INTRODUCTION: Recent studies on body image have proposed sets of silhouettes with the characteristics of specific groups. Sets of silhouettes specifically developed to depict in detail the body structures of bodybuilders have not been developed yet. Details are essential to this sport. OBJECTIVE: to propose a specific set of silhouettes to bodybuilders, composed of photos (photo silhouettes). Method: The study was structured in three phases: 1) photos of bodybuilders, selection and organization of the photos by the researchers; 2) organization of the photos by teachers and bodybuilding coaches; 3) application of the proposed set of photo silhouettes. RESULTS: Phase 1 - the BMI values were distributed in increasing order (BMI from 24.1 to 35.6 kg/m2); Phase 2 - six physical education teachers and six bodybuilding coaches participated and all of them organized the photo silhouettes in the same increasing order proposed by the researchers. Phase 3 - 20 bodybuilders participated; only one of them did not point the set of photo silhouettes proposed as the preferred for the perceptive assessment of body image. Considering the three silhouettes attributed by the researchers, intraclass correlation of 0.92 was observed. Comparing the silhouette mean attributed by the researchers (3.8 +/- 1.0) and the mean attributed by athletes (3.9 +/- 1.0) significant difference and a correlation of 0.75 (p<0.05) have not been found. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the set of photo silhouettes is valid for the study of perceptive dimension of the body image of bodybuilders concerning the identification of the current silhouette.
body mass index; anthropometry; body image perception
