Your gut bacteria affects nearly every function in your body — from your digestion to your immunity, mood, energy level, skin condition, and even weight gain/loss.

There’s a growing amount of research that suggests your gut bacteria actually influences food cravings, your metabolism, how your body processes food and how many calories and nutrients your body absorbs from the food you eat. This all means, the trillions of bacteria living inside you may have a say in your pant size.

What The Research Shows

A number of different studies show a diverse mixture of gut bacteria is one key to staying lean. A 2013 study found that thin people have 70 percent more gut bacteria than people who are overweight. 

Getting even more in depth, researchers found that the species of bacteria are different in people who are obese compared to those who are slim. 

Dr. Joseph Mercola pointed out a study where researchers found obese people have about 20 percent more of a bacteria strain called firmicutes. Firmicutes help the body pull calories from complex sugars and turn those calories into fat. When firmicutes microbes were transplanted into normal-weight mice, researchers noticed those mice started gaining twice as much fat.

Those same researchers also found that lean people have almost 90 percent more of a bacteria strain called bacteroidetes. Bacteroidetes are believed to help break down starches and fibers into shorter molecules that the body can use as energy.

Studies show firmicutes and bacteroidetes are not the only bacteria strains that affect your weight.

The Power of Probiotics  

Along with helping you manage your weight, find out what else probiotics can do for your health in this short video presentation: 

In 2010, researchers had a group of obese people drink probiotic-rich fermented milk for 12 weeks. Researchers found the group was able to reduce their belly fat by nearly five percent. They were also able to reduce subcutaneous fat by more than three percent.

Probiotics Are Proven To Improve Gut Bacteria

The only way to create more diverse gut flora is to ingest probiotics. The Gut Health Project recommends adding probiotic-rich foods to your diet and taking a daily high-quality probiotic supplement.

There are a number of probiotic-rich foods that you can add to your diet, including:

Don’t rely solely on probiotic-rich food to improve your gut health, though. In reality, the amount of probiotic-rich foods you would need to eat in order to get sustainably great results is daunting. These foods tend to be expensive, hard to find, and not to everyone’s taste preference. That is why doctors, medical professionals, and the Gut Health Project recommend taking a high quality daily probiotic supplement