Seasonal changes in body composition and cardiometabolic health biomarkers in professional soccer players: a longitudinal study
Background: Variations in body composition and cardiometabolic health biomarkers may affect the physical performance of elite athletes throughout the season.
Aims: To investigate the changes in body composition, cardiometabolic health biomarkers and food consumption throughout the season of male professional soccer players.
Methods: Implementing a longitudinal design, sixteen athletes (25.8 ± 3.1 years, 181.0 ± 6.1 cm, 79.2 ± 6.2 kg) underwent anthropometric and biochemical evaluation in three different moments (T0, T1 and T2) every 16 weeks throughout the season and food consumption was evaluated in the end season.
Results: There was a significant reduction in body fat at the end of the season (T1 vs T2: 11.4 ± 1.5% vs 10.8 ± 1.3%; p = 0.007) and a modest increase in fat-free mass at the same point (T1 vs T2: 48.7 ± 1.4% vs 49.0 ± 1.2%; p = 0.016) with no changes in weight. There was a significant reduction in fasting blood glucose at the end of season (T1 vs T2: 86.6 ± 3.72 mg/dl vs 77.2 ± 4.2 mg/dl; p = 0.000).A reduced hemoglobin concentration was found (T0 vs T2: 15.7 ± 0.8 mg/dl vs 15.0 ± 0.7 mg/dl; p = 0.008), but no changes in hematocrit were observed during the season (p = 0.955). The food consumption of the athletes presented a reduced intake in cereals and pasta (p = 0.000), fruits (p = 0.026) and vegetables (p = 0.000) at the end of the season.
Conclusion: Elite soccer players presented modest improvement or sustained values in body composition and cardiometabolic health biomarkers during the season, despite nutritional inadequacies being observed.
© Copyright 2020 Sport Sciences for Health. Springer. All rights reserved.
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| Notations: | biological and medical sciences sport games |
| Tagging: | Biomarker |
| Published in: | Sport Sciences for Health |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-019-00617-2 |
| Volume: | 16 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 419-424 |
| Document types: | article |
| Level: | advanced |