Abstract
BackgroundLow-carbohydrate (e.g., Atkins) dietary pattern is one of the most effective diets for weight loss, but little is known about the characteristics of the gut microbiota accompanying low-carbohydrate diets-induced weight loss. This study aims to profile dynamics of gut bacteria and fungi accompanying modified Atkins diets-induced weight loss among overweight and obese adults.MethodsOverweight and obese adults were screened to follow a modified Atkins diet plan (30% of energy from protein, 40% from carbohydrate and 30% from fat). We longitudinally profiled dynamics of gut bacteria and fungi based on 16S rRNA and ITS rRNA gene sequencing data, respectively.ResultsA total of 65 participants followed the modified Atkins diets for 20–231 days, with 61 and 27 participants achieving a weight loss of at least 5 and 10%, respectively. Most of the participants who achieved 10% weight loss also experienced improvements on metabolic health. The diversity of gut bacteria and fungi increased after a weight loss of 5% and kept stable thereafter. Bacteria genera including Lachnoclostridium and Ruminococcus 2 from Firmicutes phylum were depleted, while Parabacteroides and Bacteroides from Bacteroidetes phylum were enriched after weight loss. The inter-kingdom analysis found an intensive covariation between gut fungi and bacteria, involving more than half of the weight loss-associated bacteria.ConclusionsThis study confirmed the modulation of bacterial and fungal composition during weight loss with the low-carbohydrate diets and showed previously unknown links between intestinal bacteria and fungi accompanying the weight loss.
Highlights
Obesity has been a worldwide public health issue, given its increasing prevalence and detrimental impact on human health [1]
Of the 65 participants, 4 dropped out before achieving 5% reduction of body weight, remaining 61 participants achieving a weight loss of at least 5% and 27 participants achieving a weight loss of at least 10% (Figure 1)
For the 61 participants achieving at least 5% reduction of body weight from baseline, the interval ranged from 7 to 196 days, with a median of 25 days
Summary
Obesity has been a worldwide public health issue, given its increasing prevalence and detrimental impact on human health [1]. Atkins diet is one of the most popular low carbohydrate weight loss programs which consists of
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