Background: Dietary habits is one of the important lifestyle behavior which helps in enhancing the good health of the individual. Students starting university education may experience difficulties in maintaining healthy eating habits because of various academic stressors and problems in adjusting to hostel environment. Medical students with their medical knowledge are expected to maintain good healthy eating habits. Inspite of having sufficient knowledge about the importance of eating healthy they experience greater difficulty in putting this background knowledge into practice because of various academic challenges and time issues faced by them. Objectives: To assess the eating habits and perceived barriers to maintain healthy dietary habits of first year medical students. Methodology: This cross sectional study was carried out among first year MBBS students belonging to 2016-17 batch of Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Tumkur. A self structured questionnaire was prepared consisting of questions which were used to assess the dietary habits of the study population. The responses were analyzed using Microsoft excel and Epi Info 7. Results: 63 (48.46%) reported to consumption of all 3 major meals in a day. Skipping of breakfast was seen in 53(40.76%), skipping of lunch 16(12.3%) and skipping of dinner 5 (3.84%) was reported. 61(46.92%) reported that having no time as the reason for skipping meals. 6(4.61%) reported that a skipped meals to control weight. Conclusion: It is advised to increase the awareness among medical students regarding practice of healthy dietary habits and maintenance of healthy lifestyle practices.