Diet composition and risk of overweight and obesity in Iranian adolescent girls

Objective To investigate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescent girls in Lahijan City, Iran and to determine the association between overweight/obesity and intake of energy and macronutrients. Subjects and Methods A cross sectional study on 400 female high school adolescents aged 14-17 years old was undertaken. Overweight and obesity were defined based on the CDC 2000 reference for BMI-for-age. Waist to hip ratio (WHR) was defined by using adult's cut off for estimating central adiposity. Energy and macronutrients intake, and percent of energy intake derived from protein, fat and carbohydrates were assessed by means of 24-hour dietary recall. Results Prevalence of overweight and obesity was 14.8 %and 5.3 %, respectively. According to the WHR, 21.5% of the subjects and 66.7% of the obese girls had a central pattern of fat distribution (WHR≥0.8). Overweight/obese girls had a significantly higher energy intake than their normal weight counterpartsc (P