How is the gut related to weight loss?

One of the biggest obstacles to successful weight loss may come as a surprise. It is the repeated advice: "Eat less, move more" or counting calories. The idea behind this is that you will inevitably lose weight as long as you maintain a calorie deficit. Apart from the fact that you quickly get tired of counting, this is also pure theory. If it could be put into practice, we would all be slim and healthy.

Losing weight is harder when something is wrong in the gut

Intestinal problems and stress can cause cortisol levels to spike. Cortisol is a stress hormone that can increase blood sugar levels. The effects of stress - not just in the gut - is another hurdle that can stand in the way of successful weight loss.

There are many people who cannot tolerate certain foods because something is wrong in the gut. This can result in bloating, stomach pain, constipation or even diarrhea. Food intolerances can also be the cause of heartburn and belching.

It is often healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables that cause problems - the very things you should be eating if you want to lose weight. To avoid discomfort, many people turn to low-calorie but starchy foods instead, which cause them fewer problems - but make them fat (see above).

How the gut can prevent you from losing weight

Stress in the gut can also be triggered by inflammation. You don't necessarily notice this; 30 - 50 % of patients with inflammatory bowel disease have no pain. This makes losing weight almost impossible, because the body is fully occupied with the inflammation. Untreated inflammation and irritation of the intestinal mucosa can make the intestine permeable. This is known as leaky gut syndrome. This makes food intolerances likely, and these can also stand in the way of weight loss.

Sometimes people suffer from constipation without realizing that something is wrong. Perhaps they have always been constipated and are unaware that it is not normal not to have a bowel movement every day. The longer stool sits in the intestine, the more toxins - which the liver had actually released into the intestine via the bile for removal - can be reabsorbed, i.e. return to the bloodstream. If the liver is overloaded and cannot keep up with detoxification, it releases toxins to the fatty tissue for temporary storage. The body holds on to this fatty tissue because burning fat would also release the stored toxins back into the bloodstream. Losing weight is then extremely difficult.

Intestinal flora can also make weight loss more difficult. An intestinal fungus such as Candida albicans thrives particularly well when it has sugar available. The fungus is able to trigger irresistible cravings. If you give in to it, the insulin level rises again. Certain intestinal bacteria can extract even more energy in the form of sugar from the indigestible fiber. This is the effect that makes you "a good food utilizer". This means that the calorie content of food is not the same for everyone!

The gut - our root

If you've been reading along with us for a while, then you've probably heard this comparison before! If we were a tree, our gut would be our root. It is the place where all nutrients are absorbed, where food is broken down into its individual parts, where hormones and enzymes are produced.

This means that the "gut" organ, with the micro-organisms living in it, also known as gut flora, has a far more important function than many people are aware of. After all, just because you eat healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables doesn't mean that the nutrients they contain actually make it into your body. There is a well-known saying: "You are what you eat". In this case, however, you could rather say: "You are what you digest."

Because it is only in the body once it has been digested, i.e. only once it has passed through the intestinal wall into the blood.

Gut and losing weight: The role of gut bacteria

In order for you to lose weight, your body first needs the right nutrients to boost fat burning. Or that keep your insulin levels low. We describe why insulin is important in our article on 8 mistakes when losing weight. And as already mentioned It is important that your gut is able to absorb these nutrients in the first place.

But there is another important connection between gut flora and weight loss. It's about the ratio of firmicutes and bacteroids! A full 90% of intestinal bacteria can be assigned to these two large bacterial groups.

Bacteroids are the "slimming agents". Among other things, they increase fat burning and make us feel full more quickly. The ideal helpers for a slim line! Firmicutes, on the other hand, are the "fatteners". They are very good food processors and can therefore still produce energy from indigestible fiber.

This can mean that you suddenly become fat from healthy vegetables, which contain fiber, because your firmicutes digest fiber and complex carbohydrates and break them down into sugar and short-chain fatty acids, which the body can then absorb and from which it can build up fat!

A high proportion of firmicutes in the intestine therefore determines how many calories the body absorbs. In other words: when eating the same amount of food, different amounts of calories are absorbed depending on the composition of the intestinal flora.

