Assessment of resting energy expenditure using a portable hand held analyzer vs. stationary unit

Resting energy expenditure (REE) is important in clinical applications for defining appropriate nutritional intervention and determining energy needs for energy balance and weight management. The purpose of this study was to compare the BodyGem (HealtheTech Inc., Golden, CO) hand held REE device to a standard hooded method of assessing REE using the Parvo Metabolic Cart (Parvomedics, Sandy, UT). Seventy-one overweight and sedentary women (54 ± 5 yrs, 162 ± 6 cm, 91 ± 16 kg, 46 ± 5 %) participated in this study. Each participant completed a test on both the hand held and stationary units after a 12 hour fast. Participants rested for thirty minutes before completing a twenty minute session on the stationary unit followed by a 20 minute session on the hand held unit. A Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used for statistical analysis. The results indicated that the hand held unit (1,424 ± 232 kcal/day) was significantly (p = 0.01) correlated (r = .853) with the stationary unit (1,484 ± 214 kcal/day). These findings indicated that there was only a 60 kcal/day difference in the two units (1.1 ± 0.1 %). These data indicate that the BodyGem is an accurate and reliable device for measuring oxygen consumption and calculating RER when compared to the industry standard Parvomedic unit. While further investigation may be warranted, it appears that Bodygem metabolic unit is an accurate measure of resting energy expenditure.