MUJERES ACTIVAS In recent decades, the increasing prevalence of obesity worldwide has made this risk factor a major public health problem for mankind (1). In recent decades, there has been a nutritional transition in Brazil. More traditional dietary patterns, such as diets based on cereals, roots and tubers, have been gradually replaced by a more Western diet, that is, consumption of foods rich in fats and sugars. This Western diet, combined with a decrease in physical activity, has lead to an

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... ncrease in the number of cases of overweight and obesity (2-4). ABSTRACT This study evaluated the contribution of diet composition in physically active women to test the hypothesis that energy, lipids, carbohydrates and fiber are the nutrients that directly affect obesity in this population. We used a cross-sectional analysis of 165 adult women who practice at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. The outcome variables were body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Individuals were classified into groups according to BMI as either obese or non-obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² or < 30 kg/m², respectively), and by WC as either with risk or without risk (WC ≥ 88 cm or <88 cm, respectively). Dietary intake was assessed by a 24-hour dietary recall. A multiple means (ANOVA) was used to compare the mean consumption of the groups. In this study, 69.1% of women were overweight or obese. Obese women consumed significantly more energy and cholesterol and less carbohydrate (p <0.05) and tended to have a lower intake of fiber (p <0.10) than the nonobese women. Moreover, women with higher WC consume significantly more energy (p <0.05) and tend to have a lower consumption of carbohydrates and fiber (p <0.10) than women with minor WC. The results showed that, despite being physically active, the women studied had an average BMI indicative of obesity, showing that dietary patterns are highly correlated with this condition. We found that low consumption of carbohydrates and fiber and high consumption of energy and cholesterol contributed significantly to obesity among women.