The Mobile Lifestyle Intervention for Food and Exercise Study (mLIFE)

January 13, 2026 updated by: Brie Turner-McGrievy, University of South Carolina

Increasing Social Support for Weight Loss Through the Use of Social Gaming and Points: The Mobile Intervention for Food and Exercise (mLIFE) Study

The goal of the study is to examine long term sustained weight loss digital intervention in a diverse cohort of adults with overweight/obesity. The intervention includes social gaming (using game-like elements in nongame contexts to promote supportive social interactions and openness to positive behavioral influences) to reward behaviors, such as self-monitoring and social support.

Investigators will accomplish objectives and test hypotheses by following two specific primary aims:

  1. Determine if the intervention plus gaming produces significantly more weight loss at 12 months than the same intervention without gaming among 240 adults with overweight or obesity and ≥3 T2DM risk factors.
  2. Examine the differences in social support provision and receipt between groups at 12 months.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This is a 1-year behavioral intervention with standardized behavioral content that reinforces self-monitoring behavior delivered via twice-weekly podcasts, tips of the day, weight, physical activity and diet daily tracking. The mLife App will also encourage and facilitate social support among participants (to both groups).

Participants will be randomized to one of two groups: 1) a gamified mLIFE app (n=120) or 2) regular mLIFE app (n=120). Participants will attend a study orientation, complete all baseline measures, be randomized, and then attend a training session for their group. In addition, participants will complete assessment at 6 and 12 months.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

243

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • South Carolina
      • Columbia, South Carolina, United States, 29208
        • University of South Carolina

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Must be between 18-65 years old
  • ≥3 T2DM risk factors (as defined by the American Diabetes Association)
  • Own and use a smartphone with a data plan
  • BMI must be between 25-49.9 kg/m2
  • Must be willing to reduce caloric intake and increase physical activity
  • Not currently participating in a weight loss study in a weight loss program
  • Be free of major health or psychiatric diseases, drug or alcohol dependency.
  • No current use of medications that may impact blood glucose

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Over the age of 65 years old
  • Currently participating in a weight loss program
  • Has lost more than 10 pounds in the past 6 months
  • Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Gamified mLIFE app group
Participants allocated to this group will be provided with elements of social gaming and healthy competition within the mLIFE app.
Behavioral: Podcasts and tips of the day (within app)
Participants will receive twice weekly podcasts and daily tips of the day, with nutrition and exercise information, audio diary and goal setting.
Behavioral: mLIFE app (self-regulation features)
Diet (track by in app database), physical activity (tracked with FitBit and synced with mLIFE app), and weight (tracked with FitBit scale and synced with mL app) tracking app components. App notifications and reminders and newsfeeds.
Behavioral: mLIFE app (social support features)

The gamified mLIFE app contains several components to help facilitate social gaming and support. This includes a newsfeed, to view the progress of other users, the ability to send others encouragement ("likes/thumbs-up") for achieving goals, user-to-user messaging system so active users of the app will be prompted to select send encouraging messages to other group members.

For the experimental group, the app also includes features that facilitate healthy competition among participants through receipt of points for provision of social support and tracking health behaviors.
Active Comparator: standard mLIFE app
Participants in this group will receive the same intervention as the experimental group, but some features of the App will not facilitate gaming or competition.
Behavioral: Podcasts and tips of the day (within app)
Participants will receive twice weekly podcasts and daily tips of the day, with nutrition and exercise information, audio diary and goal setting.
Behavioral: mLIFE app (self-regulation features)
Diet (track by in app database), physical activity (tracked with FitBit and synced with mLIFE app), and weight (tracked with FitBit scale and synced with mL app) tracking app components. App notifications and reminders and newsfeeds.
Behavioral: standard mLIFE app (social support features)
The standard mLIFE app has the ability to send others encouragement ("likes/thumbs-up") for achieving goals and a user-to-user messaging system so active users of the app will be prompted to select send encouraging messages to other group members.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Body Weight
Time Frame: 12 months
Difference in body weight between follow-up and baseline (follow-up - baseline); positive values indicate weight gain.
12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Energy Intake
Time Frame: 12 months
Difference in total energy intake between follow-up and baseline (follow-up - baseline); positive values indicate increased intake.
12 months
Change in Weekly Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA)
Time Frame: 12 months
Difference in average weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) between follow-up and baseline (follow-up - baseline), derived from Fitbit physical activity data; positive values indicate increased MVPA.
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of South Carolina

Collaborators

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Brie Turner-Mcgrievy, University of South Carolina

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 12, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 16, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 16, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

January 4, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 15, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 13, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00109784
  • 1R01DK129302 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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