American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 44, 596-602, Copyright © 1986 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Validation of a field technique for the measurement of energy expenditure: factorial method versus continuous respirometry

CA Geissler, TM Dzumbira and MI Noor

The field technique for measuring daily energy expenditure, using activity diary plus short-term indirect calorimetry, was validated with a room respirometer. Eleven male and 14 female subjects spent 24-h periods in the respirometer and kept an activity diary to the nearest minute. Subsequently, the energy cost of the recorded activities was measured in duplicate, and 24-h expenditure was calculated. Over the 42 24-h measurements the mean value by the factorial field method was within 1% of that from continuous indirect calorimetry. However, the error in individual daily expenditure ranged from -17% to +25%. Correction of the error involved in using calculated BMR for the cost of sleeping resulted in a 5% mean underestimation of the daily value. The factorial method is, therefore, too inaccurate for the estimation of individual daily expenditures but provides a close estimate of the true energy expenditure for population groups.