Abstract
Body composition plays a key role in overall health and sports performance and its assessment is an important part of many athletic programs. The purpose of this study was to describe longitudinal changes in body composition for collegiate female soccer players in order to provide data to inform future training and nutrition interventions for this population. A linear mixed-model (LMM) approach was used to analyze four years of pre- and post-season body composition data, including total mass, fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass, and body fat percentage (%BF) for 49 athletes. Athletes gained an average of 0.5 kg FFM during the season (p < 0.05) and increased total mass, FFM, fat mass, and %BF (2.5 kg, 1.1 kg, 1.7 kg, and 1.7%, respectively; p < 0.05) over four years. Freshmen experienced a 1.5 kg gain in total mass pre- to post-season (p < 0.05), while no changes in total mass or body composition were seen in other grade levels. Gains in %BF during the off season between Freshman and Sophomore years represented negative changes in body composition that should be addressed further. These results can help interdisciplinary athlete care teams optimize training programs in this population by understanding what changes are expected over multiple years. Normalizing these changes may also help the promotion of realistic body composition goals and the development of positive training and dietary habits.
Highlights
Body composition is one of many factors that influences athletes’ sports performance and overall health and is commonly assessed as part of an athlete’s standard of care while competing at the collegiate level [1,2,3,4,5]
Likelihood ratio tests revealed that the grade level factor was significant for all outcomes examined (p < 0.05), while the time point factor was significant for fat-free mass (FFM) and the interaction term between grade level and time point was significant for total mass
Each body composition measure tended to increase over the course of a four-year collegiate soccer career for these female athletes, with statistically significant increases in total mass, %BF, fat
Summary
Body composition is one of many factors that influences athletes’ sports performance and overall health and is commonly assessed as part of an athlete’s standard of care while competing at the collegiate level [1,2,3,4,5]. The assessment of body composition across several years provides both athletes and interdisciplinary care teams (i.e., athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, sports dietitians) a sense of expected body composition changes over an athlete’s collegiate career and provides training personnel pertinent feedback regarding strength and conditioning programs, as well as athlete’s dietary behaviors [2,3,5,13,14] This may help increase the acceptance of nutrition protocols designed to support growth and development of the athletes by enhancing athletes’ understanding of body composition changes associated with those behaviors. It is important to note that body composition differs by sport and sex, so establishing normative data specific to sport and sex is vital for athlete care teams to monitor athlete health and effectiveness of training programs [3,5]
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