CONHECIMENTO EM NUTRIÇÃO ESPORTIVA ENTRE OS PRATICANTES DE MUSCULAÇÃO.

Introduction: Healthy eating and physical activity help quality of life and are fundamental to the individual's well-being because they act by preventing and treating several pathologies. The search for food supplements is growing, since these improve aesthetics and performance, however, this indication is often performed by unqualified professionals. The prescription of these products must be performed by the nutritionist, since has knowledge about the needs and scratchs. Objective: Ascertain the knowledge of bodybuilding practitioners in sports nutrition and the prevalence of indication of dietary supplements by untrained individuals. Materials and methods: Descriptive research, with quantitative and cross-sectional approach. It was applied a questionnaire adapted for 180 weight training practitioners. Results: The results showed that there was a predominance of females (56.1%), most interviewees had been attending a gym for more than 12 months (63.3%) and did not use supplements (63.89%), and only a minority (27.7%) of respondents used indication of a nutritionist. It was found that the knowledge on sports nutrition is still scarce, since there was a high error rate in questions related to the risks of excess protein (78.3%) and are unaware of carbohydrate-related issues (70%). Conclusion: there were many misconceptions related to sports nutrition. Although the participants correlated the purpose of the supplements well, the errors related to the knowledge of the macronutrients, persist. Therefore, it is evident the need for guidance from the nutritionist for prescription and enlightenment regarding issues related to sports nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]