Utilization of Nutritional Supplements Among Gym Going Athletes

Abstract: Nutritional supplements are commonly accessible products used as an extension to the normal diet and are mostly used by athletes. Among all clients and users of dietary supplements, the utilization among athletes and gym adepts tends to be more noteworthy than the overall public. With such a vast number of athletes utilizing dietary supplements, it is vital to evaluate about utilization of nutritional supplements among gym going athletes. Objective: To evaluate the utilization of nutritional supplements among gym going athletes. Methods: This study was Cross-sectional Analytical which was based on survey methodology. The sample of the study was 138 male athletes from different gyms of Lahore, who were regularly going to gym since past 3 months and among those who were using nutritional supplements at the time of evaluation. Results: Among the total participants of the study(41.3%) of gym going athletes utilized nutritional supplements either on regular basis or in the past few months. The nutritional supplements consumed mostly were protein or whey protein powders (61.4%), multivitamins (56.1%), and creatine (38.6%). The well-known purposes behind nutritional supplement usage were for gaining muscular strength (61.4%) and to gain strength (45.6%). Athletes reported that their main information source on nutritional supplements were gym trainers (n=33, 57.9%) and gym partners (n=13, 22.8%). Participants who revealed that they had a Registered Dietitian in their gym to consult about the nutritional supplement utilization were 29.8% and as an information source regarding nutritional supplements, Registered Dietitians were reported as 17.5%. Conclusions: It was concluded that the gym going athletes were mostly inuenced by their own negative or positive beliefs regarding their own decisions of nutritional supplements consumption rather than by a registered dietitian. Keywords: Nutritional Supplements, Athletes, Dietitian