Re: Bloating and gaining weight on home-made milk kefir.

 That has been my experience for the last month and a half I have been drinking 2 glasse of kefir a day. In the beginning it was fine but after the 2nd. week this started happening. (NOTE: I eat a high carb diet - mainly fruits and vegetables and greens, and eventually some "good" eggs). I usually drink 12 hour second brews. And usually drink the first glass one hour after breakfast (usualy one or two cantaloupes, depending on the size) and the second one 30 minutes after dinner (usually another big portion of fruit and greens).

Weight gain can simply be from the high calorie content of the milk.  Keep in mind that animal milks are produced in large part to increase weight of baby animals quickly.  It is not a "diet" food by any means.

I found interesting answers for this on the net:

1. Kefir is alive. If you consume kefir around a meal with carbs, simple or complex, the bacteria and molds in the kefir will dine to a massive extent. That is where the bloating comes from. If you eat with a protein meal, they still eat (that is their purpose, to digest your food for you) but much more slowly. Kefir is CO2 forming, the gas is CO2, and yes, it comes out both ends with a carb meal! After consuming kefir for many months I learned that I had to be careful of carbs because kefir actually attaches to the lining of your digestive track. That’s it’s “history”, kefir is in effect an amplification of the bacteria and molds in mothers milk which in turn is intented to establish the digestive track and much of the immune system. And so after consuming kefir for a long time they line your digestive track, and any carb meal with then trigger the problem. Put another way kefir tends to force you towards a protein diet and reduce your carbs. And many suggest that is a good thing. ;) 

They are right to an extent.  Yes, the bacteria feed on fibers.  More precisely they ferment the fibers to break down the long chain sugar molecules in to simpler sugars they can feed on.  During the fermentation process gasses are produced.  

But kefir is best taken on an empty stomach, not with food.  Spices and other compounds in foods and drinks could kill the bacteria, as well as the acid increase during digestion.

      2.   i’ve been drinking kefir smoothies for breakfast every day since i got my grains a few months ago!
            For bloating/gas: try taking an enzyme to help digest the proteins and fats in the kefir. My doctor has me               taking chewable papaya  enzymes with every meal–even if i just have the kefir. it helps a lot. i used to get             sharp pains in my abdomen from gas and i don’t  get those any more since taking the enzyme. (There                 are other types of digestive enzymes out there too–papaya might not be the  best one for you!) on the                   other hand, some peoples’ bodies just cannot accept the kefir because some bodies are very sensitive               to  fermented things. so if your body doesn’t respond well to wine and beer, it may not respond well to the             kefir either. Kefir is very nutritious…but you need to decide if the health benefits outweigh the risks for                   YOUR body.

Enzymes can digest the bacteria, so they kind of defeat the purpose.  Although chewable papaya actually has very little enzyme in it.  Green papaya is high in enzymes, but the levels drop drastically with ripening.

            3.  Do  NOT use it if you have any condition that might reduce your immune function. (I have Hep C)

Do these make sense to you? Any other good explanations?

#3 makes absolutely no sense at all.  The flora make up about 80% of the immune system, so it only makes sense to maintain the flora in cases of immune suppression.  Otherwise you would only be suppressing the immune system further, which is not good at all.

Or is it just  herxheimer´s effect and I should hang on until it clears? If so, for how long?

I still think it is the high calorie content causing the weight gain.  You can try water kefir instead, which has a lot less calories.  As for the bloating taking it well before meals should cut way down on the bloating.

Or, if it is actually fermanetation due to the sugars in my fruit meal, should I take it before eating or even going down on the amount?

Yes.

Anybody with a similar experience that got over it by not stopping to drink it?