Özet:

Introduction: Population aging brings challenges for the maintenance of quality of life, along with changes along the advancement of age, changes that generate impact on functionality, a non-drug treatment of important application is a healthy lifestyle including healthy eating and physical activity when combined can improve this evolutionary picture and generate better results for the elderly. Objective: To compare the effect of food intake and traditional strength training in the elderly. Materials and Methods: This was a randomized clinical trial, which had the sample of both sexes. We evaluated 17 elderlies, with 60 or more years old. The anthropometric variables (weight, height, and skinfolds) were used to calculate the body mass index and percentage of fat, physical tests (displacement, balance and strength of the lower members), and food intake through a food frequency questionnaire. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t test and effect size by the SPSS 20.0 program and through Mann Whitney “U” test. Results: There was a significant difference between the consumption frequencies of carbohydrates when compared to protein consumption (p≤0.000). There was a low frequency of weekly high quality protein intake. There was a significant difference in the percentage of fat and balance (p≤0.04) and (p≤0.006) respectively. Although not significant, there was also an improvement in body mass index and strength of the lower members. Conclusion: the practice of physical exercise associated with a healthy alimentation in the elderly contributes to an improvement in the body composition as in quality of life.

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