The Role of Microbiome in Recurrent Obesity Before and After Antibiotic/Placebo Treatment

This past century witnessed a significant increase in the prevalence of obesity. Successful weight loss maintenance is defined as losing at least 10% of the initial body weight and maintaining it for at least one year. However, keeping a low body weight is rarely maintained, as 80% of people who lost 10% of their body weight will return to their initial weight within a year. Although there is no agreement as to what contributes to the recurrent weight regain phenomenon (also known as 'weight cycling' or 'yo-yo diet'), it is strongly associated with the risk of developing metabolic risk factors and their complications, including heart disease and all-cause mortality. Altering the gut microbiota is one method to treat disease states associated with gut bacteria. Antibiotics consumption is known to influence host glycemic response through changes induced in microbiome composition and function. Therefore, it may be a possible pathway to jumpstart changes in the gut microbiota.

This study will determine whether microbiome modulation might be a possible future target against recurrent obesity in humans and whether orally administered antibiotic treatment post-weight loss might be an effective intervention to prevent weight regain.