Overweight and obesity are health conditions considered a public health problem that has been increasing and is at 17.9% and is increasing. Being a public health problem, it is necessary for adolescents to recognize the barriers and benefits in nutrition and physical activity through interventions that strengthen healthy habits and contribute to counteracting this situation. Objective: To determine what are the barriers and benefits for the consumption of fruits and exercise in overweight/obese school-aged adolescents in Ibagué, Tolima (2022-2023) Methodology. Quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study whose sample was 994 adolescents from public secondary educational institutions from sixth to eleventh grade, from commune 1 of Ibagué, with instruments validated in 2017 in our context, descriptive and correlation statistical analyzes were carried out (association measures, for ordinal variables Spearman's Rho and Chi square for categorical variables) in SPSS version 23 program. Permission was requested from the rectors of the institutions and the Bioethics Committee of the University of Tolima; The parents signed consent and the students assent, respecting the autonomy of their participation in the study. Results. The adolescents have an average age of 14 years (minimum 14 and maximum 19), 76.5 live in the capital of the department of Tolima, correspond mostly to strata 2 (47.6%) and 3 30.2% (300), are 45.2 female and 54.8 male and are distributed in grades from sixth to eleventh. In nutrition in terms of barriers we find that students consider that the barriers and benefits ( =3.02, benefits = 3.71) are at the intermediate level. Regarding exercise, the barriers and benefits (= 2.97, benefits = 3.60) it is found that the barriers are not perceived with little importance and the benefits are considered greater. Spearman's Rho and Chi square correlation analyses were performed depending on the type of variable, which reported a correlation index of 0.000 for age and grade in relation to barriers and benefits for exercise and barriers and benefits for nutrition. Discussion. According to the results, a review of the most important and specific barriers is proposed to carry out direct interventions in both nutrition and physical activity to strengthen healthy habits, establish physical activity and/or exercise routines, and interventions with parents who are directly responsible for the nutrition of the youngest children, and socialization with workshops for ninth to tenth grade students so that they also know and can make decisions about their own diet. Note: The reviewer's recommendation will be taken into account for the presentation of information with visual representations, such as graphs or diagrams, to make them more accessible and impactful for the audience.

A nurse with a master's degree and a doctorate in nursing since 2020, she is an associate professor at the University of Tolima. She is a junior researcher at Colciencias and belongs to the UT-CUIDSA UT Health Care research group, category C in Colciencias. She has served as research coordinator for the Faculty of Health Sciences and president of the Upsilon Nu chapter of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society 2018–2020, to which she has belonged since 2012. She has written articles related to cardiovascular health care, instrument validation, and other topics of interest to the discipline. She currently coordinates first and tenth semesters, teaches various subjects in the nursing program, is the nursing program's internship coordinator, a faculty representative on the faculty council, a member of the university's editorial committee, and coordinator of the editorial committee of the Faculty of Health Sciences. She is a member of the board of directors of the Colombian Association of Nursing Faculties and Schools (ACOFAEN), a member of the departmental and national nursing technical council, the SCIENCE scientific society of school nursing, the NANDA network, the CRONIFAN network, and the perioperative care network, and a member of the Colombian Association of Nurses (ANEC).