How I Lost 13+ Pounds in Less Two Months with SIBO! (Plus tips and advice)
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy learning about new topics, but quickly get sucked in and dive down the rabbit hole. For years, well before getting my SIBO diagnosis, I knew there was some healing that needed to take place in my body. Unfortunately, this led to a lot of pigeon-holing myself into different categories and self-diagnosing (something I don’t do anymore). Like many others out there, I still have a lot of healing to do. Maybe there’s even more than in the last few years since I’ve hit my thirties. In any case, I hope you’ll join me on this adventure as I take you through my SIBO journey and give you some tips that have worked for me to lose weight with SIBO.
Disclaimer:
I first want to let you know that any information I put out there is simply that: Information. It is not meant to sway you or to get you to believe one particular way over another. This is information I have gathered along the way and these are my own thoughts and opinions. What you choose to believe is based on your own thinking, not mine. While this information has worked for me, it does not mean it’s going to work for you or get you the results you are looking for. Make sure you are consulting professionals and medical practitioners when seeking out professional or medical advice.
What is SIBO?
In short, SIBO stands for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth. It sounds like a simple explanation, because, for the most part, it is. At the same time though, it’s rather complex and gets complicated. In layman’s terms, us “SIBO Amigos” (Thank you, Phoebe Lapine for the term) have too much bacteria in our small intestine. There are three (technically five) overarching types of SIBO (methane, hydrogen, and hydrogen-sulfite dominant). You can read more in detail about the types here. They come with a slew of fun symptoms like excess gas and belching, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, brain fog, nutrient deficiencies, weight gain or loss, and my favorite symptom, bloating.
I’m sure you’ve heard the term “food baby” before. With people like me, who have hydrogen-dominant SIBO, I have a food baby like 90% of the time, and recently, it’s been creeping closer to 100%. As an added bonus, there are plenty of foods that can cause gastrointestinal distress and worsen your symptoms. One groups of food that does this is FODMAPs. Without getting too scientific, they’re a type of short-chain carbohydrate that isn’t easily absorbed into the gut, especially in people with SIBO and/or IBS.
I told you before that SIBO is complex and it likes to be sneaky. Where there is SIBO, there are usually other key players involved. In my research, I’ve found that SIBO is almost more of a symptom of a root condition rather than an actual condition that can be healed on its own. While there are treatment options, many SIBO patients relapse due to either not knowing/curing the root cause or simply being unable to do so.
Underlying root causes of SIBO may include an impaired Migrating Motor Complex or motility issues, low stomach acid or bile, a sluggish liver, H. pylori infection, and food poisoning. The list continues and unfortunately, it’s not easy to fix SIBO. It takes dedication and time. One of my favorite SIBO blogs is A Gutsy Girl. Sarah’s story is incredible and it’s wonderful to read a blog of someone who has completely cured her SIBO. While I love Sarah’s story, I’m not here to talk about hers today. I’m here to talk about mine and I’m here to talk to you about how I’m tackling weight loss in spite of a SIBO diagnosis.
My very condensed SIBO story
I’m not 100% certain I can pinpoint where my SIBO started, but at this point, I’m pretty much convinced it was either a case of food poisoning in 2019 or being on birth control for many years. Heck, maybe it was both! I think I can pinpoint to around 2019 because I don’t remember having major GI issues before then. I remember walking with a friend and becoming extremely bloated on our walk. I remember thinking it wasn’t normal in the slightest. I believe that was around 2019 or 2020. In 2020, a few hours after a trip to Olive Garden, I was sent to the hospital with severe stomach pains. The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me, so they slapped me with a generic IBS diagnosis. I didn’t give it much thought until years later.
The first time I ever heard of SIBO was while listening to a podcast episode of Erin Holt’s Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast. Beyond that, I put it to the back of my mind until it came up a year or so later. In 2020, I gave my body a break after yo-yo dieting and binge eating for almost seven years and attempted to heal my relationship with food. I gained 20 pounds in the process and in 2021 was the heaviest I’ve ever been. While I think my body was normalizing itself, I think SIBO also played a part in this without me knowing. My GI issues continued but thankfully I avoided anymore trips to the ER. It was in 2022 when I shifted my focus towards a more holistic view of health and nutrition. I’ve always been interested in a more holistic approach to nutrition and health but never thought it’d play such an important role in my life.
After a tough breakup in 2022, I was living on my own for the first time in my life. I spent a LOT of time learning about holistic nutrition and health and how to heal without allopathic medicine. In 2023, my gut issues began to worsen. I experienced bloating like never before and started to get bouts of explosive diarrhea. In November 2023, I had what I believe to be my first true SIBO flare-up that lasted for almost two months straight.
My mom had colon cancer when she was 30, so as a 32-year-old woman, I knew I had put off getting a colonoscopy for long enough. In January 2024, after getting my first colonoscopy, I received a clean bill. No IBD or cancer. While I was overjoyed, I knew something was still wrong with my body and I was determined to figure it out. I’m not entirely sure how I found out about SIBO, but once I looked into it, I just knew this was an answer I was looking for.
