Self-monitoring of weight, diet and physical activity is a valuable component of behavioral weight loss treatment. The validation and user-friendliness of this approach is not optimal since users are selected from homogeneous pools and rely on different applications, increasing the burden and achieving partial, generic and/or unrelated information about their metabolic state. Moreover, studies establishing type, time, duration, and adherence criteria for self-monitoring are lacking. In this study, we developed a digital web-based application (ArmOnIA), which integrates dietary, anthropometric, and physical activity data and provides a personalized estimation of energy balance. Moreover, we determined type, time, duration, and adherence criteria for self-monitoring to achieve significant weight loss in a highly heterogeneous group. A single-arm, uncontrolled prospective study on self-monitored voluntary adults for 7 months was performed. Hierarchical clustering of adherence parameters yielded three behavioral approaches: high (HA), low (LA), and medium (MA) adherence. Average BMI decrease is statistically significant between LA and HA. Moreover, we defined thresholds for the minimum frequencies and duration of dietary and weight self-monitoring. This approach can provide the correct clues to empower citizens with scientific knowledge, augmenting their self-awareness with the aim of achieving long-lasting results when pursuing a healthy lifestyle.

Diabetes-induced oxidative stress leads to the onset of vascular complications, which are major causes of disability and death in diabetic patients. Among these, diabetic retinopathy (DR) often arises from functional alterations of the blood-retinal barrier (BRB) due to damaging oxidative stress reactions in lipids, proteins, and DNA. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the ω3-polyunsaturated docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on the regulation of redox homeostasis in the human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell line (ARPE-19) under hyperglycemic-like conditions. The present results show that the treatment with DHA under high-glucose conditions activated erythroid 2-related factor Nrf2, which orchestrates the activation of cellular antioxidant pathways and ultimately inhibits apoptosis. This process was accompanied by a marked increase in the expression of NADH (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide plus Hydrogen) Quinone Oxidoreductase 1 (Nqo1), which is correlated with a contextual modulation and intracellular re-organization of the NAD+/NADH redox balance. This investigation of the mechanisms underlying the impairment induced by high levels of glucose on redox homeostasis of the BRB and the subsequent recovery provided by DHA provides both a powerful indicator for the detection of RPE cell impairment as well as a potential metabolic therapeutic target for the early intervention in its treatment.