Research

Hormonal

Obesity causes supersaturated cholesterol bile primarily through excessive hepatic cholesterol secretion, not by a deficiency in bile acids or phospholipids.

If you are obese, your liver is likely secreting excess cholesterol into your bile, making you prone to gallstones. This is a metabolic consequence of obesity itself, not just what you eat. While weight loss reduces this risk, the underlying tendency is driven by the excess body fat altering liver secretion rates.

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Supersaturated bile in the obese could therefore be attributed to a single defect in lipid secretion, namely, an excessive output of cholesterol.
Lynn J. Bennion et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1975

Why this rating

The study uses rigorous controlled metabolic ward protocols with matched controls and direct measurement of hepatic outputs, though it is an older study (1975).

Source

Effects of obesity and caloric intake on biliary lipid metabolism in man.

Lynn J. Bennion et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1975

DOI 10.1172/jci108180

crossover · n=49Cited 386×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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