Efeito da participação em grupos operativos para redução de peso em conhecimentos e parâmetros nutricionais

Abstract

Objective: To assess the level of knowledge about food and nutrition, changes in eating habits and anthropometric users overweight and obese before and after participation in nutritional education groups. Methods: A longitudinal study evaluating 23 individuals with overweight participants operating group focused on weight loss and nutritional education, which were assessed in two stages, through food frequency questionnaires, nutrition knowledge and food and evaluationof anthropometric data. Results: The common participants (n = 23) lost weight (average 2.5 ± 4.1 kg) and had asignificantlyreduction of waist circumference (average of 4.8 ± 4.6 cm) (p = 0.009 and <0.001, respectively). Regarding nutritional knowledge was also observed improvement, with significant reduction in the total number of errors (43.5 ± 10.3% to 32.0 ± 11.2%; p <0.05) in theapplied questionnaire. In food consumption, realized a significant increase (p <0.05) in the frequency of consumption of foods such as vegetables in the form of raw salads, cooked vegetables and milk or yogurt and a decrease in consumption of foods such as potato chips, package ; fried snacks and cookies. Conclusion: The participation of users in operative groups for weight loss resulted in improvements in knowledge, eating habits and a significant reduction in weight and waist circumference.