Multiple studies show your gut bacteria — or the gut microbiome — significantly impacts your weight.
 
Your gut bacteria, and more importantly the byproducts they produce, influence multiple systems in the body.  Healthy gut bacteria use fibre we eat to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which help our guts use calories for fuel, and store excess energy as fat. An imbalanced gut microbiome predisposes us to store fat too easily and to struggle to lose weight. 
 
Research shows obese mice given gut bacteria of healthy weight mice quickly and effortlessly lost the excess weight without any change to their caloric intake. Even more surprising is that when they reversed the process and inoculated thin, healthy mice with bacteria from obese mice, the thin mice became overweight! 
 
Human studies backed up these findings. In a 2012 Scandinavian study subjects who were overweight and pre-diabetic, researchers inoculated their guts with the bacteria from slender subjects with healthy blood sugar.  Within six weeks all their markers for insulin resistance improved, their blood sugar dramatically stabilized, and they lost weight, without any change to caloric intake
 
What affects our gut bacteria begins early in life —C-sections, formula feeding, and early childhood antibiotic use can predispose a microbiome toward weight gain and blood sugar imbalances. However there are simple changes you can make to improve your gut bacteria. In a nutshell, if you want to feel great, think about feeding your gut with a variety of vegetables, including fermented foods and limiting processed foods, sugar, artificial colours and sweeteners which disrupt gut balance.

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