Slime of slimming

Humans cannot live without their symbiotes: bacteria. They keep bad bacteria off our skin, out of our mouths, and out of our guts. Bacteria influence our food preferences, tell us when we're hungry to some extent, and turn food into vitamins. They're wonderful little beasties. These tiny critters eat stuff we can’t digest, churning out energy to keep us going. They tweak our immune systems. They whip up some brain chemicals that mess with our moods. Bacteria do so much heavy lifting it's fair to say we can't live without them.

The down side is, if your bacteria like you to eat a lot you tend to eat a lot. If they also like unhealthy food, well. So:

This weight-loss course involves the slaughter of pretty much all of one's gut biome. It consists of a month-long heavy course of antibiotics in a near clean room with supplements to replace the missing vitamins and minerals.

After the antibiotic course, participants receive... gut bacteria transplants derived from healthy, thin, vegetarian donors. These donors are selected for their stable, lean body weight and plant-based dietary habits, which are hypothesized to foster a gut microbiome that supports reduced appetite and healthier food preferences. Post-transplant, participants follow a guided vegetarian diet for 8–12 weeks to stabilize the new microbiome, supported by probiotics and prebiotic foods to maintain the beneficial bacterial population.