Is your gut microbiome preventing weight loss? | Dr. Suzanne Devkota and Prof. Tim Spector

ZOE Science & Nutrition

ZOE

Nutrition, Health & Fitness, Education, Science

4.6 • 4.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Belly fat is more than just stubborn weight – it plays a complex role in our health, interacting with the immune system and gut bacteria. But could gut microbes hold the key to understanding and managing belly fat? In this episode, Dr. Suzanne Devkota, Director of the Microbiome Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai, shares groundbreaking findings on how gut bacteria interact with belly fat. Tim Spector, professor of epidemiology and scientific co-founder at ZOE, also joins the conversation to explain how the diversity of your gut bacteria affects weight and overall health. Together, our guests share surprising ways the microbiome influences fat storage and offer practical tips for supporting gut health. 🥑 Make smarter food choices. Become a member at zoe.com - 10% off with code PODCAST 🌱 Try our new plant based wholefood supplement - Daily 30+ Follow ZOE on Instagram. Timecodes 00:00 The risks of internal fat 01:45 Quickfire questions 03:12 What is belly fat? 04:30 How dangerous is internal fat? 05:44 How our body uses belly fat 16:20 Groundbreaking study on gut bacteria 21:05 These gut bacteria live in your fat tissue 24:50 Gut health and your immune system 31:58 Why microbes are essential to survive 38:30 Why gut health starts at birth 46:40 The importance of sampling your gut microbes 50:50 Two changes you can make right now 53:02 Easy fermented eating tips 55:10 Why not all pickles are fermented 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks Mentioned in today's episode Translocation of Viable Gut Microbiota to Mesenteric Adipose Drives Formation of Creeping Fat in Humans (2020), published in Cell Our extended microbiome: The human-relevant metabolites and biology of fermented foods (2024), published in Cell Metabolism Effects of a personalized nutrition program on cardiometabolic health: a randomized controlled trial (2024), published in Nature Heritable components of the human fecal microbiome are associated with visceral fat (2016) published in Genome Biology Dissecting the role of the gut microbiota and diet on visceral fat mass accumulation (2019), published in Scientific Reports Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here. Episode transcripts are available here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zoe Science and Nutrition, where world-leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
0:07.0	We can all agree belly fat is stubborn, but it also stores excess energy, produces essential hormones.
0:22.4	Too much could lead to serious health issues, yet the constant barrage of messages to eliminate
0:27.4	it overlooks the reason why it's there in the first place.
0:31.7	New research reveals that gut bacteria may play a part.
0:36.1	Certain bacteria may make weight loss easier, while others contribute to obesity.
0:41.3	For some, belly fat might even be a protective response to harmful bacteria that escape the gut.
0:47.3	So could our gut bacteria be the key to achieving a healthy level of belly fat?
0:54.1	Today's guests are at the forefront of this groundbreaking research.
0:58.5	Dr. Suzanne Devcota is the Director of Microbiome Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
1:03.8	and a key figure in this rapidly evolving field.
1:07.6	She's one of a small group of scientists running cutting-edge studies on gut bacteria, how they
1:12.3	impact disease, and how they might also heal us.
1:16.3	She's joined today by another pioneer in the world of gut microbiome research, Professor
1:21.0	Tim Specter. Tim is one of the world's top 100 most cited scientists, a professor of epidemiology
1:27.2	and my scientific co-founder
1:28.9	at Zoe. You'll leave today's episode with a new perspective on belly fat and tips for supporting
1:34.9	the bacteria living beneath it. And if you're interested in learning about the foods that
1:40.2	nourish your unique gut microbiome, you should check out Zoe's personalized nutrition program.
1:46.0	Your Zoe program starts when you send us a stool sample,
1:49.0	which we analyze with the world's most advanced gut health tests
1:52.0	to understand the exact bacteria that you have in your gut.
	...

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