Background: There are strong and consistent relationships between depression and obesity, physical activity and energy intake in various gender/age categories. Conversely, obesity and coronary heart disease both correlate with an elevated risk of depression, which in turn is also associated with increased risk of developing type II diabetes. Depression therefore has the potential to affect cardiometabolic risk through multiple pathways Objective: The present study sought to investigate the potential role of depression in the conduct of a diet-based weight loss trial, particularly in relation to associations with dietary (food group) intake patterns. Design: Forty four overweight (BMI >27), otherwise healthy subjects, were recruited and randomized to follow their usual diet or an iso-caloric diet in which saturated fat was replaced with monounsaturated fat (~20%), via macadamia nuts. Subjects were assessed for depressive symptoms (BDI-II) and dietary intake at baseline and 10 weeks. Outcomes: Baseline analysis showed that depression scores were negatively correlated to vegetable (p=0.05) and positively to "Extras" (p=0.05) food group intake. Secondly, cereal food group intake changes in response to the intervention was influenced by baseline BDI (P=0.02). Increases in depression scores from baseline to week 10 associated with decreased fruit intake over the intervention period (r=-0.66, p=0.01). No association was observed between randomisation to dietary group and changes in depression scores. Conclusion: Mild to moderate depression scores may associate with specific dietary patterns and interfere with the capacity for dietary change in overweight individuals. Dietary interventions tailored to depression status or having depression scores minimised prior to dietary intervention may be useful strategies to improve sustained weight loss in overweight individuals.