Dietary Restraint Influences Accuracies in Estimating Energy Expenditure and Energy Intake Among Physically Inactive Males

• Published in: American journal of men's health Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 33 - 40
• Main Authors: Harris, Cristen L., George, Valerie A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2010; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Adult; Caloric Restriction; Cross-Over Studies; Diet; Diet Records; Eating; Energy Intake; Energy Metabolism; Exercise; Exercise Test; Florida; Heart Rate; Humans; Male; Men's Health; Middle Aged; Nutritional Status; Perception; Rest; Sedentary Lifestyle; Statistics, Nonparametric; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult; Florida; weight management; dietary restraint; energy balance; calorie estimation; physical activity
• ISSN: 1557-9883; 1557-9891
• DOI: 10.1177/1557988308327052

Inaccurate estimations of energy intake (EI) and energy expenditure (EE) may ultimately affect body weight. The purpose of this study was to evaluate accuracy of estimated EI and EE among males in reference to exercise and rest using a counterbalanced, crossover, repeated-measures design. Participants (N = 80) were recruited from a large, urban university in South Florida. Exercise consisted of walking on a treadmill for 60 min at 65% age-predicted maximum heart rate. Food intake was evaluated immediately following exercise and rest. Participants underestimated EI (kcal) on both the exercise (M = 435, SEM = 69) and rest days (M = 439, SEM = 54), overestimated EE (kcal) for exercise (M = 129, SEM = 44), and underestimated EE for rest (M = 54, SEM = 10). Greater accuracy in estimating EE for exercise was significantly (p < .05) associated with higher dietary restraint. The findings suggest that among sedentary males, there is an inability to accurately estimate calories, which has the potential to influence behaviors that affect weight management.