Clinical Trials for Diet, Physical Activity, & Weight Management

The NIDDK conducts and supports clinical trials in many diseases and conditions, as well as healthy lifestyle-related behaviors, including diet, physical activity, and weight management, among different populations. The trials look to find new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease and improve quality of life.

What are clinical trials for diet, physical activity, and weight management?

Clinical trials—and other types of clinical studies—are part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help doctors and researchers learn more about diseases and improve health care for people in the future.

Researchers are studying many aspects of diet, physical activity, and weight management, such as

  • identifying which people may respond to a specific type of diet
  • learning how physical activity improves or maintains weight and overall health
  • learning how lifestyle changes may improve weight and health at different ages

Find out if clinical studies are right for you.

Watch a video of NIDDK Director Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers explaining the importance of participating in clinical trials.

What clinical trials for diet, physical activity, and weight management are open?

You can view a filtered list of clinical studies on diet, physical activity, and weight management that are federally funded, open, and recruiting at www.Clinical Trials.gov. You can expand or narrow your search to include clinical studies from industry, universities, and individuals; however, the NIH does not review these studies and cannot ensure they are safe. Always talk with your health care professional before you participate in a clinical study.

What have we learned about diet, physical activity, and weight management from NIDDK-funded research?

The NIDDK has supported many research projects to learn more about diet, physical activity, and weight management. For example, recent studies suggest that

Last Reviewed October 2019
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This content is provided as a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIDDK translates and disseminates research findings to increase knowledge and understanding about health and disease among patients, health professionals, and the public. Content produced by NIDDK is carefully reviewed by NIDDK scientists and other experts.