Abstract:
In developing nations like Ethiopia, poor weight management has become more prevalent
recently. Individuals may differ in their comprehension and implementation of nutritional
knowledge and good eating practices. Numerous well-educated people struggled with weight
control, and little research was done on how dietary practices and nutritional knowledge
affected body weight management. This study was to assess the nutritional knowledge and
dietary habits of fitness program participants and their impact on weight management in
selected Harar fitness center practitioners. An experimental study design was conducted in
selected Harar fitness centers from June 25-Augest 25, 2024. The total sample size of this
study was 247 fitness center participants. A simple random sampling technique was used to
select fitness centers. Enrolling randomly selected fitness center participants in a
selfadministrative, structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was entered into
epidata version 4.6 and analyzed by SPSS Version 26.0. Descriptive statistics are used to
describe participants’ background characteristics and the nutritional knowledge and dietary
habits of fitness center participants. From the study, the total response rate was 98%. The
majority of respondents were the ages of 27% (18-24) and 28% (25-30) years. From the
total study participants, 214 (87%) were male and one hundred fifty-seven (64%) with a 95%CI (57.7-71.0%) of the respondents had a normal range body mass index. Harar fitness
center participants have good nutritional knowledge (28.6%) and good dietary habits
(81.6%). In conclusion, the effect of nutritional knowledge and dietary habits on managing
body weight is positive. But in the Harar city fitness center, participants’ nutritional
knowledge and dietary habits were above the mean. We recommended that critical
intervention on nutritional knowledge and dietary habit awareness will be important to
manage body weight. The impact of nutritional knowledge, dietary habits practice, and
physical activity is very important to body weight management practice.
