2.1. Participants
The HERO study was a pilot study using a single-blind, two-group randomized controlled design. The objective of the pilot study was to establish the feasibility of conducting a 15-week lifestyle intervention by weekly phone calls for rural individuals who had overweight/obesity. Detailed study methods and feasibility were previously published [After completing the online screening survey, eligible individuals were scheduled for the initial in-person visit at the nearest participating local community center for informed consent and the baseline assessment. Using computer-generated random allocation sequence, 40 participants were 2:1 randomized to (1) lifestyle intervention group or (2) active control group. The project manager was the only staff who had access to the group allocation, and who assigned participants according to their allocation. The study was approved by The Ohio State University Institutional Review Board (2021C0033) and registered on ClinicalTrial.gov as NCT05040152. All participants provided written informed consent prior to any study activities.