Measured and predicted resting energy expenditure in wheelchair rugby athletes

Abstract

Objective: Report measured resting energy expenditure (REE) in wheelchair rugby athletes and evaluate agreement between REE and the prediction models of Chun, Cunningham, Harris-Benedict, Mifflin, Nightingale and Gorgey, and Owen.

Design: Cohort-based validation study.

Setting. Paralympic team training camp.

Participants: Fourteen internationally competitive athletes who play wheelchair rugby, 13 of whom had cervical spinal cord injuries (SCI).

Outcome Measures: A portable metabolic analyzer was used to measure REE following an overnight fast and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used to assess lean body mass for the prediction equations.

Results: REE in the current sample was 1735 ± 257 kcal × day⁻¹ ranging from 1324 to 2068 kcal × day⁻¹. Bland–Altman analyses revealed negative mean bias but similar limits of agreement between measured REE and scores predicted by Chun, Cunningham, Mifflin, Nightingale and Gorgey, and Owen models in elite athletes who play wheelchair rugby.

Conclusion: Prediction models regressed on persons with and without SCI under-predicted REE of competitive wheelchair rugby athletes. This outcome may be explained by the higher REE/fat-free mass (FFM) ratio of current athletes compared to less active samples. Findings from the current study will help practitioners to determine nutrient intake needs on training days of varied intensity.

Keywords:

• Disability sport
• Metabolism
• Spinal cord injury

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the national wheelchair rugby team for their participation in this research and Dr Xiuyan Guo for her statistical consultation.

ORCID

J.P. Barfield http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1692-9650

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.