# Evaluation of an Adaptive Intervention for Weight Loss Maintenance

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2021 · $600,742

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Obesity remains a substantial public health challenge in the United States. Behavioral weight management
programs have demonstrated effectiveness for weight loss, but long-term maintenance of these weight losses
after the end of treatment tends to be poor. Evidence has demonstrated that individuals who can maintain their
changes in eating and activity can successfully maintain their weight loss; thus, attempts to improve weight
loss maintenance have often involved provision of continued support through monthly “extended-care”
intervention sessions. While these interventions have demonstrated significant improvements in weight loss
maintenance, effects have been modest. A key challenge is continued participant engagement (often assessed
as attendance at intervention sessions). Attendance has been closely tied to weight outcomes, but rates tend
to be poor and decline over time. The once-per-month, static treatment schedules of existing programs may
contribute to these suboptimal outcomes; a participant experiencing a small lapse in weight-related behaviors
may not receive support for several weeks, by which point they may be experiencing a larger lapse or weight
regain. This can lead to feelings of frustration, shame, or embarrassment and disengagement from
intervention. In contrast, tailoring intervention delivery such that sessions are provided when individuals are at
“high risk” for weight regain offers potential to disrupt this cycle and significantly improve program engagement,
adherence to program goals, and long-term weight maintenance outcomes. We propose to evaluate an
innovative method of providing phone-based extended-care adaptive to participant needs. We have built a
smartphone application that can be used by participants to track weight, dietary intake, and physical activity
(key self-monitoring behaviors in traditional behavioral weight management programs) and can further query
participants throughout the week regarding self-report factors (e.g., ratings of hunger and the importance of
staying on track with weight management goals) that indicate high risk for weight regain. We have also
developed a predictive algorithm that uses this data to identify when individuals are at “high risk” of weight
regain. We propose to conduct a randomized controlled trial evaluating the impact of ADAPTIVE (delivered
only when indicated by our algorithm or when initiated by participants via an in-app support request) versus
STATIC (the monthly, pre-scheduled format used in existing extended-care programs) treatment provision on
weight regain at 24 Months in 258 adults who successfully lose ≥ 5% of initial weight during a gold-standard
16-week behavioral weight management program. Results of this study have clear treatment implications for
the timing/frequency of sessions within extended-care weight maintenance programs, and this study will result
in an innovative, low-cost, and easily scalable intervention for weight loss maintenance. ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10134335
- **Project number:** 5R01DK119244-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** KATHRYN MARIE ROSS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $600,742
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10134335

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10134335, Evaluation of an Adaptive Intervention for Weight Loss Maintenance (5R01DK119244-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10134335. Licensed CC0.

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