Eating attitudes, body image concept and exercise reasons in female athletesathletesa

This study aimed at examining body image and eating attitude with regard to reasons of exercising among non-athlete women attending sport centers.

The present study has an ex-post facto design. 315 female sports center users were selected by multi-phase random clustering and completed the following rating scales: Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26), Body Image Concern Inventory (BICI) and a set of questions regarding their reasons to exercise.

Pierson correlation showed a significant positive correlation between body image concept and eating attitudes (r = 0.36, p < 0.001). Independent T-test showed that there were significant differences between reasons of exercising and eating attitude (p < 0.006), and also reasons of exercising and body image concept (p < 0.029).

Women with higher scores of eating attitude or body image favored exercise more due to shape reasons than health reasons.