Introduction: Overweight and obesity are well recognized as “escalating epidemic” in both developed and developing countries. Obesity can cause many health related problems, like CVD. Both obesity and serum lipids are modifiable factors for CVD. Serum lipid profile of young medical students in Kolkata was estimated to determine their CVD risk. Method: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study. 200 randomly selected medical students were enrolled. Anthropometric measurements were taken. Serum lipid levels were estimated in a 12 hour fasting blood sample. Student’s t-test was done to analyze the quantitative data and p value determined. Stepwise linear regression techniques were applied to assess the extent to which CVD risk factors depend on the obesity indices considered using the same independent variables. p < 0.05 was used to indicate statistical significance in all analyses. Result: in this study, a substantial proportion of young medical students were found to be overweight. A high prevalence of high TG, high LDLC and low HDLC was seen. BMI was found as an useful index for dyslipidemia in males. WC was a strong determinant of TC and LDLC in females, while WHtR was a strong index for TC in males and all lipid parameters in females except HDLC which was best predicted by WHpR.
