Abstract

The purpose of this study was to search the obese related dietary factors of young adolescent girls for developing nutrition education program. In the cross-sectional study of 371 young adolescent girls, 25$\%$ were moderately obese, 13.2$\%$ obese, and a total of 39.1 were over moderately obese. The characteristics of obese girls were as follows. First, obese girls consumed more energy than is needed for physical activity. Their average daily energy intakes were not significantly higher and the daily energy expenditures were significantly lower than those of normal girls. Second, obese girls showed higher intakes of protein and fat, and ate more animal foods than normal girls. Fourth, obese girls skipped meals more often, especially breakfast. They ate less rice. For both normal and obese girls, their common dietary problems were low intake of calcium and iron, and high intake of snack foods. The result of this study shows that nutrition education programs for obese adolescent girls should be designed for eating habits, food balance and moderation. future research is to develop the effective nutrition education program for the obese adolescent girls.

• Keywords: obese; young adolescent girl; body fat; dietary intake; eating habit; nutrition education;