Do Probiotics Help You Lose Weight?

Probiotics are live bacteria and yeast that have numerous health benefits that can be found in both foods and supplements.

Vmores have been producing leading-edge freeze-dried probiotics in Australia for several years.

Probiotics are a potent addition to incorporate into your health and wellbeing journey. Having been shown to benefit your immune and digestive system, with evidence to even improve your heart health.

There is also some evidence in probiotics benefiting weight loss.

Do probiotics help you lose weight?

A search on Google regarding the topic of weight loss and probiotics will show some conjecture from science. As weight loss with probiotics is a new area of work in science.

At Vmores, as a scientific company pioneering freeze-dried technology, we understand science. Still, even with limited research, science aside, 

we also know what has worked for our customers.

While scientific studies are new, the use and benefits of probiotics are not. In the early 20th century, probiotics were first discovered by the ‘father of probiotics,’ Nobel Laureate Elie Metchnikoff when he proposed that consuming the beneficial microorganisms could improve people’s health.

Since then, it has been an evolving journey in making people look and feel better on the inside and subsequently the outside.

An overall improvement in health and finding that state of optimal wellbeing helps with:

– More energy.

– Less illness.

– Healthy body weight.

– Mental clarity.

– Less stress.

Science aside, we are going to explore the use of probiotics in improving our health and subsequently if they do help in weight loss by examining

– How probiotics improve our health?

– How can this contribute to weight loss?

The four main areas of improvement in our health from the use of probiotics are:

– Gut Health.

– Digestion

– Inflammation.

– Our mental health.

GUT HEALTH

Did you know 80% of the trillions of bacteria that live in and on our body live in our gut, which probiotics has a direct effect on?

No wonder our gut is called the ‘second brain.’ It impacts nearly every aspect of our body.

It interacts with how we process food, our cells, mood, aids in healing from illness and injury.

Good gut health is critical to good health!

With good gut health, we have energy, operate at optimum performance, sleep well and eat well.

Poor gut health, however, can lead to the opposite and many issues like:

Poor sleep.

If you have poor sleep, studies have shown this leads to weight gain and a higher BMI. The reason for this is that your body needs leptin to know when you have had enough to eat, and ghrelin as the appetite stimulant without these aligned causes weight issues. When do they become aligned and reset? Like most things, when we enjoy adequate and proper sleep.

Fatigue and Tiredness

Leading on from this, if we do not get enough sleep, we are left sluggish the next day, which does not lend itself to wanting to be active and full of vitality.

Cravings.

Cravings from sleep deprivation to keep our energy levels up (3 pm slump sound familiar) also your blood sugar levels are spiked craving even more sugar.

Weight gain or loss.

Weight gain can be caused by insulin resistance in the gut, OR if the gut is not absorbing the nutrients properly, you are looking for more food to fill up.

Upset Stomach.

You know the feeling constipated, diarrhoea, gas, bloating, heartburn, all signs of an unhealthy gut. This leads to not being able to process food or eliminate waste and also a sluggish feeling of lacking motivation.

Autoimmune conditions.

An unhealthy gut can lead to many diseases and many that can cause you to gain weight but also, if you are not well, you are most likely not moving or wanting to.

If we move from bad gut health with weight gain triggers to good gut health, we can be aided in losing weight.

As probiotics play a critical role in repopulating the bacteria in our stomach with good bacteria, which in turn promotes a healthy gut, it is fair to say probiotics do have a role in weight loss.

Potency is key though and that is why Vmores have a three compound probiotic including Lactobacillus Plantarum, Lactobacillus Acidophilus and Bifidobacterium.  It has over 15 billion probiotics in it. Meaning maximum gut health benefit. Reaping the healthy rewards in the other three areas.

DIGESTION

Our gut health has a direct impact on our digestive functioning. As we saw, poor gut health can lead to poor health outcomes.

Poor digestion, too, can lead to unhealthy outcomes, but it has a simple solution?

The solution? A healthy gut = healthy digestion.

Because if our digestive system is not working well, we:

– Gain weight.

