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Short-term probiotic supplementation may aid weight loss
Adults with overweight or obesity who used a probiotic supplement experienced greater reductions in weight, BMI, fat mass and fat percentage compared with those who took a placebo, according to results from a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Heidi Borgeraas, PhD, of the Morbid Obesity Centre at Vestfold Hospital Trust in Norway, and colleagues evaluated 15 studies that included 957 adults (63% women) with overweight or obesity (mean BMI, 27.6 kg/m2) to assess the effects of probiotic supplementation on body weight, BMI, fat mass and fat percentage. Duration of the probiotic supplementation interventions ranged from 3 to 12 weeks.
Among the studies, 10 included a single species of probiotics and five included two or multiple species; the supplements were added to yogurt (n = 5), fermented milk (n = 2), cheese (n = 1) and soy milk (n = 1) or taken as capsules (n = 5) or powder (n = 1).
In 13 studies evaluating the effects of probiotics on body weight, administration of probiotics resulted in greater weight loss compared with placebo (weighted mean difference [WMD], –0.6) with a moderate heterogeneity between studies (P = .02). Probiotics supplementation was also associated with larger reductions in BMI compared with placebo (WMD, –0.27) with moderate heterogeneity (P < .01) in 13 studies. Seven studies evaluated changes in fat mass with probiotics, and researchers observed a greater reduction in fat mass with probiotics compared with placebo; however, the difference was not significant. Fat percentage was also reduced with supplementation compared with placebo (WMD, –0.6) with low heterogeneity (P = .3).
“Our meta-analysis showed that short-term ( 12 weeks) probiotic supplementation reduced body weight, BMI and fat percentage, but the effect sizes were small,” the researchers wrote. “Overall, the risk of bias within included studies was low, but, importantly, a number of trials were not registered and/or lacked a priori sample size calculation and were thus regarded as having unclear or high risk of reporting and other biases. Accordingly, further long-term studies are required to examine the effects of probiotic supplementation on various measures on body weight.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.