Summary: In a feasibility pilot among adults with obesity at a weight-management centre, the Confident Moves online physical-activity programme showed strong engagement and a promising preliminary effect on objectively measured activity and self-efficacy, with mixed secondary feasibility results and no weight or cardiometabolic endpoints.
PICO Summary
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Population | 30 adults with obesity recruited from a US weight-management centre (pilot trial). |
| Intervention | Confident Moves, a theory-based online programme using behaviour-change techniques to build self-efficacy and physical activity. |
| Comparison | Usual care (meal plans, behavioural counselling, pharmacotherapy). |
| Outcome | Primary feasibility outcomes (participation, engagement, preliminary effect on accelerometer-measured activity) met or exceeded thresholds. Secondary feasibility outcomes mixed. No weight or cardiometabolic endpoints assessed. |
Expert Commentary
I read this for what it honestly is, a feasibility pilot, and on those terms it does its job: it shows that a theory-based online activity programme can engage adults with obesity and nudge objectively measured activity, which is a reasonable green light to build a proper trial. What I will not do is mistake it for evidence of benefit. Thirty self-selected, digitally engaged participants, no weight outcome, no cardiometabolic endpoint, and mixed secondary feasibility results mean this tells me the intervention is worth testing, not that it works. That distinction matters, because the digital-health field is full of programmes that engage people in the short term yet fail to translate into durable weight or metabolic change. Can I use this with my patients? Not as a treatment. If a motivated, tech-comfortable patient wants a structured activity app alongside usual care I have no objection, but I would frame it as an unproven adjunct under study, not something I expect to move their weight. I look forward to the adequately powered trial this pilot is designed to justify.
References
Lee S, Lahoda K, Myers N, et al. Initial outcomes from the Confident Moves online intervention to promote physical activity in adults with obesity: a longitudinal feasibility and acceptability pilot trial. BMC Public Health. 2025;25(1):3466. doi:10.1186/s12889-025-24763-0