The 4 Best Probiotics for Weight Loss

Have you been trying to lose weight, counting calories and exercising, but neither the scale nor pounds budge? A common problem of weight-loss programs that don’t work or work for the short-term but don’t offer any lasting results is their failure to explore the link between gut health and weight loss. One of the keys to permanent weight loss is a healthy gut with a robust variety of strains of beneficial probiotics. Simply adding more probiotic-rich foods to your diet along with probiotic supplements can make the difference.

That’s because many studies show that the microbes in the intestines of overweight and obese people are different from those of lean people. According to a study in the medical journal Beneficial Microbes, among others, obese and overweight people tend to have a higher ratio of harmful microbes to beneficial ones.

A growing body of research shows that probiotics can help with weight loss, but contrary to popular belief, not just any probiotics will do. When it comes to weight loss, it is all about the strains. In other words, you’ll need to eat or supplement with proven strains to get the weight loss results you’re wishing for. And you’ll also need to be consistent. As a long-time health professional, I regularly hear people say “I tried that and it didn’t work for me.” Most people making this claim don’t use anything with sufficient frequency to yield results. 

For best results you’ll want to obtain the key strains through yogurt, plant-based yogurt or through probiotic supplementation, and ingest or use them on a daily basis for at least a couple of months, but preferably longer.

IT’S ALL IN THE STRAINS

So, which strains are best for weight loss? According to research, there are several that are proving themselves beneficial for weight loss, abdominal fat loss, or improving other markers for obesity or overweight.

A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that Lactobacillus rhamnosusaided weight loss. In the study, women who supplemented with L. rhamnosus probiotic supplements lost more weight than those who took a placebo.

Another study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that consumption of yogurt with live cultures significantly reduced abdominal fat. The researchers found that eating yogurt containing live cultures of Lactobacillus gasseri daily for 12 weeks effectively reduced belly fat by 8.2 to 8.5 percent. Be sure to read package labels because L. gasseriis not found in all varieties of yogurt.

Still another study published in the Journal of Functional Foods found that the probiotics Lactobacillus fermentum and Lactobacillus amylovorus were helpful with weight loss. In that study, participants who ate yogurt containing these strains of probiotics lost 3 to 4 percent of their body fat in just 6 weeks, without any other changes to their diet or participation in exercise.

A study published in the journal Internal and Emergency Medicine showed promising results in preventing and treating obesity and related metabolic disorders by changing the balance of intestinal flora in favor of the healthy probiotics found in many fermented foods. In that study, scientists examined the effects of administering probiotics to obese individuals. They found that probiotics could stabilize blood sugar levels; doing so reduces not only cravings for sweets and fatty foods but also the body’s production of fat storage hormones. The study authors concluded that probiotics show promise in the prevention and treatment of obesity and metabolic disorders.

While research into the use of probiotics and the foods which contain them—fermented foods—is still in its early stages, a growing body of research suggests that probiotics and a healthy gut microbiome are the keys to losing fat.