In recent months, I’ve had a lot going on in my life. I was about to get married in March and move from Pennsylvania to Kansas to join my new husband. A few months after that, we’d leave for our next duty station in Colorado so there was pretty much nothing but transition time for three-ish months. I didn’t let this time of change stop me, though. After a lot of searching, I found a nutritionist. In February 2024, I began working with my nutritionist, Jenna Volpe, who is AMAZING. If you are searching for answers with your own gut issues, I highly recommend working with her. Currently, I’m working with Jenna through a SIBO treatment protocol. I don’t know how long it’s going to take or what work will need to be done to heal my gut, but I’m determined to make it happen.
The weight loss conundrum
Up until 2020, I had body dysmorphia. Even when I was thin, I didn’t think I was. I’ve been overweight since around 2017/2018. I’m going to be using weights for number purposes here, but please don’t think it means anything other than that. At 5’ 3”, a healthy weight for me is around 130-140 pounds. I haven’t seen that range since 2015. I hovered around 150 until I began teaching full-time in 2016. From 2016 to 2021, I gained about 36 pounds, putting me at my heaviest I’d ever been, 186. I noticed that it became increasingly hard to lose weight. Each year I would do a round of the Whole30 in January and lose around 10 pounds. Because of my disordered eating, I’d always gain it back.
Thankfully, now that my relationship with food is completely healed, I was able to stabilize my weight and even lose about 20 pounds in less than a year! Unfortunately, it hasn’t always been simple for me when it comes to weight loss. In fact, since 2019, it’s been rather difficult to lose weight. And although it’s frustrating to know how much of a struggle it is for me to lose weight, I at least now can understand why it’s been so hard to try. If you’re not familiar, for some people with SIBO, weight loss can almost seem impossible. This was me. I’d try so stinkin’ hard to lose weight but I couldn’t even manage to lose more than three pounds. Essentially, I gave up trying and my weight went up again. At the beginning of 2024, I was hovering around 175 with what I thought was no hope in sight.
For years, I had no idea why I couldn’t lose weight. I truly thought I was broken. I’m not using my SIBO as an excuse for gaining weight, but I do know that if I’d known about it sooner, I may have attempted weight loss differently. I would get jealous when friends and family members told me they lost 10 pounds in a month. Ten pounds in a month?! I couldn’t even lose that in a year! Because I healed my relationship with food, I was able to maintain my weight within a somewhat healthy range. I had been sitting around 170-175 pounds for about a year. While I was comfortable with that weight, I didn’t feel great. I knew in order to feel better and accomplish the fitness and performance goals I had for myself I’d need to shed some pounds.
Currently, we’ve just entered June of 2024. Since the beginning of March of this year, I’ve dropped around 13 pounds. Say what?!?! You may now be wondering, if I couldn’t even lose ten pounds in a year, how in the world have I managed to lose 13 pounds less than two months?? It all began with actually understanding what SIBO is and how it had been working in my body. When I came across research that shows SIBO patients struggle to lose weight due to malabsorption of food, especially carbs, it all clicked for me. Y’all, my life is carbs! I LOVE sweets and all the yummy, not so healthy foods. I’ve had to relearn my body, knowing there are some keys ways that have helped me so weight. So, read below to read some tips that have helped me lose 13 pounds in less than two months WITH SIBO!
Tips for how to lose weight with SIBO
1. Careful carb consumption. There is a definite correlation to weight loss and the amount of carbs I consume. It’s a vicious cycle: The week before my period, I tend to want the most carbs (and it’s the only time I crave ice cream!). Of course, this is when I tend to retain the most weight. If I eat more carbs, it’s almost guaranteed I will retain or gain weight. It’s a devil knowing this, but I have to practice a mostly low-carb lifestyle. Even healthy carbs like fruit or oats may contribute to weight gain or retention if I’m not careful. With SIBO, the bacteria that are housed in your small intestine feed off carbs, so if you eat more carbs, they will continue to feed. Knowing this has helped me plan meals that are enjoyable but better for my body.
2. Meal spacing. This has been the main reason I’ve been able to lose weight with SIBO. Meal spacing is exactly what it sounds like. You space out your meals with at least 90-120 minutes in between. I’ve learned to live without snacks! Crazy, I know, but it can be done. There has been research done that shows snacking can mess up your hunger signals and possibly even dysregulate blood sugar levels. When we snack, it’s often on carbs instead of fat and protein. For me, this is a big no-no, as carbs can lead to unnecessary weight retention. Meal spacing has allowed me to get more in touch with my natural eating cues and also enjoy carbs!
3. Learning my eating cues. I’m not exactly sure what the science may be behind this, but SIBO has caused my hunger and fullness cues to get pretty whacky. I’m bloated about 90-95% of the day, so it’s a beautiful thing when I actually feel hungry. Because of the bloating, I get a feeling of fullness more than anything, so being able to tell when I’m truly hungry gets tricky. If I’m not hungry, this is usually my body’s cue that I don’t need more food because of…you guessed it…carbs. I’ve noticed on weeks when I eat more carbs, I don’t lose weight as easily, which makes sense due to the malabsorption of carbs in my body.
