Sharing digital tracking (weight, activity, food) to support long-term weight loss
Sharing Digital Self-Monitoring Data with Others to Enhance Long-Term Weight Loss: A Randomized Trial using a Factorial Design
This project looks at whether sharing your weight, activity, and food tracking with a coach, a small group, or friends/family helps adults with overweight or obesity keep weight off over two years.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Drexel University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Philadelphia, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11136225 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you join, you will be in a 24-month lifestyle program with about 320 adults and asked to use a wireless scale, a wearable activity tracker, and a smartphone app to record weight, activity, and food daily. For the first three months groups meet weekly in person to start weight loss; months 4–24 are mostly remote with quarterly videoconference group meetings, brief coach phone calls, and monthly text messages. You will be randomly assigned in different combinations to share your device data with a coach, with your small group, and/or with a friend or family member to test which sharing partnerships work best. Researchers will compare weight change over time across these sharing setups to see if ongoing digital accountability and support help maintain weight loss.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Adults aged 21 or older with overweight or obesity who can use a smartphone, wearable, and wireless scale and can commit to a 24-month program are ideal candidates.
Not a fit: People without regular access to a smartphone or wearable, those unwilling to share tracking data, or those needing immediate surgical or medical weight treatments may not benefit from this program.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the approach could help people maintain weight loss longer by providing ongoing accountability and social support through shared digital tracking.
How similar studies have performed: Previous programs using coaching and social support have shown some success for weight loss, but systematically sharing device data with coaches, groups, or friends over the long term is a newer, not-yet-well-tested approach.
Where this research is happening
Philadelphia, United States
- Drexel University — Philadelphia, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Butryn, Meghan — Drexel University
- Study coordinator: Butryn, Meghan
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.