Investigation of the effect of kardio and reformer pilates exercises on HEALTHY nutrition and physical fitness levels in sedentary women

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the attitudes towards healthy nutrition, the effect of these attitudes on exercise preference, and the effect of exercise types on body fat burning in sedentary women. Materials and Method: A total of 30 healthy volunteer women who performed cardio exercise (n=15) and reformer pilates exercise (n=15), ages 18 to 40, in a private gym in Samsun province, participated in the study. The participants underwent either reformer pilates or cardio exercise program three days a week and a 60-minute in one session. Demographic information form and Healthy Eating Attitude Scale (Tekkurşun, 2019) were applied to all participants one week before the eight-week exercise program. In addition, the body weight and Body Mass Index (BMI), waist and hip circumference, and waist/hip ratio variables were measured one week before and after the eight-week exercise program. In this study waist/ hip ratio was used to assess which type of exercise was effective in body fat burning. JASP 0.16.4 package program was used to analyse the collected data. All the pre-test and post-test data were analysed using a T-test (Samples Independent and Paired t-test) following the assessment of normal distribution with "Shapiro-Wilk" test. Statistical values were evaluated at the 95% confidence and p<0.05 and p<0.01 significance levels. Findings: The results showed a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, waist and hip circumference, and waist/hip ratio values in both the cardio and the reformer pilates groups (p <0.05). In addition, the comparison between group data showed that the reduction in the BKI, body weight, and waist and hip circumference for the cardio group were higher than the reformer plates group. However, attitudes towards healthy nutrition and waist/hip ratio variables did not differ between the groups. Independent T-test analysis results regarding SBITÖ showed no effect of education status and body mass index on the attitudes towards healthy nutrition. However, marriage status was found to be an important factor for the attitudes toward healthy nutrition; therefore, the attitudes of married participants toward healthy nutrition were higher than single participants. Furthermore, the regression analysis showed a positive correlation between age and attitudes toward healthy nutrition. Conclusion: These results suggest exercise helps sedentary women to have healthier lives, but cardio exercise is more effective in increasing physical fitness than reformer pilates exercise. In addition, multidisciplinary action should be taken to improve the attitudes towards healthy nutrition.