This is one of the reasons why calorie counting does not work.

Firmicutes in the past & today

In the past, people with a higher proportion of firmicutes had an advantage because they were able to obtain a lot of energy from little food. This meant they had more reserves to survive.

Today, however, this characteristic is no longer desirable, as we tend to eat too much rather than too little! It has also been found that overweight people often have a much higher proportion of firmicutes in their intestinal flora than bacteroids.

And do you know what else increases the proportion of firmicutes, i.e. the fattening proportion in the intestinal flora? Stress! Earlier in human history, we were stressed when we were hungry. And for these stressful times, the body has developed a mechanism to store a lot of calories from little food.

But even this mechanism is more of a hindrance than a benefit today, as we generally suffer more from everyday stress or chronic stress. And this stress makes us ill and fat.

What can you do to positively influence the bacteroid-firmicute ratio?

You should create good conditions for bacteria! You can do this by eatingas varied a dietas possible and not eating too much sugar and too much fat.

According to our laboratory, a low-carbohydrate diet definitely has a positive effect on the number of bacteroids, i.e. the slimming agents!

You can also make sure you provide good bacterial food, so-called prebiotics.

These can be found in apples, chicory, onions, black salsify, bananas or rye, for example. With this food, you help the good bacteria to multiply and settle well in your gut.

If you need a little more help with this, we recommend our acacia fiber powder GROW, which we have brought to Switzerland. It is a great product that we have now tested with numerous customers and has the huge advantage that hardly anyone complains about bloating, as was often the case with other products.

In addition to prebiotics, it is also recommended to Probiotics(lactic acid bacteria). These good, beneficial bacteria are called probiotics. You can either make fermented foods yourself, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha or kefir.

To ensure that your gut does not become an obstacle to successful weight loss, the following products can provide you with excellent support:

• Arktis Herbal Ferment Drink
  The fermented herbal drink with lactic acid bacteria is ideal for a change in diet and helps with digestibility
• Arktibiotic Premium with vitamin D
  This probiotic supports you in influencing your intestinal environment in a positive direction
• Acacia fiber powder Grow
  Prebiotic fibers such as acacia fiber support your bacteria and also help to keep your bowel movements in a pleasant consistency.
• Galactose powder
  Do you constantly crave sweets but want to avoid sugar to lose weight? Galactose is a natural sweetener that does not affect your insulin levels.
• Vitamin D3 drops Vita D3 Liquid
  Have you had your vitamin D level checked recently? If your levels are too low, we recommend improving them by taking vitamin D, especially with regard to weight loss.
• Arctiamine with leucine & valine
  When losing weight, you mainly want to lose fat and not protein. In some cases, it can be beneficial to take amino acids to maintain a good protein level.

3 tips on how you can support weight loss through the gut

1. Real food

Over the millennia, our bodies have adapted to real, natural foods. Highly processed foods have only been around for a short time and they are not good for us, no matter what promises (low calorie, low fat, high fiber) the food industry prints on the packaging. Additives such as emulsifiers and preservatives upset the balance of the intestinal flora and irritate the intestinal mucosa.

2. No fast carbohydrates - few complex carbohydrates

Insulin is the fat storage hormone. The fewer carbohydrates you eat, the lower your insulin levels will remain. Don't worry: unlike fat and protein (amino acids), there are no essential carbohydrates. This means that we do not need to eat them to ensure our supply of glucose. The body can produce them from other nutrients. In most cases, this is not even necessary, as you are only cutting out starch and not all carbohydrate-containing foods. If you only cut out bread, rice, pasta, potatoes and cereals, fruit and vegetables will still provide enough glucose.

3. Take breaks from eating

Not only your insulin levels, but also your intestines are happy when they get a break. Snacks in between meals and then snacks in front of the TV after dinner have ensured that your gut hardly ever gets a rest. The intestine has its own cleansing system: the "migrating motor complex" is a sophisticated system of electromechanical activity that is activated in the smooth muscles of the digestive tract between meals. However, this only works when the intestines are empty.

These are the three most important points and this is where you should start if you are having difficulty losing weight.

Do you have any questions about losing weight? Then write in the comments, we'll be happy to answer them!