The relationship between perceived body composition, exercise level, reasons for exercise and exercise addiction

Researches showed that exercise motivation may be an important antecedent of exercise addiction. In this study, the relationship between perceived body composition, exercise level, motivation to exercise and exercise addiction in male and female was investigated. This study was conducted in descriptive relational and comparative model. The participants aged 18 to 50 years old in this study were 297 members from MAC Kanyon Gym, one of the top fitness centers in Istanbul. T-test was used for pairwise comparison and Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationships between variables. The results of this study showed that, unlike males, there were significant differences between 1-2 years of experience and those with 3-5 years of experience in terms of mean age, exercise experience, body mass index and monthly income in females. There were also significant differences in favor of those with 3-5 years of experience in terms of mastery, appearance, psychological state, competitiveness and pleasure sub-dimensions and exercise addiction scale in terms of excessive focus and mood change, delay of individual social needs, conflict and tolerance, development and passion between the two groups in males. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of exercise motivation and exercise addiction scale sub-dimensions in females. There are positive and significant correlations between exercise addiction scale sub-dimensions and exercise motivation scale sub-dimensions in both males and females. Physical and demographic characteristics are only significantly correlated with the development of tolerance and passion sub-dimension of the exercise addiction scale. As a result, it was seen that exercise motivation sub-dimensions can only be used in the estimation of exercise addiction behavior with high exercise experience males.