Avaliação dos conhecimentos básicos sobre nutrição de praticantes de atividades físicas em academias da cidade de Nova Floresta - PB.

Abstract

On account of the large increase of people who practice physical activity, mainly in fitness centers and together, the increase of the interest for the nutrition area for better results in the sportive field, this work has as a goal to evaluate the basic knowledge about nutrition of people who practice physical activity in fitness centers in the city of Nova Floresta-PB, with a questionnaire which covers questions about nutrition, physical activity and nutritional reminder. The participant group is formed by 44 individuals, among them, men and women, who were randomly chosen, practice some exercise in the fitness center. For the anthropometric evaluation, weight, height, waist circumference, abdomen, hips and arms were checked, with posterior calculation and classification of the Body Mass Index. The nutritional knowledge, food consumption and nutritional supplements were evaluated with specific questionnaire and nutritional reminder of 24 hours. Men and women with age between 18 and 52 years old formed the sample. They mentioned arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus as the most common pathologies in their family background. Most of the interviews reported weight training as the only sportive practice, followed by weight training combined with aerobic exercise. As the use of nutritional supplements, only 6% of the sample reported the consumption of supplements and all of them reported to use high in protein supplements. The level of nutritional knowledge was considered moderated; this fact can be explained by the presence of a nutritionist in one of the fitness centers and by the nutritional orientation provided for free in the city through the Federal University of Campina Grande, where accommodates students for the practice of clinical nutrition in areas provided by the city hall. For the nutritional evaluation, 06 teenagers respondents were excluded because they present different nutritional recommendations. In this manner, the sample for nutritional evaluation totaled 44 adult men and women. Thus, it was concluded that the inclusion of a nutritionist in the fitness centers is very important, since the use of supplements without orientation of a professional might bring health risks, besides; the nutritionist is the most qualified professional to guide the students from the fitness centers to conquer the ideal body for each individual in a healthy way. A balanced nutrition in macronutrients and micronutrients is necessary to supply the metabolic needs required by each individual according to the practiced exercise, sex and lifestyle.