“An experimental probiotic aids weight loss in overweight people following a calorie-control diet.

Previous studies by Pierre Déchelotte at Rouen University Hospital in France and his colleagues suggest that orally administering the gut bacterium Hafnia alvei helps obese mice lose weight. The probiotic produces a molecule called ClpB that mimics the appetite-reducing hormone alpha-MSH.

Now, the researchers have found that the bacterium has similar effects in people who are overweight, presenting their results at the Targeting Microbiota 2022 conference in Paris last week.

The researchers counselled 212 people with an overweight body mass index (BMI) on how to reduce their calorie intake by one-fifth for three months. BMI is a measurement that uses your weight and height to calculate if your weight is healthy. The participants were asked to maintain their existing level of physical activity.

Over the three months, roughly half of the participants also took a pill containing H. alvei twice a day. The remaining participants took a twice-daily placebo. The people in both groups were of a similar age, height and starting weight.

Among those who took the probiotic, 55 per cent lost at least 3 per cent of their body weight, compared with 41 per cent of the people taking the placebo.”

-Carissa Wong, “Appetite-suppressing probiotic helps overweight people lose weight.” New Scientist. October 26, 2022

Procedure is fairly straight-forward. Take one capsule in the morning, one in the evening for 3 months. You can buy the capsules used online. Do it for science.