Does spirulina help with weight loss

Does spirulina help with weight loss? This cyanobacterium, often mistaken for algae, has been gaining popularity for the last ten years.

For good reason, its very high nutritional value is officially recognized as effective in the fight against malnutrition.

But according to recent studies, spirulina (told spiruline in French) would also be effective to help weight loss. Explanations

How to evaluate overweight and obesity?

In France, 54% of men and 44% of women are overweight and obesity affects 17% of adults, i.e. 10 million people.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), overweight and obesity correspond to an abnormal or excessive accumulation of body fat that can be harmful to health.

Two simple measurements can be made for the adults:

The body mass index (BMI) which corresponds to the weight divided by the square of the height, expressed in kg/m2. A BMI greater than or equal to 25 indicates overweight. If it is greater than or equal to 30 it is called obesity.

Waist circumference (in cm) is another indicator of excess abdominal fat in adults. The waist circumference is too high if it is higher than 94 cm for men and 80 for women.

Weight loss management

If weight loss cannot be achieved in the long term without a balanced diet and regular physical activity, it can nevertheless be facilitated by taking food supplements.

It is in this perspective that the action of spirulina on weight loss has been studied recently through the implementation of clinical trials.

These clinical trials all studied the interest of spirulina supplementation compared to a placebo supplementation (i.e. without active ingredient) on weight loss of overweight or obese patients, in addition to the implementation of a low-calorie diet.

The effects of spirulina on overweight

In most studies, scientists followed for three months overweight or obese patients.

In the most recent study 1 the scientists found that on all the criteria allowing to evaluate the effectiveness of a supplementation by Spirulina, it was more effective than the placebo and allowed to obtain after 3 months of diet a greater decrease :

• Body weight,
• BMI,
• Abdominal circumference,
• The fat mass

These researchers have even noted in this study, a greater decrease in total cholesterol levels of patients supplemented with spirulina compared to those taking the placebo.

These results are in the same direction as those of another study published in 20172 which showed for patients taking spirulina, after 3 months of diet, a greater decrease in weight, BMI and appetite than those taking a placebo.

How does spirulina act to help weight loss?

To understand the action of spirulina on weight loss, scientists conducted many hypotheses and studies

Spirulina could act by increasing the elimination of cholesterol in the stools, by decreasing the accumulation of fat in the liver, by increasing the feeling of satiety after a meal, which would explain the reduction of appetite observed in clinical trials.

Researchers have also highlighted an action of spirulina on the increase of thermogenesis (body temperature) and therefore on energy expenditure4.

Thus, spirulina seems to have several beneficial actions to help weight loss. However,  The confirmation of these extremely promising results needs new research including larger numbers of patients.

Article translated from https://www.nutrimea.com/article/fr/spiruline-perte-de-poids/

¹ Spirulina platensis effectively ameliorates anthropometric measurements and obesity-related metabolic disorders in obese or overweight healthy individuals: A randomized controlled trial Reyhaneh Yousefi, Azadeh Mottaghi, Atoosa Saidpour Complementary Therapies in Medicine Volume 40, October 2018, Pages 106-112

² The effects of Spirulina Platensis on anthropometric indices, appetite, lipid profile and serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in obese individuals: a randomized double blinded placebo controlled trial Reihaneh Zeinalian, Mahdieh Abbasalizad Farhangi, Atefeh Shariat and Maryam Saghafi-Asl BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2017) 17:225

³ Effects of spirulina on weight loss and blood lipids: a review James J DiNicolantonio, Anusha G Bhat, James OKeefe Open Heart 2020;7:e001003. doi:10.1136/openhrt-2018-001003

⁴ Anti-Obesity Effects of Microalgae Saioa Gómez-Zorita, Jenifer Trepiana, Maitane González-Arceo, Leixuri Aguirre, Iñaki Milton-Laskibar, Marcela González, Itziar Eseberri, Alfredo Fernández-Quintela and María P. Portillo International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2020,21,41; doi:10.3390/ijms21010041

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