Abstract:

One metabolic equivalent (MET) corresponds to 3.5 ml.kg-1.min-1 VO2 and is accepted as the resting metabolic rate (RMR). However, there have been arguments related with VO2 equivalent of 1 MET (3.5 ml.kg-1. min-1); some arguments indicated that this value is relatively high and may lead to misclassification of physical activities. The present study has 3 purposes: 1. to determine the validity of SenseWear Armband (SWA) in predicting RMR; 2. to assess the differences between the MET system and RMRs determined by SWA and indirect calorimetry (IC) and 3. to evaluate the associations between body composition and RMRs determined by the two methods. Twenty-eight men and women (age range:25-55 yrs) participated in the study voluntarily. RMR was determined by IC by measuring VO2 and CO2. Energy consumption was recorded simultaneously with SWA. Caloric equivalent of VO2 was determined by Weir’s equation (1949). Differences between 1 MET and SWA-measured MET values and between resting VO2 measured by IC and 3.5 ml.kg-1.min-1 were de- termined by One-Sample t-test; differences between the two methods were determined by Paired-Samples t- test; and associations between the variables were determined by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. SWA-measured MET (1.0 􀁲 0.12) was equal to 1 MET (p > 0.05), whereas IC-measured MET (0.83 􀁲 0.16) was lower than 1 MET (p<0.01). SWA-measured MET was higher than IC-measured MET (p<0.05). The association between MET values determined by the two methods was not significant (p>0.05). Although significant correlation (p<0.01) was found between RMRs (kcal.day-1) measured by the two methods, SWA-measured RMR was higher than IC-measured RMR (p<0.05). Significant correlations were found between both IC and SWA-measured RMRs and body weight, body mass index and lean body mass (p<0.05). Results of this study showed that; RMR measured by IC was significantly lower than 1 MET, SWA overestimated RMR compared to IC method, and LBM was the most significant body composition component associated with RMRs determined by both methods.

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