Low cardiorespiratory fitness is one of the factors that cause heart disease. Fitness levels in employees are commonly low. Many factors might be the cause of low cardiorespiratory fitness, including sedentary activities, nutritional status, and individual eating habits. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in cardiorespiratory fitness, energy adequacy, macronutrients, and fiber before and after nutrition and exercise assistance for overweight female employees at the Directorate General of Health Workforce. This type of research is Pretest-postest control group design. Samples were employees with BMI >22.9 acquired using random sampling. The study was grouped into two groups that were given nutrition and exercise assistance and only exercise assistance for 4 weeks. Nutrition assistance is through nutrition counseling 1x/week. Exercise assistance is exercising by following a 60-minute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise video 3x/week. The data analysis method used Paired Sample t-Test and Independent Sample t-Test. The results showed that there were significant differences in cardiorespiratory fitness (p=0.000), energy adequacy (p=0.008), protein (p=0.005), fat (p=0.002), carbohydrates (p=0.020), and fiber (p=0.004) in the nutrition and exercise assistance groups. There were significant differences in cardiorespiratory fitness (p=0.21) and fiber adequacy (p=0.002) in the exercise assistance group. There was no significant difference in mean improvement of cardiorespiratory fitness (p=0.342), energy adequacy (p=0.168), fat (p=0.078), carbohydrate (p=0.481), and fiber (p=0.722) between the two groups. Nutrition and exercise assistance or just exercise assistance can improve cardiorespiratory fitness through increased physical activity and dietary intake management.
Keywords : Nutrition assistance, Exercise assistance, Cardiorespiratory fitness, Nutrient adequacy, Overweight
References : 70 (1997-2023)