Precision Nutrition in Obesity: From Mechanisms to Digital Therapeutics

Obesity is a heterogeneous metabolic disorder involving adipose tissue dysfunction, insulin resistance, altered appetite regulation, gut–hormone signaling, and complex eating behaviours. Individual responses to energy restriction, macronutrient composition, physical activity, and pharmacological or behavioural interventions vary considerably, reflecting differences in metabolic phenotype, adipocyte biology, genetics, microbiota, micronutrient status, and psychosocial context. Although precision nutrition aims to tailor dietary recommendations to these individual characteristics, important questions remain regarding which biomarkers and phenotypes can reliably guide treatment selection and predict long-term outcomes. Recent research has advanced the understanding of adipocyte expansion, intracellular lipid accumulation, leptin and adiponectin signaling, and the relationship between adipose tissue characteristics and insulin resistance. However, the translation of these findings into clinically useful nutritional strategies remains incomplete. Concurrently, mobile health applications, wearable devices, continuous glucose monitoring, artificial intelligence, and telehealth are creating new opportunities to deliver and monitor personalized interventions, but evidence regarding their effectiveness, mechanisms, scalability, and equity is still emerging.This Research Topic aims to examine how biological, metabolic, behavioural, dietary, and digital information can be integrated to advance precision nutrition for the prevention and management of obesity. It will address how adipose tissue dysfunction, insulin resistance, eating behaviour, micronutrient status, metabolic biomarkers, and patient characteristics influence responses to dietary interventions, medical nutrition therapy, and lifestyle modification. Particular attention will be given to translating mechanistic and phenotypic information into clinically meaningful nutritional and dietetic strategies.The Research Topic will also evaluate how digital health technologies and digital therapeutics, such as virtual reality and other immersive technologies, can support individualized dietary counselling and medical nutrition therapy, improve adherence, enable continuous nutritional and metabolic monitoring, and promote sustained improvements in weight, body composition, diet quality, and metabolic health. Contributions may investigate predictors of dietary intervention response, develop or validate precision nutrition models, assess digitally supported nutrition interventions in clinical or real-world settings, and explore how these approaches can be implemented safely, effectively, and equitably across diverse populations.To gather further insights into precision nutrition approaches for obesity across mechanistic, clinical, behavioural, technological, and public health contexts, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Adipose tissue dysfunction, adipocyte size and expansion, intracellular lipid accumulation, and metabolic heterogeneity in obesity.• Insulin resistance, leptin and adiponectin signaling, gut–brain communication, and other mechanisms relevant to nutritional response.• Biomarkers, omics-based approaches, metabolic phenotyping, and patient stratification for personalized nutrition.• Dietary patterns, macronutrient composition, meal timing, and individualized dietary prescriptions for obesity management.• Eating behaviour, appetite regulation, emotional eating, psychological determinants, and behaviour-change strategies.• Vitamin D, micronutrient status, and other nutritional factors associated with obesity and metabolic outcomes.• Mobile health applications, wearable sensors, continuous glucose monitoring, and remote nutritional monitoring.• Digital biomarkers derived from wearable and mobile technologies for metabolic phenotyping, nutritional assessment, treatment monitoring, and personalized obesity management.• Artificial intelligence and machine-learning approaches for dietary assessment, prediction, coaching, and intervention personalization.• Virtual reality and other immersive technologies for promoting healthy eating behaviour, improving dietary adherence, supporting lifestyle modification, and facilitating personalized obesity management.• Clinical trials and real-world studies of digitally supported precision nutrition interventions.• Treatment adherence, engagement, maintenance of weight loss, and long-term metabolic outcomes.• Integration of digital therapeutics with obesity clinics, primary care, and multidisciplinary management.• Data privacy, algorithmic validity, clinical safety, regulation, accessibility, and health equity in digital obesity care. Topic editors: Veronica Mocanu, Laura Mihaela Trandafir Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85605/precision-nutrition-in-obesity-from-mechanisms-to-digital-therapeutics