– Have poor nutrient absorption.

– Health issues such as reflux, GERD (both of which can lead to poor sleep and those associated issues)

– Food intolerances.

– Waste elimination issues.

Essentially you are sluggish. It is like driving a car that has not had an oil change. It does not work well, costs you money, and you are not efficiently getting to where you need to go.

Therefore, if we can improve our gut health, we can improve our digestion.

When the body has the good bacteria needed to have a working digestive system, a system that absorbs nutrients break food down, keeps balance through the GI tract helping reduce or remove intestinal illness, and aid in removing food intolerances giving you a better-balanced all-round diet.

Then we may improve our ability to lose weight.

INFLAMMATION

Inflammation in our body has its place. It is a way of fighting off a threat, be it an illness like the flu, an injury such as cutting your fingertip, or even diseases in the short term.

At times though, it can become a constant state in the body, usually known as chronic. Its healing powers start to become a source of hurt. The body is in a constant fight mode with itself.

Too much inflammation that is not fighting an immediate threat can wear you down. What is one problem can now become several:

– Your gastrointestinal tract suffers severely, leading to potentially serious health consequences.

– You gain weight.

– Body pain that can interfere with daily life.

– Fatigue followed by insomnia.

– Depression and anxiety.

– Never feeling well and picking up every virus that goes around.

Every single one of those points will be a barrier to health and wellbeing.

The inflammation and weight connection specifically though are, the more we weigh, the more inflammation happens in our body. The more inflammation, the more negatives occur, and we cannot break the cycle.

Probiotics not just from gut health have been shown to lower a reactive marker CRP linked to inflammation.

If we lower our inflammation, we can help lower our weight, strengthen our immunity, reduce mental stressors, improve our sleep, and have more energy, which leads to losing weight.

OUR MENTAL HEALTH

This is such an important topic to address.

Our mental health needs to be a top priority in our health and wellbeing journey.

Beyond Blue in Australia quote in any one year, 1 million adults have depression and 2 million people with anxiety. 45% of people will experience a mental condition in their lifetime.

Depression can be broken down into four categories:

– Behaviour. Not going out, not getting things done, withdrawing.

– Feelings. Overwhelmed, frustrated, miserable.

– Thoughts. “I am a failure; I cannot do anything”.

– Physical. Weight gain/loss, stomach issues, rundown.

Probiotic use is showing early positive signs in some patients and forms of depression.

There was a research review completed in 2017 on the effects of probiotics on depressive symptoms in humans.

Three key aspects of depression and anxiety from the study were:

1.Effect on Mood.

In five Studies on mood, only two did not find using a probiotic had an improvement.

2.Effect on stress and anxiety.

Seven studies on stress and anxiety five found using a probiotic had an improvement on their levels.

3.Effect on cognition.

Three out of three studies showed the daily use of probiotics had a positive impact on cognitive function.

The use of probiotics and mental health comes back to the ‘second brain’ the gut plays in the body.

If we look from a weight loss perspective with what people can feel when depressed is counter-intuitive to feel healthy, choose the right foods, and exercise.

Any improvement that can help this may lead to weight loss by finding the belief and the energy to take small steps forward.

However, we cannot stress enough this is a small and emerging field. It does not take the place of working with the professionals, your support team, medications, and treatment plans.

As we have seen, good gut health is the foundation of good health. It aids in digestion, reduces inflammation, and can improve mental health. All of which directly impact a person’s ability to thrive. Having health, energy, and systems to lose weight.

Do probiotics help you lose weight?

Our conclusions would be yes; probiotics do help you lose weight.

One final quick tip for this BLOG when looking for a probiotic to help you achieve good gut health and, in turn, lose weight look for the following:

– Potency for maximum benefit. Vmores DASH with 15 billion probiotics.

– Shelf life and single packaging serves are ideal. With Vmores freeze-dried process extends shelf life and our easy to take sachets to give you packaged individual serves.

– Free from preservatives, sugars, colours, and flavours.

Healthy gut, healthy you.

* Content shared does not substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your doctor with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition and its appropriate treatment.