The presente study was carried out in the first semester of 1996, aiming to evaluate users of academies in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Beyond vast bibliographic research about the energetic and proteic metabolism, sportsmen's nutritional necessities and supplementation with protein and amino acids, a field research was carried out with the purpose of tracing the profile of utilization of nutritional suplements with emphasis on protein and amino acid products, considering sex, age and period of physical activity practice. The research involved a sample of 18 academies and 388 interviewees; 103 of then (27%) used some kind of supplementation and 45 of these (44%) used protein supplements. Among the justifications given for the option of using the supplementation, the "professional indication" stood out from the others. Comparison with technical list existing in these units, in which only 4 of the 18 academies included in the sample had nutritionists or doctors, suggests that the utilization of these products by physical activities practitioners may be inadequate.
nutrition; sports; supplementary feeding
