Evaluation of the relationship between body image, eating behaviors and nutritional status of professional kick boxing athletes

This study was carried out on a total of 54 individuals, 26 females and 28 males, between the ages of 18-35, who are licensed kickboxing affiliated to the Turkish Kick Boxing Federation between March 2020 and March 2021. A questionnaire was applied to the participants' demographic characteristics, dietary history, basic eating habits, nutritional supplement use and anthropometric measurements. Anthropometric measurements of the athletes were taken, body mass indexes (BMI) and waist/hip ratios (WHR) were calculated. In order to evaluate the nutritional status of kickboxers, 24-hour retrospective food consumption and 24-hour physical activity records were taken. The Dutch Eating Behavior Scale (DEBQ) was used to evaluate the eating attitudes of kickboxers. In order to determine the body-self perceptions of the athletes, they were evaluated with the Multidimensional Body-Self/Self-Relationship Scale (MBSRQ). Statistical analyzes were made in SPSS 24.0 program. The mean age of kickboxers participating in the study was 25.3±4.71 years. The mean BMI of female athletes is 21.69±2.65 kg/m², and 23.7±1.88 kg/m² of male athletes. While restrictive eating scores of female athletes from DEBQ sub-scores were higher than male athletes, external eating scores of male athletes were higher than female athletes (p<0.05). No significant correlation was found between the training time, physical activity level, BMI and WHR values of kickboxers and DEBQ sub-scores (p>0.05). The restrictive eating scores of the athletes who had dieted before were found to be higher (p<0.05). It was observed that the restrictive and emotional eating scores of the athletes whose emotional state affects their nutrition were higher (p<0.05). During the training period, the daily intake of vitamin A, niacin, phosphorus and sodium of female kickboxers, and the intake of vitamin B₂, niacin, vitamin B₁₂, phosphorus, zinc and sodium of male athletes remain above the recommendations of the Turkish Nutrition Guide (TUBER). It was determined that dietary potassium and iron intakes of female kickboxers and vitamin C and potassium intakes of male athletes on the training day were insufficient to meet TUBER recommendations. The difference between the energy requirement of the athletes on the training day and the energy received was found to be 1536.7±47182 kcal for female athletes and 2190.2±993.49 kcal for male athletes. It was determined that both male and female kickboxers did not receive enough energy to meet their energy needs. This study supports the predisposition of athletes in weight branches to eating disorders and eating behavior disorders. However, since the number of studies on kick boxers is limited, more comprehensive studies with larger samples are required.