People walking at the Le Van Tam Park in HCMC’s District 1 Monday. Walking is the most popular form of exercise for Vietnamese wanting to lose weight, according to a Nielsen survey.

The Asia Pacific region has the highest percentage of self-reported underweight citizens but also records one of the highest numbers of people trying to lose weight, a survey has found.

The survey, released Monday by US-headquartered market researcher The Nielsen Company, found that besides the Asia Pacific region, Latin America and emerging markets were the most underweight areas.

In the Asia Pacific region, more than half of the respondents scored themselves as “underweight” (12 percent) or “about the right weight” (41 percent). The region also had one of the highest percentages of people trying to lose weight (53 percent).

The survey, part of Nielsen’s Global Online Consumer Survey series, was conducted online at the end of September 2008 in 52 countries.

It says that 50 percent of the respondents in all countries considered themselves overweight with a majority of them saying they planned to change their diet or exercise more in order to lose weight.

But each region had its own views and approaches to diet and exercise, the survey found.

Different choices of exercises

Within Asia Pacific, 18 percent of Vietnamese said they exercised every day, just second to Indonesians with 22 percent, while nine percent of Vietnamese said they never exercise.

More than half of the Vietnamese who exercise spend less than 30 minutes on a workout (57 percent) and 35 percent spend 30 to 60 minutes, the survey found.

The most popular form of exercise for Vietnamese was walking, which accounted for 43 percent, followed by running/jogging, yoga/pilates, team sports, racquet sports and swimming.

Walking was far and away the exercise of choice in all five regions, followed by working out at the gym in four of five regions, according to the survey.

No Vietnamese respondents said they were planning to play golf this year.

The government last September suspended new licenses for golf courses in an effort to preserve land for rice cultivation and protect poor farmers.

The Nielson survey also revealed Asia Pacific residents do the best job of managing their weight but exercised less than any other region, with 58 percent saying they worked out at least once a week.

On the other hand, North Americans claim to be the most overweight of any region, yet they self-report the highest levels of exercise, with 70 percent stating they worked out once a week or more.

Emerging market natives were the most likely to claim that they never exercised, while maintaining a good body weight, perhaps because of a better overall diet and a lifestyles that involved walking and fewer sedentary jobs, according to the survey.

Dieting tactics

Of the 45 percent of Vietnamese who want to lose weight, 78 percent said they would do so by eating more natural fresh cookings, cutting down on fats (76 percent), chocolate and sugar (62 percent).

Globally, 69 percent said they would cut down on fats, 65 percent on chocolate and sugar and 53 percent would eat more natural fresh foods.

When asked where they got the best information about diet and healthy eating, 68 percent of respondents cited doctors and medical professionals while 36 percent relied on the internet, the survey found.

Roughly half of the consumers were confused by the barrage of diet and healthy eating information available in the marketplace, much of which was conflicting, the Nielsen survey revealed.

Reported by An Dien