This study examined the effectiveness of health promotion counseling for overweight adolescent nursing students. The Chinese version of an established health promotion counseling booklet developed by the author of this study was used in the counseling. The study employed a one‐group pre‐ and post‐quasi‐experimental research design from September 1997 to June 1999. A total of 166 (17%) first‐year, junior college nursing students were found to be overweight according to the results of a health examination at the school health center at a junior college in the Taipei Metropolitan Area. Of these 166 students, 58 were randomly selected and 49 of these had complete participation records for the 2‐year study. All subjects received 8 hours of whole group and 12 hours of small group health promotion counseling over a 1‐year period. The results show that health promotion counseling enabled subjects to adopt healthier lifestyles and most of the physiological variables (WLI, HDL, SBP, TC) were significantly improved. This research outcome supports the value of health promotion counseling in school health centers, which incorporates material to help overweight adolescent students live a healthier life.