BACKGROUND: In 2000 the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare initiated a new health promotion program, Health Japan 21, in which obesity control is one of the prioritized objectives. For the program's effective implementation, it is important to enhance individual nutritional education as well as to identify the socioeconomic and environmental factors affecting obesity-related lifestyle habits. This study aimed to investigate the secular changes in dietary and exercise habits between sexes and among four types of residential areas in Japan.
METHODS: The datasets of annual national nutrition surveys (1976-2003) were used for the secondary analyses. Data on the dietary and exercise habits of 385,559 persons aged 15 years and older were analyzed. Residential areas were divided into four groups: metropolitan areas, large cities, small cities, and small towns.
RESULTS: Similar trends were observed in the proportions of people skipping breakfast and eating out lunch/dinner, with those living in metropolitans having the highest proportions. The secular trend showed that the proportions of people eating dinner out were highest in the early 1990s, which corresponds to the “bubble period” in Japan.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that dietary habits could be greatly influenced by the country's economic situation, especially in metropolitan areas. Thus, area-specific population approaches should be enhanced to promote appropriate lifestyle habits, especially for the young to middle-aged.

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BACKGROUND: Long-term weight loss is difficult to maintain, but recently cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective for long-term weight loss and maintenance.
METHODS: The 119 participants, who had been assigned to program to lose weight, were interviewed by dieticians regarding their motivation for weight loss and psychological status and self-corrected problems with their eating activities and exercises, following recognition of problems, discussing solutions, and devising personal dietary plans and exercise plan to loose weight at 1.0-2.0 kg per month.
RESULTS: In women, the prevalence of motivation to resolve the situation (n = 44, 84.6%) was significantly higher than that of men (n = 33, 67.3%; p < 0.05). In men, awareness of the need to keep healthy by oneself was significantly associated with the motivation to resolve the situation (p = 0.002) and the availability of support from others (p = 0.004). Thirty problems and 29 dietary goals were set by participants. The percentages of intake of alcohol (p < 0.05) and intake of sweets (p < 0.01) as the problems and decrease of intake in specified foods (p < 0.01) and snacks (p = 0.05) as dietary goals were significantly different between men and women. Women with BMI over 31 kg/m² set fewer additional steps as exercise goals than those with BMI under 29 kg/m² (p < 0.05).
CONCLUSIONS: The characters of subjects such as psychological status and the problems and the target recognized by participants were different between gender and the degree of obesity.

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