Inaugural Greater Bay Area Health & Nutrition Festival Launches as WONDERLAB’s Targeted Microbiota Weight Management Method Points to a New Direction in Science-Based Weight Management

As Guangdong advances the theme of the 11th National Nutrition Week in 2025—“Eat a Balanced Diet, Maintain a Healthy Weight, and Take Action Together”—the inaugural Greater Bay Area Health & Nutrition Festival, organized by the Guangdong Nutrition Society and hosted by WONDERLAB, officially opened in Shenzhen on May 18. Under the theme “Nutrition Empowering a Healthy Bay Area, Science-Based Weight Management for All,” the festival brought together stakeholders from across the Greater Bay Area for the first time. It focused on targeted gut-microbiota intervention technologies, created a precision practice model for the national three-year weight-management plan, and sought to advance science-based weight management for all.

The event closely followed the core message of National Nutrition Week—“Healthy China, Nutrition First.” It brought together experts including Huilian Zhu, president of the Guangdong Nutrition Society and professor at the School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University; and Cuifeng Zhu, executive vice-chair of the Asia Pacific Alliance for Obesity and Sarcopenia Metabolism (APAOSM) and chair of the Weight Management Professional Committee of the China Nutrition and Health Food Association. They shared professional perspectives on science-based weight management and supported the development of health and nutrition initiatives in the Greater Bay Area.

A New Weight Management Approach Born in the Greater Bay Area: Targeted Microbiota Intervention

More than 700 million adults worldwide are currently living with obesity, an increase of more than 60% since 2010. In China, the proportion of people who are overweight or living with obesity is described as having doubled compared with ten years ago. Weight management has therefore become an important population-health issue. In recent years, the relationship between the gut microbiota and weight regulation has attracted growing attention, giving rise to a wide range of probiotic products.

Discussing the scientific logic linking “gut health–metabolic balance–weight management,” Professor Huilian Zhu said: “Gut microorganisms play a key role in metabolic balance, but individual differences are significant. For people with metabolic issues such as insulin resistance and dyslipidemia, regulating the gut microbiota through scientific means can effectively improve energy-metabolism efficiency and provide a new pathway for weight management.”

As a biotech innovation company founded and grown in Shenzhen, WONDERLAB drew on years of accumulated research into the gut microbiota and, in March this year, became the first in the industry to propose the WONDERLAB Targeted Microbiota Weight Management Method™. The method is described as using three strategies—precision suppression and promotion, targeted supplementation to address deficiencies, and functional regulation—to repair the gut metabolic environment at its source.

At the event, Professor Cuifeng Zhu shared the latest clinical research related to the Targeted Microbiota Weight Management Method that she conducted in collaboration with WONDERLAB. She said that clinical research on WONDERLAB SHAPE100™ (referred to as “S100”) showed significant changes in weight-related indicators among overweight and obese participants after 10 weeks of consuming the product.

Speaking about WONDERLAB’s Targeted Microbiota Weight Management Method, she emphasized that this innovative model combines China-developed microbiota-regulation technology with precision nutrition intervention. It not only offers a science-based response to the common problem of weight regain after weight loss, but also, through its localized advantages of avoiding extreme interventions and supporting full-cycle health management, provides a “Greater Bay Area approach” for global obesity prevention and control.

Stakeholders Across the Greater Bay Area Join Forces to Launch the Summer Weight Management Program

As part of Guangdong’s National Nutrition Week activities, the Greater Bay Area Health & Nutrition Festival was one of the province’s key implementation measures in response to the “Year of Weight Management” initiative. According to the organizers, Guangdong has launched more than 10,000 science-outreach activities across more than 800 institutions, including 100 community-based free clinic events and a “Fat-Loss Challenge” jointly launched by nutrition clinics at 83 hospitals.

According to the organizers, the proportion of adults in the Greater Bay Area who are overweight or living with obesity is increasing, while the incidence of complications such as metabolism-related fatty liver disease is rising year by year. At the event, the Nanshan District Capital Market Association joined forces with WONDERLAB and Keep, a well-known sports-technology platform focused on fitness and dietary guidance, to launch the Summer Weight Management Program and the Nanshan District “Listed Companies Cup” Weight Management Challenge. The challenge brought together 217 listed companies in Nanshan District and used a team-based health challenge to bring the principles of science-based weight management into workplace life.

The three parties will work together to address common misconceptions, including focusing on body-fat data while overlooking metabolic health, and relying on extreme dieting while neglecting microbiota intervention. By bringing together resources from across the Greater Bay Area and using “microbiota-targeted weight management” as the core scientific pathway, they aim to help Shenzhen build a new ecosystem for healthy weight management through public education and practical guidance, while promoting a new direction for science-based weight management across the Greater Bay Area.

In today’s fast-paced lives, many office workers face overweight or metabolic abnormalities due to prolonged sitting and high-fat diets. To address this, WONDERLAB’s national-level senior health-management team delivered public education on gut microbiota and metabolic health at the event. For people who eat late-night snacks and sedentary white-collar workers, the team recommended a “control calories early and support metabolism later” approach, using dietary composition and exercise planning to foster awareness of full-cycle “measure–adjust–manage–evaluate” health management.

The organizers also held a fun sports challenge. Through light, interactive exercise activities, members of the public took part in experiences such as jump rope and posture correction, discovering in a relaxed atmosphere how scientific exercise and weight management can work together.

As Professor Cuifeng Zhu said in an interview: “The inaugural Greater Bay Area Health & Nutrition Festival actively responds to national weight-management policy. Using targeted microbiota management as a scientific lever, it offers Greater Bay Area experience for science-based weight management in China and around the world.” As Healthy China 2030 enters a critical phase, weight management is evolving from a medical setting toward population-wide health management. R&D-driven companies such as WONDERLAB, represented by the Targeted Microbiota Weight Management Method™, will use practical innovation to provide consumers with science-based weight-management approaches and contribute Greater Bay Area experience to Healthy China 2030.