For those who have been struggling to shed a few pounds and get down to a healthy weight, the journey might seem harder than it is supposed to be. Even if you’re trying to gain weight, sometimes the process seems nearly impossible. After all, you have tried to monitor your caloric intake, you’ve increased your activity levels, and you are trying to keep up a positive, can-do attitude. So which factors can help you control the effect of metabolism on weight gain?

If the scale isn’t budging or if it seems to be going in the opposite direction, you might want to start looking at the silent work of the microorganisms living in your gut. Most people blame their metabolism for unexplained weight gain, weight loss, or plateau, but it might be directly related to the health of your gut. That may be true, but we need to look at the health factors that help lower and increase metabolism and affect your lifestyle.

You may have thought you were in this weight struggle on your own, but the truth of the matter is that there are trillions of tiny bacteria in the digestive system that have a very strong influence on your metabolism and weight fluctuations. Let’s examine how gut bacteria can affect your digestive system and metabolism, making it harder to make the scale move in the desired direction.