Objective: To determine the association between nutritional status and lifestyle among youth.

Methods: Nutritional status and lifestyle factors of 400 school going youth (15-18 years) 200 boys and 200 girls were assessed using lifestyle questionnaire and nutritional status measured by parameters such as height, weight and BMI. The samples were selected by random sampling method.

Results: The study found that only 42.50% of the youth belonged to the normal BMI category, while the rest of 57.50% were Malnourished. Under Malnourished, 49.25% of the youth were found to be underweight (low BMI) and 8.25% were found to be overweight & obese (high BMI). Nutritional status and lifestyle factors were found to be associated with each other. The study found significant relations between nutritional status and lifestyle variables i.e. exercise/yoga, worship/meditation, watching TV, stressed/depressed, outdoor games/sports, and junk food habits. During the assessment of 400 school going children in the study, no significant relationship was observed between the use of mobile/internet and nutritional status.

Conclusion: Through the findings in the study, it is concluded that all the lifestyle variables expect ‘internet/mobile’ had a significant association with nutritional status. Inadequate nutritional status and inadequate lifestyle among youth calls for the need to develop an intervention program for promoting a healthy lifestyle, healthy eating habits to improve the nutritional status and positive thinking of the youth as a part of their life because lifestyle and nutritional status are related to each other.