Effect of 8-week Aerobic Exercise Program on Nutritional Disorders and Body Composition in Non-athlete Female Students of University of Medical Sciences Gilan, Iran

Abstract

Background and Objectives: In this study, the effect of 8-week aerobic exercise program was investigated on nutritional disorders and selected physical factors in non-athlete female students of Gilan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This quasi-experimental research was conducted as pretest-posttest method on 263 non-athlete female students of Gilan University of Medical Sciences, of whom 21 subjects with a score equal to or greater than 20 on eating attitudes questionnaire-26, were simply randomly divided into two groups of experimental (n=11) and control (n=10). The experimental group exercised for 8 weeks and 2 times per week at the intensity of 60-75% of maximum heart rate, while the control group received no intervention. In both control and experimental groups, height, weight, subcutaneous fat, waist circumference, and hip circumference, were measured using standard tools before and after the training period. Data were analyzed using Kolmogorov–Smirnov and independent t- tests. The significance level was considered p0.05). A significant difference was observed between control and experimental groups in terms of nutritional disorder variables, BMI, and fat percentage (p0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise could be used as an effective therapeutic strategy to reduce nutritional disorders and improve body composition in individuals with nutritional disorders.

Keywords

• nutrition and feeding disorders
• exercise
• body composition.