Investigation of Body Composition of Footballers by Bioelectrical Impedance Method

Abstract

Objective: This study aims at examining the body composition of male football players who perform regular football training by Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) method and comparing it with a healthy control group and investigating the effect of regular exercise on body composition.

Materials and Methods: A total of 60 people participated in the study, including 30 volunteer male football players performing football trainings regularly from 11 Nisan Football Club playing in Turkey Football Federation Regional Amateur League (BAL) and 30 healthy volunteer control group consisting of male students from Harran University Medical Faculty. Both groups’ ages and body mass indexes are similar to each other.  Bioelectrical Impedance (BIA) method was used for Osseosis, skeletal muscle weight (SMM), body mass index (BMI), body fat percentage (BFP), waist hip ratio (WHR), and basal metabolism parameters of the participants. The data obtained were evaluated with SPSS 23.0 statistical package program, and the significance level was evaluated as p < 0.01 and p < 0.05.

Findings: There was no statistically significant difference between the values of age, height, weight, intracellular fluid, extracellular fluid, protein, mineral, skeletal muscle weight (SMM), body mass index (BMI) and muscle ratios of the experimental and control groups (p > 0.05). When the parameters of basal metabolism, Osseosis and skeletal muscle weight of the experimental group were discussed, no significant relationship was detected, although they were high numerically (p > 0.05). It was determined that the body fat percentage (BFP) of the experimental and control groups was correlated at p < 0.01 level and waist-hip ratio was correlated (WHR) at p < 0.05 level, which was statistically significant. As a result, although there was no significant difference between BMI values between the football players and the control group, the fact that the players' lower BMI values and lower waist-hip ratios showed that regular training reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases.