“Total energy expenditure is the combination of one’s resting metabolism ,
thermic effect of food, and physical activity energy expenditure over time,
usually expressed as kilocalories” (Kohl et al., 2020). Total energy
expenditure is important when it comes to public health and determining the
amount of energy a person burns while exercising. Indirect calorimetry and
doubly labeled water are two assessments used to measure TEE.
The first method of TEE assessment is the indirect calorimetry. “This process
measures the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide is used to estimate the
energy expenditure” (Kohl et al., 2020). Carbon dioxide is a good way to
measure energy metabolism, this will be a good assessment to measure TEE
(Kohl et al., 2020). This is a more accurate method used to assess TEE. This
method can be very time consuming and costly. To use this assessment to
measure TEE a room needs to be built and you must have gas analyzers
installed and personnel must be hired to maintain the facility. It also makes
larger studies very time consuming. A downfall to this assessment is that
indirect calorimetry does not show you TEE in real life situations. It is
accurate way of measuring TEE but it is the most expensive, and time
consuming.
The second method of measuring TEE is doubly labeled water. “This process
measures the turnover rates of oxygen and hydrogen. The higher the TEE the
higher the turnover rates are” (Kohl et al., 2020). Participates are given
radioisotope labeled water and the investigators will examine urine samples
with this assessment. The downfall to this study is that participants must
continuously store urine samples. This method does not tell you anything
about the physical activity of the participants. This method simply measures
the urine samples. Another downfall is radiolabeled oxygen and hydrogen is
rarely expensive.
The method that I will use with my client is the doubly labeled water. The
reason I would use it because it less time consuming and less expensive in
my opinion. Nobody wants to sit in a room for periods of time for someone to
measure there energy expenditure. Even though doubly labeled water does
not show the physical activity of the individual through the urine samples.
This can be the most accurate because you are storing the urine samples.
Also urine samples are the most accurate in anything we measure in the
health field.
Kohl, H., III, Murray, T., & Salvo, D. (2020). Foundations of Physical Activity
and Public Health. Human Kinetics.
