Two new studies show that obese people have different
intestinal bacteria than slim people. What's more, the microbes in an
overweight body are much more efficient at extracting calories from food.
One study looked at mice, the other looked at humans.
In both, a family of bacteria known as firmicutes were more plentiful in the
obese (20 percent more). Bacteria called bacteroidetes were also much more
abundant in those of normal weight (the obese had almost 90 percent fewer
bacteroidetes).
Most likely because of the firmicutes, the obese mice
were more efficient at taking calories out of complex sugars and depositing
those calories in fat. When these microbes were transplanted into the
normal-weight mice, those mice started to gain twice as much fat.
As obese people lost weight, their bacteroidetes
increased, while the numbers of firmicutes decreased.
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