The Energy Balance Equation has holes in it.

neanderthin
neanderthin Posts: 10,207 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Lots of people claim their in starvation mode and have been on plateau's in variable lengths of time. While that can be the case sometimes, and even then it's difficult for a complete slowdown to occur, unless it's a small deficit where weight loss has effectively met a new maintenance level. This study just verifies one of the confusion why people believe a calorie is not a calorie, or the EBE is not valid.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12396160

In this study they compared caloric intake from 10 female registered dietitians and 10 women of comparable weight who were not dietitians and the study compared the energy intake obtained from 7-day food records with energy expenditure measured over the corresponding 7-day period using doubly labeled water.

Dietitians underreported their food intake by an average of 223 calories per day, while the non-dietitians underreported their intake by an average of 429 calories per day.

Now go have some ice cream, just make sure your count it properly. :smile:

Replies

  • kenna44cat
    kenna44cat Posts: 105 Member
    This is very interesting. I've sometimes been told I was reporting too many calories so I started using the lesser amounts, but I feel that reporting more calories couldn't hurt, and you're right, a plateau usually means a person hasn't mixed things up enough or they're not really reporting all they eat and over reporting exercise. I wonder about MFP and eating back the exercise deficits, too, I don't like to do that.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,207 Member
    Bump

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  • Bakkasan
    Bakkasan Posts: 1,027 Member
    They day I see a 30 day completely controlled study we can finally talk about this stuff with honesty. Relying on people to honestly and accurately record their intake makes good studies go bad.

    IMO of course.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,207 Member
    They day I see a 30 day completely controlled study we can finally talk about this stuff with honesty. Relying on people to honestly and accurately record their intake makes good studies go bad.

    IMO of course.
    That's the point.
  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    They day I see a 30 day completely controlled study we can finally talk about this stuff with honesty. Relying on people to honestly and accurately record their intake makes good studies go bad.

    IMO of course.
    That's the point.
    Which has nothing to do with the subject line. The equation is fine. Measuring is suspect, as most know...margin of error is important.
  • nyujay2013
    nyujay2013 Posts: 17 Member
    This is why I am very anal about reporting the calories I consume at the beginning of a "diet." I measure, weigh, use caloric/nutritional amounts from food labels and various reputable websites for confirmation. I would hate to waste my time and work so hard and have myself report more/less calories consumed.

    Regardless, I work out like an olympian (haha, I wish!) so I try not to be so anal anymore about calories. Just try to stay within an appropriate range.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,207 Member
    This is why I am very anal about reporting the calories I consume at the beginning of a "diet." I measure, weigh, use caloric/nutritional amounts from food labels and various reputable websites for confirmation. I would hate to waste my time and work so hard and have myself report more/less calories consumed.

    Regardless, I work out like an olympian (haha, I wish!) so I try not to be so anal anymore about calories. Just try to stay within an appropriate range.
    These participants knew why they were being studied and I would imagine a dietitian would want to be as correct as possible, and they were still out over 200 cals a day.

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