Obesity is a health problem affecting an important proportion of the Spanish population. Overweight is more common among men than women whereas, obesity is more prevalent among women. The most recent data (2001) from self-reported weight and height measurements of a Spanish representative sample (21120 subjects) revealed that the overall obesity prevalence in Spain was about 13%, while direct anthropometric data obtained from pooled surveys concerning eight Spanish regions (9885 subjects), which were carried out between 1990-2000 the obesity prevalence averaged 14.5%.