Background. Prevalence of obesity is increasing throughout the world at an alarming rate. Appropriate perception of one’s own body weight is important for improved weight control behavior. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and assess perception of body weight among middle aged adults in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods. Structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic and lifestyle information including perception about body weight. Anthropometric measurements were taken by a trained person following standard procedures. Results. Prevalence of obesity was 13% and 36% among men and women, respectively. There was significant gender difference in perception of body weight (12% and 25% of men and women perceived their body weight as overweight). Only 2% of women perceived themselves as obese whereas none of the men did so. Among overweight men, only 22% perceived themselves as overweight/obese compared to 38% of overweight women who perceived themselves as overweight/obese. Overall, majority of the participants (87%) were willing to lose weight. Conclusions. There is a great difference between perceived and actual body weight with men underestimating their body weight more than women. Educational programs regarding overweight and obesity and the associated health consequences are highly recommended in Tanzania. 1. Introduction The prevalence of obesity is increasing throughout the world at an alarming rate. According to World Health Organization (WHO), the burden of obesity has doubled in the past two decades and that by the end of 2008, there were 1.5 billion overweight adults aged 20 years and above. Over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese [1]. Between 1980 and 2008, the mean body mass index (BMI) increased at a rate of 0.4？kg/m2 per decade worldwide [2]. Over a period of 10 years, the prevalence of obesity was reported to increase from 2.3% to 19.6% in several developing counties [3]. In Tanzania, obesity has been shown to be higher among urban men and women compared to their rural counterparts [4]. The recent estimates show that the prevalence of obesity is 13% and 36% among urban men and women, respectively [5]. Several factors contributing to increasing prevalence of obesity have been discussed [6–14]. However, urbanization and globalization of food production and marketing are the two most important factors fueling the rise in prevalence of obesity in developing countries [8]. Other factors like hereditary [6, 9, 11], sedentary lifestyle [7, 10, 14], and sociocultural
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