"We may have found a key to understanding why some people gain more weight than others, even when they don't eat more or any differently. But this needs to be investigated further," says Associate Professor Henrik Roager of the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports.Researchers examined the remaining energy in the feces of 85 Danes to evaluate the efficiency of their gut microbes at absorbing energy from food.
The results indicate that being overweight might be tied to more than how healthy one eats or how much exercise one receives. It might also be related to the composition of a person's gut microbes. Accordingly, some people may be disadvantaged because their gut microbes are very efficient at absorbing energy. Because of this effectiveness, more calories may be available for the human host from the same amount of food.