Do emotional eating and emotional appetite affect athletic performance? A study in athletes

Emotional appetite and emotional eating behaviours attract attention and research in many fields today. Emotional eating is defined as the desire to eat in order to cope with the positive or negative emotions that people feel at different times. Sportsmanship is a process that aims to increase performance with mental and physical loads and positive and negative emotions are experienced in this process. The aim of this study is to determine the emotional eating, emotional appetite and nutritional knowledge of athletes, to determine their effects on their performance and success, and to reveal how much of emotional appetite and nutritional knowledge levels are explained on emotional eating levels. Quantitative research method was used in the study and it was designed in descriptive and relational screening model. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 221 athletes from different branches in Afyonkarahisar and neighbouring provinces, 129 male and 92 female (mean age=23,55±3,96) between the ages of 18-30. As a data collection tool, personal information form prepared by the researcher, the question of how do you evaluate your athletic performance to determine the performance of the athletes (with 1-9 graded questions), the question of how do you evaluate your success in your branch to determine the success status in the branch (with 1-9 graded questions), "Emotional Appetite Questionnaire" adapted into Turkish by Demirel et al. (2014), "Emotional Eating Scale" adapted into Turkish by Arslantaş et al. (2020), "Nutrition Information Scale" developed by Ongün et al. SPSS package programme was used to analyse the data obtained in the study. In the analysis of the data, CR&T analysis was used to investigate the effects of demographic variables on dependent variables. Pearson Correlation test was used to test the relationships between variables. Regression analysis was used to determine whether the dependent variables are significant explanators of each other. The mean emotional eating scores of the athletes participating in the study were 2,01±0,50, emotional appetite 4,72±1,47 and nutritional knowledge 2,63±0,31 points. Emotional eating behaviours were found to be high in favour of female athletes (4,79±1,56.9 ) p<0,05 according to the gender variable of the athletes, in favour of athletes who were well above the ideal weight (3,00±0,32) according to the BMI categories, and in favour of basketball players (2,28±0,66) p<0,05 according to the sports branches. According to the BMI categories of emotional appetite, in favour of those who were well above the ideal weight (6,44±1,72) p<0,05, according to the level of sportsmanship, the emotional appetite of elite athletes (5,79±1,99) p<0,05 was found to be high. A low positive relationship was found between emotional appetite, emotional eating r=0,296 (p<0.001) and nutrition knowledge levels r=0,236 (p<0,001). The regression model established to investigate the effects of emotional appetite and nutritional knowledge levels on emotional eating levels of athletes was found to be statistically significant. As a result of these findings, it was revealed that emotional eating and emotional appetite have a significant effect on the performance and success of athletes, emotional eating behaviours increase as emotional appetite increases, and in this sense, there are differences in eating behaviours between branches and between athletic levels.