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Analysis being introduced on the European Congress on Weight problems (ECO 2025) and revealed within the journal Vitamins signifies that collagen may very well be a protected and efficient weight-loss complement.
People with chubby and weight problems who ate protein bars enriched with collagen, a protein that’s present in connective tissue, misplaced twice as a lot weight as a management group who didn’t have the complement. In addition they skilled higher decreases in blood stress and waist circumference and noticed their liver well being enhance extra. They might even have elevated skeletal muscle and fat-free mass.
“Many weight-loss drugs are very expensive,” explains researcher Dr. Paola Mogna-Peláez, of the College of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. “We have been eager about collagen as a result of it’s a protein that’s low cost and straightforward to acquire and isn’t identified to have any side-effects. It’s also a compound that the general public is acquainted with.
“Crucially, collagen’s construction might be modified to permit it to soak up further water, which results in it rising in measurement.
“We wanted to know if such a compound creates a feeling of fullness when it expands in the stomach, reducing appetite and leading to weight loss.”
To study extra, Dr. Mogna-Peláez and colleagues performed a 12-week randomized managed trial involving 64 people aged 20–65 years with chubby or weight problems (50% feminine, common weight 83.9 kg/13st 3lb, common BMI 29.65 kg/m2).
The entire contributors got wholesome consuming recommendation primarily based on the Mediterranean food plan. As well as, half of them have been requested to eat a chocolate-flavored protein bar enriched with collagen (10g of collagen per bar) with a glass of water earlier than lunch and dinner every day.
The collagen, which got here from cows, had been handled to soak up further water, in order that it might enhance in measurement when consumed with water.
The contributors stuffed in an urge for food questionnaire and underwent a variety of physique measurements and different assessments at baseline and periodically thereafter.
At 12 weeks, the collagen group had misplaced extra weight than the management group (3 kg/6.6 lb vs. 1.5 kg/3.3 lb). This was regardless of each teams consuming the identical variety of energy, say the researchers.
Systolic blood stress fell by 8 mm Hg within the collagen group however rose barely (0.4 mm Hg enhance) within the management group.
Waist circumference (2.8 cm vs. 2.5 cm), BMI (1.2 models vs. 0.78 models) and fatty liver index, a measure of liver well being, additionally fell extra within the collagen group than within the management group.
As well as, fat-free mass (non-fat tissue together with muscle) elevated within the collagen group, suggesting they could have constructed muscle, however remained unchanged within the management group.
The sarcopenic index, one other measure of muscle mass, elevated in each teams.
Taken collectively, these outcomes point out that the load loss within the collagen group was not on account of lack of muscle, say the researchers, a few of whom are employed by the agency that makes the complement and the protein bars.
The questionnaire confirmed that the collagen group felt much less hungry and extra full than the management group. Ranges of leptin, a hormone that induces emotions of satiety, fell in each teams however have been increased on the finish of the research within the collagen group than within the management group.
In animal experiments, collagen decreased ranges of ghrelin, a hormone that simulates urge for food. The complement additionally swelled to nearly 20 occasions its unique measurement in abdomen acid and had low digestibility.
Not one of the contributors reported any side-effects and people within the collagen group rated the bars excellent (8.8 out of 10) for style in a questionnaire – one thing the researchers say can doubtless be attributed to the bars being coated with sweetened darkish chocolate.
Dr. Mogna-Peláez says, “Our outcomes point out that, by swelling within the abdomen, the collagen made the contributors really feel much less hungry, which might have led to them consuming much less and so shedding weight.
“Collagen may have led to the contributors constructing muscle and we all know that muscle burns extra energy than fats.
“It is also possible that collagen changes the make-up of bacteria in the gut, which may aid with weight loss and appetite control.”
The collagen-enriched protein bars are already available on the market. The researchers are actually working a bigger trial to study extra about mechanisms of motion, significantly in relation to the intestine microbiota.
Extra data:
Miguel López-Yoldi et al, Anti-Weight problems Results of a Collagen with Low Digestibility and Excessive Swelling Capability: A Human Randomized Management Trial, Vitamins (2024). DOI: 10.3390/nu16203550
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European Affiliation for the Examine of Weight problems
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retrieved 13 Might 2025
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