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A survey made worldwide (including South Africa) revealed that most teenagers are overweight and obese and that they eat little nutritious food. Obesity and overweight are public health problems and need to be addressed from a community perspective. The reason for exploring this problem in this study was that South Africa has one of the highest rates of overweight and obesity in the world among urban and rural black women. The objective was to investigate the eating and lifestyle habits of overweight and obese female teenagers in Thulamela Local Municipality, Limpopo province, South Africa. This was an exploratory, descriptive study conducted amongst 125 female teenagers aged 13 to 18 years from rural schools in Thulamela Local Municipality. Eating and lifestyle habits, physical activity, meaning of healthy and unhealthy dietary habits, weight, height and body mass index were measured. A hundred and …