We plan to compare the effects on weight loss and changes in the metabolism of general nutritional advice from a dietitian versus more personalised advice based on each individual’s physical and behavioural traits, lifestyle and preferences.

To do this, volunteers will be allocated in one of three groups: a control group, in which volunteers will receive general advice from a dietitian about how to improve their diet, a personalised nutrition group, in which participants will use the PREVENTOMICS’ app alongside a dietitian to receive a personalised diet plan and the personalised plan group, in which, in addition to advice from the dietitian and a personalised diet through the use PREVENTOMICS’ app, will also receive prompts to help change food and lifestyle choices.

This research study is being organised in the UK by the Faculty of Medicine at The University Hospital Southampton and in Poland by the Faculty of Medicine at the Jagiellonian University, in collaboration with Meteda. It has been reviewed and approved by the South-Central Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee and the Bioethics Committee of the Jagiellonian University (num. 1072.6120.85.2019).

Healthy men and women with overweight and obesity aged 18 to 65 years old who attended at three appointments at the Southampton General Hospital (for UK participants) or the Medical Clinic in Krakow (Klinika Krakowska) (for participants from Poland).

During the study, that last approximately 6 months, we measured body fatness, weight loss and changes in biomarkers in participants’ blood, urine, saliva and faeces that tell us about their metabolism. Participants were required to complete a diary food diary using the PREVENTOMICS app integrated in Meteda solution and report about the process and changes made in their diet and lifestyle during each visit.

Participants benefit from losing weight whilst taking part in this study and gaining helpful insights on how to improve your diet and lifestyle.

Being overweight is known to increase the chance of developing several health problems, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and some cancers. It results from the interactions of different factors, including a person’s genes, their metabolism, behaviour and environment. The latter factors include people’s eating habits and how much exercise they do.

However, both gaining and losing weight are complex because it is now known that the different factors interact (for example a person’s genes and what they eat). Therefore, to fully understand weight gain and weight loss, it’s important to know about more than just what people eat; we also need to know about their genes and physical activity, amongst other things.