Obesity is a major global health challenge linked to metabolic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory diseases. Conventional weight loss strategies often yield variable and insufficient long-term results. Increasing evidence implicates the gut microbiota as a key modulator of host energy balance, lipid metabolism, and inflammatory processes influencing obesity. Obesity-associated dysbiosis commonly manifests as reduced microbial diversity and depletion of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA)-producing genera such as Faecalibacterium and Christensenellaceae, which are crucial for gut barrier function and metabolic homeostasis.
This evolving understanding positions the gut microbiota as an important target to enhance efficacy and sustainability of obesity interventions. Dietary modulation is a well-established avenue for shaping gut microbial composition, but single dietary strategies may have limited impact due to the complex interplay of diet, circadian rhythms, and microbial metabolism.
