# Probiotics



## janetmtt (May 28, 2007)

I've just read an article - not sure how true it is - but it says that probiotics make you gain weight?How true or untrue is this?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I've seen some things that depending on how the bacteria metabolize food in the colon some people may get 1-5% more calories from food than people with a different set.I've never seen which particular ones cause it.Was this a scientific study, or just someone talking about an anecdotal story? Just because someone writes an article that ends up on the internet or in a magazine doesn't mean they have any hard data to back up their claims. I really can't judge "an article" without knowing where it was published and something about who wrote it and why they seem to be making that claim.I've never noticed any difference on or off them. And I'd rather weigh 5 pounds more if it means I fart 5 times a day rather than 40, but you may have different priorities.


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## janetmtt (May 28, 2007)

Well I hate weight gain in any shape or form!But no Kathleen this was written as an article - supposedly from an expert - can't remember the name but I'm sure he was from the USA.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I did a quick google and there are as many unscientific it will make you lose weight as they will make you gain weight articles out there. I didn't see anything even from supposed experts that looked like anything other than random speculation or hype to get people to buy some product they back.If you find you gained a pound or two then cut a few calories if the probiotics dramatically control your symptoms like they do for some people.Everyone has their priorities and at least for me I really don't want to be a recluse from noon until bedtime because I can't stop farting, YMMV.Found an article on the scientific paper that is fairly readable that looked at gut bacteria and weight. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6122001271.html


> The obese tended to have a significantly greater proportion of one of the two main types of bacteria found in the gut, known as Firmicutes, than the other, known as Bacteroidetes.


 Bacteroidetes are NOT probiotic, some of the Firmicutes are http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/189_03...40808_fm-7.html But I see an awful lot of skinny people that live on not much but yogurt so it can't be something that makes everyone morbidly obese. And extrapolating from a few experiments in rodents to humans is risky at best.Even if this plays a role we are talking about whether one person absorbs 95 out of the 100 calories in something vs absorbing 98 out of 100 calories. It may add up, but you have to eat excess calories to gain weight even WITH the worst possible colon bacteria that make you absorb 99 out of 100 calories. It isn't like they make calories from nothing or force your body to stop burning the ones you absorb or anything like that.AND it could be that fat people eat different foods or are in some way different that encourages certain bacteria to be more prevalent and changing the bacterial flora artificially will do nothing at all to someone's weight. We don't know if A causes B just A and B sometimes seem to go together.So most I doubt anyone is making those claims over real data from clinical studies in human beings. The one"experty sounding" article I skimmed on the it makes you gain weight invoked SIBO and there is a lot more evidence that probiotics reduce SIBO in people who had it than cause it in someone that never had it to start with.Lots of people with lots of letters after their names make up all kinds of scientific sounding things.Without knowing what kind of expert or why they were making that claim there is no way to judge if it can possibly have any validity. Lots of people from the USA publish lots of very bad information so that really doesn't help.Sadly if your only criteria for an IBS treatment is will I gain a pound or not, you probably will rule out every single possible treatment as I'm sure I can find someone somewhere that will claim every single thing will make you gain weight. (mostly because no one wants to blame the twinkies they eat, so it always is some drug or something else they took so they don't actually have to watch their diet, but I digress) But for a lot of them you will also find some weight loss stories. I just don't know how severe your fear of gaining a pound is, or why you think something will override exercise and eating right. Everything can be countered with lifestyle, even the drugs for other illnesses that can be really hard with the weight gain thing. Depends on what your priority is. If staying the same weight is the over-riding priority you can control that even if everything on the planet has some very small effect on making you slightly more likely to gain a pound.


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