The present paper aims to investigate the eating habits and lifestyles of the normal weight and overweight/ obese weight Hong Kong respondents within the age range of 18 to 40 years of age from both genders via a detailed questionnaire. The tool was deployed to 30 normal weight individuals and 30 who are obese. They were then compared on a variety of factors covering nutrition knowledge, lifestyle, and health behaviours.
The knowledge items which yielded a significant result in the Chi-square include recommended intake for various sources and reading labels, while the rest of the items showed no significant relationship with being obese. For health behaviours, the normal weight group had higher means for number of glasses consumed daily. The obese group also seemed to sleep at a later time and engaged less frequently in exercise sessions.
The obese group also has more frequent intake of meals; crisps; sweets, chocolate or desert; sweetie beverages; low calorie drinks; instant noodles; and deep fried food. However. no such difference was noted between the two groups for frequency of eating snacks. The researcher recommends information dissemination activities whereby Hong Kong residents may be informed of obesity and its risks, so that this knowledge may hopefully be translated into positive health behaviours.