Introduction:

Women’s futsal is a sport of intermittent exertion. Female athletes need to comply with nutritional recommendations in order to perform adequately. The aim of this study is to describe the dietary intake and body composition of an elite university indoor football team.

Methodology:

Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study carried out on 14 semi-professional players from the University of Alicante. Body composition was calculated using the 4-component model with the equations of the Spanish Society of Sports Medicine. The food consumption habits were assessed using the food consumption frequency questionnaire of the Department of Public Health of the Miguel Hernández University. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software. All dependent variables had non-normal distributions and Spearman’s correlation coefficient (Rho) was calculated, the significance level being 0.05 and 0.01.

Results:

The mean body composition results observed were: 61.69 kg (7.71) kg, height: 1.64 (0.06) m, fat mass percentage 12.00 (3.08) % and muscle mass weight 22.03 (3.82) kg. The somatotypic classification of the sample was endo-mesomorphic. Regarding dietary intake. Dietary intake was generally below the recommendations of the Guide to Healthy Eating for Primary Care and Citizen Groups of the Spanish Society of Community Nutrition (SENC). Correlations were found between the consumption of some foods with anthropometric values such as meat and dairy consumption with higher muscle mass weight (kg).

Conclusions:

The dietary intake of female players is below the recommendations in most of the food groups. It is necessary to transmit to sportswomen the importance of carrying out adequate nutritional planning specific to their needs in order to maintain acceptable levels of performance as well as an adequate body composition for their sporting level.

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