Participants ‘Fit with Feyenoord’ achieve impressive results

Participants ‘Fit with Feyenoord’ achieve impressive results

The results of Fit with Feyenoord are impressive: measurements taken during the final project show that participants lost a total of almost 90 kilos in weight and were in better shape. Earlier research by Impact Centre Erasmus showed that after participating, participants have more knowledge of a healthy lifestyle, eat healthier and find exercise more important.

During the third and most recent edition of Fit with Feyenoord, both patients and employees of Maasstad Hospital came to De Kuip again. They followed a 12-week course that ended at the end of last month. The programme included workshops, information sessions, training sessions and Cooper tests. As a result, the 46 participants together lost almost 90 kilos and their abdominal circumference was reduced by 135 centimetres. In order to gain more insight into the effects of Fit with Feyenoord, the club asked Impact Centre Erasmus to conduct research last season. As an external party, they then conducted research into the effects of the club’s social policy. The results of this research are then used to improve the project.

The research looked at the effect of Fit with Feyenoord on several factors: do participants want to follow a healthy lifestyle? Do they see the importance of it? And do they have knowledge about what a healthy lifestyle entails? We also looked at whether participants also want to do more sport, recognise the importance of it and whether they also have more knowledge about it.
After the participants completed a specially developed questionnaire at both the beginning and the end of Fit with Feyenoord, the results were positive and encouraging. They had significantly more knowledge of a healthy lifestyle and their awareness of a healthy lifestyle also increased.

In addition, participants ate significantly more fruit and vegetables and attached more importance to sports. At the same time, the intrinsic motivation to exercise increased and the extrinsic motivation to exercise decreased. This means that participants exercise more often because they want to and less often because they have to. Almost 90% of the participants say they started living healthier and almost 80% started exercising more in their spare time.

And now the programme is over? Do participants still want to sport? Absolutely! 100% of the participants in the earlier research indicated that they still want to keep on exercising after Fit with Feyenoord.