Balanço energético e composição corporal entre atletas escolares

Objective: To relate the energy balance and the body composition of student athletes. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytical study, whose data was collected between the years 2010 and 2012. The sample consisted of 134 male and female adolescents, aged 10 to 18 years, engaged in any of five distinct activities: judo, swimming, tennis, rhythmic gymnastics and artistic gymnastics. The skinfolds were used as method for assessing body composition and the energy balance (EB) was calculated by subtracting the total energy intake (TEI) from the value of their estimated energy needs (EEN). All statistical procedures were performed using SPSS 19.0. Student’s t-test was used to compare data between genders, and the correlations were performed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Values of p≤0.05 were considered significant. Results: The older individuals in both genders showed higher values of mid-upper arm circumference (MAC) and body fat percentage (BFP). It was possible to perceive a significant negative correlation between EB and BFP for males, and a positive, but not significant, correlation in females. It was also observed that a majority of the participants (51.1%) showed a positive energy balance. Conclusion: A positive energy balance was found in a majority of the adolescents evaluated and this data was negatively correlated with body composition only in boys. Among women, however, there was no correlation between these variables.