BULIMICS: DO THEY GO TO THE GYM?

Abstract

The research objective was to determine the prevalence of women with symptoms of bulimia nervosa attending the gym and check out the practitioners who show bulimic traces, and how often they use the exercise as a compensatory way. The study included 197 women enrolled in gyms in the city of Marechal Cândido Rondon - PR (28.7 ± 9.9 years). To evaluate the framework of bulimia it was used the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edingurgh (BITE) and a structured interview by the researchers to meet the interests of the study. For the data analysis it was used descriptive statistics and frequency sampling by the statistical program SPSS for Windows 11.5. The prevalence of symptoms of bulimia was 3%. The prevalence of bulimic traits was 11.2%. From the individuals that show bulimic traits, 59.1% reported physical exercise after episodes of over-eating. These results may indicate that this compensatory behavior through physical exercise can cause women to seek out gyms.