Another Cause of Obesity: The Bacteria in Your Gut?

Diet, exercise and genes aren't the only factors responsible for body weight, say researchers, who are discovering evidence of another component: the bacteria in your gut

Peter Dazeley / Getty

If you have ever fought the battle of the bulge, then you are all too familiar with its key players: diet, exercise and your genes. The less you move (calories out) and the more you eat (calories in), the more fat you gain — an equation that may be heavily influenced by your particular genes. But scientists have long known that these three factors do not adequately explain every case of obesity, and now researchers are discovering increasingly convincing evidence of another important contributor to body weight, one that until recently has been almost completely ignored: the bacteria that live in...

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