The Gut and Weight gain 

When we say ‘the gut’, we mean your gut system is responsible for digesting your food and starts at your mouth and ends at your bum - so it's everything from chewing to pooing! 

The gut system is a series of small and large tubes that digest your food and remove waste.

We believe that a healthy gut is essential for optimum health and the more efficiently it’s all working together the more nutrients you’ll gain from your food, more energy you’ll have and some studies show better control of your weight. 

Many of us take our guts for granted as we think of eating and digestion as quite a simple process, but there’s a lot going on in there!

Read what your gut does to digest your food from between chewing and pooing here.

Signs your gut isn’t happy 

There are lots of ways your gut can tell you it’s not working well, including bloated stomach, upset stomach, bloating, bellyache, diarrhoea, excess gas, and discomfort. 

But did you know that poor gut health might be responsible for weight gain. When our gut isn’t functioning optimally, it can lead to inflammation and a host of other problems. 

Your gut is like an internal ecosystem and the aim we have here is to get everything working together in balance. Inside you right now, there are over 1000 different species of microorganisms that are constantly competing for the space and food that it takes to survive. These are called microbes and they are vital in the way that you break down your food.

Your gut microbes are the only part of the body that have the enzymes that digest fibre. Without them, you wouldn’t get many of the health benefits from your fruit and vegetables. In other terms, your gut microbes are really important to your overall health. If you look after them, they look after you. 

So, what part does the gut play in your weight? 

Making sure that your gut microbiome has enough ‘good stuff’ to thrive is crucial to your health and weight control. Several studies show the more diverse our gut microbiome is and fibre intake we have, the lower long-term weight gain.

Your gut microbiome can help or hinder weight loss - and this opens up the possibility to try to alter the gut microbiome to help weight loss. 

For example, gut bacteria can extract more calories from food, or they can change the types of food that we crave.

There are lots of things you can do to get your gut microbiome working for you and your weight loss goals.

But why should you focus on improving your gut health to help with weight control?

Apart from the fact that a healthy gut is essential for good health, here are four other reasons why gut health is important for weight loss:

1. The healthier your gut, the healthier your gut bacteria is. Healthy gut bacteria can help you to better absorb the nutrients from your food, so you’re getting more benefit from the food you eat – so you get more bang for your buck!

2. The gut microbiome can help to change the type of food we crave – so we make healthier choices.

3. A healthy gut microbiome can help reduce inflammation. Inflammation can cause weight gain, so reducing inflammation is key to weight loss.

4. Improving gut health can help improve overall digestion and make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need from your food to support weight loss.

So, how do you go about improving your gut health?

We believe in making small, realistic changes to help reap the long term benefits for your gut and overall health.

Top tips for improving your gut microbiome can we found here:

• 5 ways to improve your gut health you can make today
• Which foods can help with overall gut and digestive health?
• What's a prebiotic? 

You can also read our Gut Wealth guides to take care of your gut.