopping for bananas, apples, some kefir, yogurt, nuts, seeds and ground flaxseed. Couldn't get the ground flaxseed so had to buy whole (which I know isn't as nutritious but may have a go at grinding it myself). Have spent the last 2 days adding these to my diet and miraculously have found that not only do I enjoy these foods far more than I thought I would but have found them to be very filling so not craving quick fix sugary treats much. I can't pretend to be totally virtuous as have had the odd biscuit and quality street (but 1 biscuit instead of 4 and 2 or 3 chocolates instead of 10). This morning had 1 slice of peanut butter on toast with flaxseeds sprinkled on and felt satisfied. Normally would have had 2 slices of butter and jam on toast and gone back for more as would be craving more. At lunch time had 250ml kefir, a handful of nuts and an apple. Again, felt full and really enjoyed it. Will carry on making these changes to my diet for the foreseeable future and will see if I feel physically better in due course.

[quote TuxedoPantherSheHer]@SchrodingersImmigrant That’s very kind. I just had some health problems and decided to try to help myself via reading and research. It has improved my life immeasurably and I am so grateful for the wealth of info that’s out there now about this. Even ten years ago, almost nothing.[/quote]
Oh wow! I assumed you worked with it! Amazing knowledge.

Good you are enjoying it OP. Don't feel bad about bisquits. It's all about balance. I say 75% good, 25% everything else.

Also, I have my flax seed in a freezer so they don't go off. I just grind in a coffee grinder what I need.

@SchrodingersImmigrant I haven't had it done lately but did a while ago and it was fine. However I've gone onto hrt and interestingly was reading yesterday that it affects vitamin d levels. I'm outdoors every day with my dog but it's worth a shot.

I've never been a big veg eater but we grew up on fruit

Back to basics is a good way to do it. When we were young we simply weren't allowed the whole packet of biscuits or tub of ice cream. But right now I am trying to get hold of Ben and Jerry's minter wonderland. Some drugs are hard to kick 😁

I think that shop sell flaxseed too mind you.

There's a book called 10% human by Alanna Collen which has a chapter on this, very interesting. There is a school of thought which suggests that a virus could also be a cause of weight gain, we just haven't found out which one. The book briefly explains the theories on viral weight gain and gut bacteria etc. It does not however tell you how to get good bacteria to help you lose weight - it makes it clear that the theories are there, but the solution, is not!