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This study aimed to evaluate the association between the eating patterns and the pre gestational obesity in pregnant women from Fortaleza, Ceará. The method used was a cross-sectional study with 401 pregnant women between 19 and 45 years old, treated in a hospital that is a reference in the care of risk pregnancy and in eight health units in Fortaleza, Ceará. Food consumption was investigated using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and the eating patterns were identified using factor analysis for main components, followed by Varimax orthogonal rotation. Obesity was measured according to the body mass index (BMI). Poisson Regression with robust estimation of variance was used to estimate the prevalence ratio of eating patterns in relation to pre gestational obesity, adjusted by sociodemographic variables. Four main eating patterns were identified: "healthy cearense", "rich in protein", "snacks" and "popular". A higher adherence to the "healthy cearense" pattern was associated to a higher prevalence of pre gestational obesity (PR: 1,33; CI 95% 1,01-1,77), the greater adherence to the "popular" pattern was related to the lower prevalence of pre-pregnancy obesity (PR: 0.69; 95% CI 0.51-0.92). It was concluded that there are four main food consumption patterns in the pregnant women from Fortaleza that were studied and the associations between the "healthy cearense" and "popular" patterns and pre gestational obesity were shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]