Study: Body Weight Heavily Influenced By Heritable Gut Microbes

FirephoxRising writes Our genetic makeup influences whether we are fat or thin by shaping which types of microbes thrive in our body, according to a new study. Scientists identified a specific, little known bacterial family that is highly heritable and more common in individuals with low body weight. So we are what we eat, and what we got from out parents. From the article: "The study, funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers sequenced the genes of microbes found in more than 1,000 fecal samples from 416 pairs of twins. The abundances of specific types of microbes were found to be more similar in identical twins, who share 100 per cent of their genes, than in non-identical twins, who share on average only half of the genes that vary between people. These findings demonstrate that genes influence the composition of gut microbes."

Comments

Oh no

[AmiMoJo]

Here we go, endless posts about how it's all down to pure willpower and entirely the fault of the individual. Maybe we could try looking for more practical solutions and simply berating people this time?

Re:Oh no

[AmiMoJo]

In the 1950s food was less processed, tended to have less added calories. Women were much less likely to work, so were preparing food from scratch at home. Modern life has created a situation where many people find it hard to eat well due to time pressure and sedentary jobs. Even the fit ones have to make a special trip to the gym or go out running to get enough exercise.

Re:Oh no

[CastrTroy]

This is why I think exercising is so essential to maintaining a healthy weight. Because living without calories sucks. Nobody wants to live on 1000-1500 calories a day because you will feel exhausted and will probably have trouble getting all the needed nutrients while eating so little food. If, on the other hand, you exercise enough such that (on average) your body takes 2500-3000 calories a day maintain, you can eat a lot more food, have a lot more energy available for the body to do things, and still be at a point where you're losing weight, simply because you are using so much energy.

Re:Oh no

[Anonymous Coward]

Reducing intake will reduce weight regardless of state of your gut. Microbes don't generate energy out of nothing.

This is a story about the fact that microbiome of the gut is being widely recognised as essentially another organ of the body, and differences in microbiome can affect things like how well your gut absorbs energy and so on. However reducing intake will cause weight loss regardless of it. The only question is, "how much of a weight loss per reduced intake".

What it shows is another reason why the same diet doesn't work for everyone. Some people can cut back a small amount and lose weight easily, others have to go to such extremes that either their willpower inevitably breaks down or their body panics and goes even further into hording-mode. People who seem to be able to eat as much as they want without gaining much may be "lucky" to have inefficient microbes so they're not absorbing as much of the calories.

Re:Oh no

[transporter_ii]

You can turn genes on and off with diet and lifestyle. Check out the field of epigenetics. Genes are influencers, but your fate is not written in stone because of them.

See: http://www.livescience.com/418...

The types of bacteria in your gut today may be different tomorrow, depending on what kinds of food you eat, a new study suggests.

Re:Oh no

[Anonymous Coward]

There is one diet that works for everybody. Don't eat too much, make sure what you eat isn't junk, and be more active. Every diet boils down to that. It's just that diet on the surface is quite a pain in the ass to stick to, so every diet tries to make something more palatable in the hopes of getting you to stick with it. But I promise you, follow those 3 rules above, you will lose weight. I don't care who you are. But in practice, those three rules are quite hard to follow.

Re:Oh no

[beelsebob]

To a certain extent, that's meaningless. Those calories are bound up in a way that you can't use them--which is why they're waste). It may be that there are some usable calories in there if you went back and ingested them again, but obviously there are significantly diminishing returns.

Of course it's not meaningless. Those calories are energy. If I ingest 1800 calories, and burn 1400, but poop out 400, I will maintain my weight, despite not burning as many calories as I ingested. If I have gut bacteria that break down certain long chain sugars so that that I can now ingest them, I will instead only poop out 200, and start gaining weight, despite eating the same thing, and doing the same amount of exercise.

The point here is not really that the solution to my weight gain in that situation is either eat 200 calories less, or do 200 calories more work (or some combination of the above), it absolutely is.

Instead, it's that there's a large part of the world out there that will eat the exact same food, and do the exact same exercise, and maintain or loose weight, because their gut bacteria is not the same. These people (as the person at the root of this thread said) are very likely to sit there screaming that all these "fatties" are just gobbling up donuts, and that's why they're fat. Instead, some of them are actually doing more, and eating less already, but will still gain weight by doing that.

Basically, these studies don't change the correct approach to maintaining weight - but what they do do is highlight that people should be a bit more sensitive to each other, and stop assuming that anyone who gains weight is eating a lot, or exercising a little. There are more factors than those alone.

Re:Oh no

[BitterOak]

Of course it's not meaningless. Those calories are energy. If I ingest 1800 calories, and burn 1400, but poop out 400, I will maintain my weight, despite not burning as many calories as I ingested. If I have gut bacteria that break down certain long chain sugars so that that I can now ingest them, I will instead only poop out 200, and start gaining weight, despite eating the same thing, and doing the same amount of exercise.

Well, the answer in that case is simple: eat less. The amount you eat should be determined by how much exercise you get AND by how efficiently your digestive system processes calories. If your digestive system extracts more calories from food than someone else, you need to eat less. It's that simple.

Re:Oh no

[AK Marc]

I'm not surprised. I'm just pointing out all the people who say "eat less means you must lose weight" are idiots. What part of that confuses you so?

NO!!!!!!

[JimSadler]

We are what we eat is a lie. We are that we intake but do not poop.