The Influence of Nutritional Knowledge on Nutritional Status and Physical Performance in Young Female Athletes

Abstract

The excellent level of nutritional knowledge for female younger athletes is one of the strategies to enhance achievement and to improve the satisfaction level on body image. Therefore, this research aimed at revealing nutritional knowledge, eating behavior, nutritional status and physical performance on female younger athletes involving samples of 129 young female athletes with the age range of 12-19 years old from 27 sports branches. The data collection was conducted using survey and measurement methods. The survey was carried out to explore the nutritional knowledge, eating behavior, and body image. Nutritional status was measured using body mass index measurement, while the physical performance was measured using maximum oxygen volume (VO2 max) and Balke test. Based on the research results, the level of nutritional knowledge of the most critical nutritional element of 70% of the samples was carbohydrate, and 64% of them was protein; 5% of the samples had undernutrition status; 5% of the samples had overnutrition status; 50% of the samples had poor eating behavior; 6% of the samples had bad eating behavior; 77% of the samples were not satisfied with the body image; and their average of VO2 max was 35 mL/kgBW/minute. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that on average, young female athletes experience multiple nutritional problems, poor eating behavior, and have self-conflicts related to body image and performance as poor-category athletes.