Why does fat return after dieting? The microbiome might have a hand.

Experiments on mice suggest that gut bacteria contribute to the post-diet rebound of fat tissue.​

Diets that involve intermittent fasting can help with weight loss — but returning to normal eating habits often means regaining shed pounds. Scientists now have a potential explanation for this frustrating cycle: short-term fasting alters the composition of gut microbes, which, in turn, changes the way the body absorbs fat.​

Wuling Zhong at the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health in China and colleagues fed mice a calorie-restricted diet — for example, by spreading one day’s worth of food over three days — then let the animals eat as they pleased. As expected, the mice lost fat mass when their food intake was limited, but quickly reaccumulated fat with normal feeding.​

Digging deeper, the team found that short-term calorie restriction led to an increase in Lactobacillus bacteria in the gut, and that this enhanced the ability of the animals’ intestinal tissues to absorb fat. However, if mice were given a high-protein diet after food restriction, this suppressed the growth of Lactobacillus populations in the gut — resulting in less fat accumulation in the mice.​

The findings suggest that eating high-protein meals after completing a diet could help people to maintain weight loss, the authors say.

Full article:​ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04387-9 ​