Research
Energy balance
Transplanting gut microbiota from obese donors to lean recipients can predispose the recipient to greater weight gain, demonstrating a causal role of the microbiome in adiposity.
Your current gut bacteria might be helping you gain weight. While you can't directly swap your microbiome, you can influence it through diet. The paper suggests that weight loss and dietary changes can alter this composition, potentially reducing the efficiency of energy harvest.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
when the luminal contents from the ceca of obese or lean mice were provided to lean germ-free recipients, the mice receiving the microbes from the obese donors gained more weight over a 2-week period than recipients of the lean microbes, despite equivalent food intake.
Why this rating
Based on controlled animal experiments.
Source
Obesity and the human microbiome
Ruth E. Ley · Current Opinion in Gastroenterology · 2009
DOI 10.1097/mog.0b013e328333d751
narrative_reviewCited 771×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obesity is associated with a gut microbiota composition characterized by a higher Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio and an increased capacity for energy harvest, which contributes to host adiposity.Good
- Gut microbes influence host metabolism and adiposity through signaling pathways involving inflammation (LPS), insulin resistance, and endocrine hormones (GLP-1, GLP-2, PYY).Good
Related findings · Energy balance
- Achieving a total body weight loss of 10-15% (or >10-15 kg) through Total Diet Replacement (TDR) induces remission of Type 2 Diabetes in individuals with short-duration disease.Strong
- Bariatric surgery is superior to medical management alone for inducing significant long-term weight loss, remission of type 2 diabetes, and reduction in mortality for patients with BMI ≥ 40 or ≥ 35 with comorbidities.Strong
- Achieving type 2 diabetes remission requires significant weight loss (≥15 kg) via major caloric restriction, independent of macronutrient composition.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →