The findings, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, also indicate that eight weeks of supplementation with the strain increased levels of Parabacteroides, a gut microbe linked to anti-obesity effects.
“These findings suggest that B. coagulans strain BC99 could be a beneficial candidate for modulating the gut microbiota and improve body weight management for overweight individuals,” wrote scientists from Qilu Hospital of Shandong University.
Weight management
A link between the gut microbiota and obesity was first reported in 2006 by Jeffrey Gordon and his group at Washington University in St. Louis.
They observed that microbial populations in the gut are different between obese and lean individuals and that when the obese people lost weight, their microflora reverted back to that observed in a lean person. This suggested that obesity has a microbial component.
In a 2013 study in Science, Professor Gordon’s group also demonstrated that transplanting gut bacteria from obese humans into germ-free mice led to greater weight gain and fat accumulation than in mice that received gut bacteria from lean humans.
A recent rat study from scientists at the University of Georgia, Athens that transplanted the microbiota from lean donors and combined this with prebiotic inulin produced beneficial shifts in the microbiota even when the animals continued to consume a high fat “Western” diet.
These findings have led many research groups to explore if probiotics—defined by the FAO/WHO as “live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host”—may help manage weight.
Study details
The new study used Weizmannia coagulans BC99, a probiotic strain from Wecare Probiotics that was recently named Sports Nutrition ingredient of the year at the NutraIngredients-Europe Awards.
The China-based researchers recruited 66 overweight and obese adults with an average age of 34.5 to participate in their single-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either placebo (maltodextrin) or probiotic (five billion CFUs per day of W. coagulans BC99) for eight weeks.
While both groups experienced significant weight loss in obese participants, only those in the BC99 group showed a statistically significant reduction in body weight among overweight individuals.
“The body weight of the overweight subgroup decreased significantly after the probiotic BC99 intervention but did not change significantly after being supplemented with placebo,” the researchers reported. “Weight loss was significantly greater in the probiotic group than in the placebo group.”
“This indicates that BC99 supplementation is more suitable for overweight adults,” they added.
Beyond weight loss, analysis of the microbiota revealed that BC99 significantly improved the β-diversity after four weeks.
Bacteria of the genus Parabacteroides were negatively correlated with body weight, and this genus was found to found to be enriched following BC99 supplementation.
“Further studies on BC99 and Parabacteroides are needed to comprehensively clarify the underlying mechanism of the anti-obesity effect of BC99," the researchers wrote. “Additionally, maltodextrin appears to affect the gut microbiota. Although many studies have used maltodextrin as a placebo, its effects on the gut microbiota require further evaluation.”
Weight management in focus at Probiota Americas
The upcoming Probiota Americas in Vancouver (June 9-11, 2015) will feature a session dedicated to weight management and the microbiome. For more information and to register, click HERE.
Source: Frontiers in Nutrition, Volume 12 – 2025, doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1542145, “Effect of Bacillus coagulans BC99 supplementation on body weight and gut microbiota in overweight and obese individual: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study”, Authors: R. Wang, et al.
