Have you tried one trending diet after another in hopes of getting some results, only to fail time after time? Doctors and experts agree that different diets will work for different people. Sometimes, it takes a digestive complication to identify a dietary problem. Often, trial and error has been the best way to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

However, a better way for nutritionists to predict your most optimal diet might soon be possible. A team of researchers at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden has created a mathematical model that explains why people react to foods differently. The scientists explain that there are between 300 and 1,000 different microorganisms in the human digestive system, referred to as the gut microbiome. This diverse microbiome of bacteria differs greatly from person to person, and isn’t deeply understood by experts.

The researchers’ model will allow scientists to identify the metabolism of each individual bacteria type in a patient’s gut microbiome, leading to a better understanding of the patient’s metabolic mechanisms and the way they digest food.

To conduct the study, 45 overweight people were divided into two groups. One group consisted of people with a diverse gut microbiome, and the other group had people with a less diverse gut microbiome. All of the participants followed a low-calorie diet for six weeks while the team took blood and other samples to look for indicators of disease and ill health.

They found that those people with a less diverse gut microbiome experienced improved blood chemistry while following the diet. With the new model, the team hopes to reduce complications from digestive disorders and to give dietary clinicians a tool to tailor specific diets for their patients.