The Hidden Link Between Your Gut and Your Waistline

This may seem totally obvious once you read the results of the latest Stanford study but you might also wonder why it took so long!

The reason you are not losing weight while dieting is because... your gut microbiome has a say in the matter. And everyone's biome is different so... the diet that works for one person might be completely useless for the next person. Mind blowing, yes?! Yep. My mind was blown.

Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb

They put some people on low-fat diets and some people on low-carb diets. People who strictly followed either diet lost weight during the short-term (first 6 months). OK. Fine. But here's the kicker... The people who maintained the weight loss for a year ate the SAME number of calories as those who regained weight or who didn't lose weight during the second six months. Well, that sucks. Can you imagine watching your friend eat the same amount of calories as you and they are losing weight while you are gaining weight or plateauing?

That's because some people lost weight better on low-fat diets while others lost weight better on low-carb diets. Why the difference? Why do some people lose weight while others gain weight? Well... turns out it depends on several biomarkers: gut microbiome, proteins made by the body and the levels of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2). Using those biomarkers, researchers could actually predict, at the start of the study, how successful someone would be at losing weight and keeping it off long-term.

The researchers tracked 609 people over a year. How much they ate, what they ate (mostly healthy minimally processed foods) and how much they exercised. What they found was this... just cutting calories or exercising more was NOT enough to sustain weight loss over a year.

Which makes zero sense... because for years we've been told that weight loss is 80/20 - 80% has to do with what you eat and 20% has to do with exercise. Nope, that little rule of thumb is out the window.

Why some Lose Weight while Others Gain Weight

One of the key pieces of the puzzle was the level of exhaled carbon dioxide. The researchers measured the ratio of how much oxygen is inhaled to how much carbon dioxide is exhaled. They used this as a proxy to determine if the body's primary fuel was carbs or fats. A lower ratio means the body burns fat better... while a higher ratio means it burns carbs better. So people who started the study with a higher ratio lost more weight on a low-carb diet because their body burns carbs better.

Think about it... there you are... munching away on your Keto diet because that's what your workout coach recommended. And he's ripped with muscles everywhere and not an ounce of fat on him. You go to town with the Keto, eating all sorts of high fat foods - bacon, cheese, beef, coconut fat, etc. And you avoid carbs like the plague - no potatoes, no noodles, no beans, no pizza. Let's do it!!!

And yet... after a year of eating on Keto you haven't lost the weight... in fact you've put on MORE weight. Why?? It's because your body burns carbs better. And you've been feeding your body the wrong fuel. It's not a lack of willpower. It's the wrong fuel.

If your body prefers carbs, and you're feeding it fats (or vice versa)... your body is not going to be able to metabolize those calories very well... or burn them off. Makes sense. So much sense.

And it all comes down to the your gut microbiome. Do they like to eat carbs? Or do they prefer fats? Can you just imagine a future in which you go to your doctor, they do some tests and hand you a personalized weight-loss or healthy eating plan? Whoa... 

Which begs the question... how do we find out  which is best for u!!?? Well... here's the thing. There isn't a test right now that will easily tell us what sort of gut microbiome we have rumbling around in our insides. Although... some fitness centres or wellness centres will do the respiratory quotient test for you ($$). It measures the ratio of inhaled oxygen to exhaled carbon dioxide.

In the Meantime...

Sooooo... in the meantime... this is what the researchers recommend:

• eat mostly unprocessed foods (real food - not processed "food")
• eat foods low in refined flours (I'm looking at your bread and noodles)
• eat foods low in refined sugar (sigh... brownies!!)
• eat healthy fats like avocados, olives and nuts (not bacon! or coconut oil!)
• get enough fibre from whole grains and beans (even on a low-fat diet - not all carbs are bad)
• learn to cook and rely less on highly processed foods

Well... that makes sense. It's the same advice as always... eat real food, mostly plants, and not too much. Stay away from processed "food". Stay away from sugar and refined flours. And if you're sticking to some diet plan and not losing weight... or actually putting on weight... maybe low-fat or low-carb is not for you.

Now the researchers also acknowledge that some ethnic and racial groups were underrepresented. Which makes me wonder... are some diets better for some ethnic groups than others? Based on different gut microbiomes? And what about men vs. women? Does that make a difference?

The bottom line is this... the diet that works for one person is not necessarily going to work for you. And yes... while you might be able to lose weight short-term on that Keto diet... if it's not the diet for your guy microbiome, it won't work long-term. That is out of your control.

Once again... back to small steps. It's those small daily choices that we make that help us along.

Read More

SciTech - Summary of the Stanford Study

CTV News - Stanford study identifies what influences weight loss the most

Cell Reports Medicine - the full Stanford report

Intake Health - info on the Respiratory Quotient (ratio of inhaled oxygen to exhaled carbon dioxide)

Fumes from Legumes

Tooting Broadway

There's a Tube station in London called Tooting Broadway. While I think this is insanely funny, my British friends are a bit perplexed. Apparently "tooting" in Britain does not mean the same as "tooting" in Canada. A rose by any other name... We could call it farting, trumping (oh, good one!), passing gas, breaking wind... you name it... we all do it... even (gasp) on planes!

It's a completely natural process and, as we all know, the quality and quantity of our gas discharges is shaped, to a large extent, by what we eat. Chinese food, for example, produces some really toxic discharges. At least for me. Apparently my little gut microbiome critters have a field day with chow mein and MSG!

Ah yes, our gut microbiome. Studies are beginning to show that it plays a  bigger role in our overall health than we ever imagined. The health of our little gut bacteria could even influence our mood and  mental health. Fascinating stuff. We really are what we eat.

Pretty tooting

Making the shift from a carnivorous eating plan to a whole-foods, plant-based eating plan has had its moments. As we eased animal proteins out of our diet and upped our intake of plant-based foods, we naturally increased our fiber intake. Now, while we can't digest fiber in our stomachs and small intestines... fiber does feed bacteria in our colon... which has all sorts of beneficial implications for our health. Most of us only eat about 15 grams of fiber a day when we should be eating double, triple or even quadruple that (but that's another blog post).

Sooo... we made a pretty abrupt transition from being happy meat eaters to happy plant eaters and... in that process... we went through the Bacteria Wars. My nutritionist warned me that this might happen, but that it would be temporary... "only a couple of weeks". She said that my gut microbiome would be shifting from one in which animal-protein processing bacteria held the upper hand to one in which fiber-processing bacteria took over. As we increased the fiber and cut off the animal protein... well... it got nasty.

I experienced some really bad bloating and tooting. Like... bad. Fiber munching bacteria produce gas as a by-product and with LOTS of fiber to eat... my gut bacteria had a field day. I had bad gas pain as the bubbles tried to work their way through my system, followed by not-so-pretty farting. It seemed that every time I introduced some new item to my diet, I'd go through a spate of it. One day it was broccoli that triggered bloating and trumping... but then, two days later, broccoli would be fine. Then I'd have cauliflower and... go through it all over again. Two days later cauliflower was fine.

It was definitely a transition period but drinking copious amounts of water definitely helped. And, several weeks into it now, I can safely say that the painful bloating and trumping is behind me. So far. Fingers crossed.

I do have to admit that... for a while there, I was almost ready to toss in the towel and scream "I'm not meant to eat legumes!". I stuck with it though and now my happy fiber munching bacteria are working with me, instead of against me. I honestly didn't know that it would be a temporary problem... I just thought that eating legumes would always lead to breaking wind... but such is not the case. Anyone else find that they avoid legumes because of the trumping issue?