Diet Hit A Snag? Your Gut Bacteria May Be Partly To Blame

"Have you ever been on a diet but didn't hit your goal weight? Your gut bacteria may be part of the explanation."

"New research suggests the mix of microbes in our guts can either help — or hinder — weight-loss efforts."

"'We started with the premise that people have different microbial makeups, and this could influence how well they do with dieting,' explains Purna Kashyap, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn."

"As part of the study, Kashyap and his collaborators tracked the progress of people who were enrolled in a lifestyle-intervention program for weight loss. The participants were advised to follow a low-calorie diet, and they were tracked closely for about three months."

"'We found that people who lost at least 5 percent of their body weight had a different gut bacteria as compared to those who did not lose 5 percent of their body weight,' Kashyap explains. Their findings are published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings."