For many who are trying to lose weight, counting – and cutting – calories is a proven method of losing weight without having to follow a special diet. However, new research suggests that it is not just your weight that can change when you stick to a calorie-restricted eating plan.
According to a study from June 2021 published in the journal Nature, calorie restriction can also have a significant effect on a person’s intestinal microbiome. To conduct their study, a group led by researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) monitored a group of 80 overweight and obese women over a 16-week period. During this time, half of the study population went on a liquid diet of 800 calories a day, while the other half of the subjects maintained their weight.
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Among the group that followed the 800-calorie diet, researchers found that “this very low-calorie diet altered the intestinal microbiome, including a total reduction in intestinal bacteria,” explained Peter Turnbaugh, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF and senior author of the study, in a statement.
Fecal samples from subjects were then transplanted into mice raised under sterile conditions. What researchers discovered was that mice whose transplants contained samples of dieters’ fecal bacteria after calorie restriction lost weight. The biggest difference between the gut bacteria in those on the diet and those who did not? The amount C. difficult, a bacterium associated with diarrhea and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.
“Usually we would predict increased inflammation or even colitis after an increase of C. difficult“,” Turnbaugh explained. In this case, however, the mice increased C. difficult the number showed only a mild increase in inflammation.
While Turnbaugh explained that the results of the study do not in any way indicate that the voluntary introduction of C. difficult should become a go-to strategy for weight loss, he noted that the surprising results really deserve further study.
“We want to better understand how common weight loss diets can affect and the microbiome and what the downstream consequences are for health and disease,” Turnbaugh said of the study.
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