Metabotyping for Precision Nutrition and Weight Management: Hype or Hope?

Precision nutrition requires a solid understanding of the factors that determine individual responses to dietary treatment. We review the current state of knowledge in identifying human metabotypes - based on circulating biomarkers - that can predict weight loss or other relevant physiological outcomes in response to diet treatment.

Not many studies have been conducted in this area and the ones identified here are heterogeneous in design and methodology, and therefore difficult to synthesize and draw conclusions. The basis of the creation of metabotypes varies widely, from using thresholds for a single metabolite to using complex algorithms to generate multi-component constructs that include metabolite and genetic information. Furthermore, available studies are a mix of hypothesis-driven and hypothesis-generating studies, and most of them lack experimental testing in human trials. Although this field of research is still in its infancy, precision-based dietary intervention strategies focusing on the metabotype group level hold promise for designing more effective dietary treatments for obesity.