I’ve had to learn that if I’m not hungry, it’s ok to push off eating for a little while. Eating to time is not necessarily effective for someone with SIBO. Sometimes, you have to listen to what your body is telling you instead of what an “expert” might be telling you.
4. Supplements. I am in the camp that believes if you are eating a truly nourishing diet, you don’t need to add many supplements into it. They have their place and can be effective, but when you are spending an exorbitant amount of money on supplements because you feel you need them, you may want to take a look at your diet. However, patients with SIBO often need to add in some supplements temporarily until they are healed. If you have SIBO, it is almost guaranteed you either have other ailments and/or have a deeper root cause. Because of this, I’ve added a liver support supplement which contains milk thistle, alpha lipoic acid, and n-acetyl cysteine, all of which play an important part in liver support. I also take Zypan which helps to increase the amount of digestive enzymes in your body which then help to further break down your food.
5. Motility support. Ever heard of the migrating motor complex? Before I found out about SIBO, neither had I. The migrating motor complex, or MMC for short, is almost just what it sounds like. It acts as a sweeping mechanism that moves your food through the digestive tract. Typically, food can be digested in just a few hours in people who have a healthy digestive systems. Many SIBO patients, however, have an impaired MMC and can’t digest their food nearly as quickly as a healthy person. This is why meal spacing is so important. If you are snacking, you are probably not giving your MMC a break and it therefore can’t properly move food through your digestive tract. Thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do to help improve your body’s motility!
One of my favorite ways to support motility is by using prokinetics. The nutritionist I work with has an amazing article which nicely breaks down all things prokinetics. She also provides some great options you can take if you think you need motility support for yourself.
6. A whole foods diet. The more I learn about nutrition and the gut, the more I realize how important it is to eat whole foods that have as few ingredients and are as close to their original source as possible. Our modern society values convenience which has led to a standard diet that’s high in overly processed, hyperpalatable, pseudo-foods (If you think Gatorade, Oreos, and Twinkies are actual food, think again). These foods often contain highly toxic ingredients, such as dyes, industrial seed oils, and refined grains and sugar. They are incredibly inflammatory to the body and will wreak all kinds of havoc.
I’m not on a high horse here. By no means do I eat what I consider to be the “perfect diet”; however, I’m slowly getting closer. Instead of buying sauces and dressings, I now make them. I also make beef jerky instead of purchasing it at the grocery store. I’ve lessened my sugar intake and I now buy organic eggs and A2/A2 dairy. These changes are occurring little by little over time. I know I’ll never reach perfection but these changes have had some great effects on my body.
7. Movement. A big change that’s occurred between March and now is that I had to quit my full-time job because of moving to another state. Since then, I haven’t gotten another full-time job and I don’t plan to. Instead, I have a wonderful part-time job. Going from full-time to part-time has allowed me a LOT of time throughout the day to do things like housework, errands, and exercise. I don’t sit nearly as much as I did when I worked a corporate office job. I’m also more intentional with my movement. I don’t enjoy sitting around all day because my day is now so much more fulfilling than when I worked full-time.
I’ve been lifting intermittently since around 2017 and started getting into it more in 2019 when I began a program called Stronger by the Day, which I HIGHLY recommend. I finally have fully committed to four days per week and have now been doing so since the beginning of 2024. I’ve seen a high difference in my physical appearance and am building a lot of muscle. Beyond that, I love to run and hike. My husband loves to be physically active, so it’s rare that a day passes when we don’t get in some kind of physical activity.
8. Handling stress better. I’m not a naturally stress- or anxiety-filled person. I’m naturally laidback and don’t worry much. Typically, my stress levels are only elevated when my hormones are whacky. Other than that, I’m rather even keel. Even so, I’ve had to handle stress in my life. Everyone faces stress and it’s my belief that it’s how we handle that stress that contributes to some of our health. Obviously, there are times when we add stress to our lives, like overcommitting or working a job that you despise and sucks the life out of you.
But, when you come across stress that is unavoidable, you can find ways to handle it better. My faith is Jesus Christ and knowing I have hope in Him has been the biggest way to beat stress. Eating a healthier diet, ditching hormonal birth control, and simply realizing that I can only control my actions have all played a role in me handling stress better.
There is hope
Digestive disorders and illnesses like SIBO, IBD, IBS, Crohn’s, and Ulcerative Colitis, as well as colorectal cancer, are all on the rise, especially amongst young people who are in their 20s and 30s. While it’s scary to think about and while it’s not necessarily your fault if you contract one of these illnesses, there are still many reasons these issues are on the rise. Heavily processed diets, poor environments, chemical-laced water, use of plastics and other chemicals in everyday products, stress. These are all contributors to the heavy burden we put on our bodies.
However, there is hope – and it doesn’t have to include antibiotics and other allopathic medicine. My best advice is to find a holistic practitioner, either doctor or nutritionist, who will help you get to the root cause of your issues and not just make the symptoms go away. While I can’t tell you what diet is right for you, consider slowly swapping out processed foods for whole ingredients, get in some type of movement you love as often as you can, and work to handle your stress levels better! Stay strong, my friends. This healing journey may be a long one, but it sure is worth it.
