Several clinical trials showed that glucomannan could aid with weight-loss and the treatment of obesity when taken on a daily basis. One clinical study into 176 overweight adults found that supplementing a reduced-calorie diet with glucomannan significantly increased the amount of weight lost compared to a placebo. However, the study compared different fibres, and there was not much difference between their effects and those of glucomannan. Glucomannan is a type of dietary fibre made from elephant yam, the root of the South Asian konjac plant.

It has been said that Lipozene doesn’t contain enough glucomannan to cause weight loss and also that if it contained enough, people would ‘explode,’ both of which claims are spurious. It is thought that this effect on cholesterol levels comes in response to two different factors. Firstly, glucomannan’s viscous nature slows down the rate at which nutrients are absorbed from the gut. This, in turn, seems to impact the rate at which cholesterol is absorbed from food.

Fibre supports a healthy gut: Prebiotics are a type of dietary fibre that acts as a fuel for the good bacteria in your gut. These gut bacteria help keep your digestive tract in good health. When they’re well-balanced, they’ve been found to support weight loss plans by reducing appetite and slowing the absorption of dietary fats. In the EU, some konjac products are banned for the same reason. Is Glucomannan Good for Gut Health? The results are, ultimately, inconclusive. There is hope that glucomannan can be an effective weight loss solution, but there’s not enough evidence to say for sure. The Japanese have made a wide variety of foods from konjac corm for 1500 years, ranging from noodles, tofu and fruit jellies to a type of vegan sashimi.

Other studies – including this one from 1995 and, more recently, this systematic review from 2017 – have confirmed these findings. As a result, fibre reduces calorie consumption: People who eat a lot of fibre have been found to eat fewer calories overall thanks to its appetite-reducing effects. With a lower food intake, weight loss may be more manageable.When you increase your fibre intake start slowly and build up to the maximum dosage, otherwise you may experience bloating, flatulence or soft stools for a few days while the body adjusts. While these symptoms are fairly common for the first few days, if they persist, stop taking glucomannan and consult with a medical professional. Alternatively, in the gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901 and AGS, investigators found that AKe treatment markedly increased the expression of LC3-II, which is a marker of the mature autophagosome and indicates high level of autophagy ( Chen et al., 2017a). Increased cell autophagy plays a protective role in early tumor development, with the possible mechanisms of autophagy-related stress elimination and even autophagy-induced cell death. Nassour et al. found that autophagy is an important cellular protective process to induce cell death during replicative crisis and impaired autophagy is required for initiation of tumorigenesis ( Nassour et al., 2019). Though the AKT/mTOR pathway may be related to the activation of the autophagic process ( Chen et al., 2014), there is no definite evidence showing the existence of the glucomannan-AKT/mTOR-autophagy axis in the tumor cells. Glucomannan Indirectly Affects Tumor Development Glucomannan Promotes Extrinsic Environment Disfavoring Tumorigenesis But is this true? Let’s take a look. Here’s the truth behind glucomannan benefits. What is Glucomannan? So, does glucomannan work for weight loss? The evidence so far shows the results are mixed, but there is good reason to be hopeful.