Body self-image perception and physical activity practice in college students

Currently, the biggest concern of practitioners of physical activity is related to body aesthetics. However, excessive care can cause a set of dissatisfactions with body image. This study aimed to verify the relationship between the perception of body self-image and the practice of physical activity in university students. This is a cross-sectional, inferential and analytical study, carried out with students from the Nutrition course at a university in the state of Para. The variables used were: gender, age group, occupation, weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI), silhouette according to the BMI, current physical appearance, satisfaction with the current appearance and appearance that I would like to have, recreational / sports activity, type, duration and main reason for practicing physical activity. Using the GNU R version 3.6.1 program, the X-2 test was applied for the association between the perception of body image and the study variables, adopting a significance level of 5%. The results showed a predominance of females, aged 20 to 25 years, who only study. There was a prevalence of dissatisfaction with thinness among eutrophic and overweight individuals and also of physical activity for reasons of aesthetics and health. With this study it can be concluded that the greater the frequency with which one practices physical activity, the better the perception and satisfaction with the body image will be, being a very important factor for the resolution of the image disorders observed in most of the studied population.