Needs Assessment and Reasons for Consuming Food Supplements for Body-Building and Weightlifting Athletes in Ardabil Province

The purpose of this study is to assess the needs and causes of dietary supplements for bodybuild-ing and weightlifting athletes in Ardabil province. Methods: The present study is a descriptive research that was performed as a survey, both qualitative and quantitative strategies were used. The statistical popu-lation of this study consists of 385 athletes in the field of bodybuilding and weightlifting in Ardabil province. The interviewees were selected using targeted sam-pling with the participation of 11 of the best respond-ents to the questions to achieve theoretical saturation. Then, using MAXQDA12 software, the data was coded and the code was used for the researcher-made ques-tionnaire. The findings showed that most of the sup-plements consumed by athletes in the study were 95% protein V-concentrate, V-isole protein, casein protein, egg white protein, soy protein, amino protein, and branched-chain amino acids. Results: According to the results, there is a significant difference in the frequency of need for creatine supple-mentation among bodybuilding and weightlifting ath-letes in Ardabil province and the need for creatine sup-plementation in weightlifting athletes is more than bodybuilding athletes (P = 0.003) (Meaning in other supplements). In other supplements, no significant difference was observed in the two disciplines (P ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: The most important reasons for consum-ing dietary supplements in the athletes in the study of consumption are increasing muscle volume, increasing muscle strength, muscle recovery, being antioxidant, reducing fatigue, and burning fat, respectively.