title: What is the best equation to estimate the basal energy expenditure of climacteric women?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The methods currently available for the measurement of energy expenditure in patients, such as indirect calorimetry and double-labelled water, are expensive and are limited in Brazil to research projects. Thus, equations for the prediction of resting metabolic rate appear to be a viable alternative for clinical practice. However, there are no specific equations for the Brazilian population and few studies have been conducted on Brazilian women in the climacteric period using existing and commonly applied equations. On this basis, the objective of the present study was to investigate the concordance between the predictive equations most frequently used and indirect calorimetry for the measurement of resting metabolic rate.
  
  
  METHODS
  We calculated the St. Laurent concordance correlation coefficient between the equations and resting metabolic rate calculated by indirect calorimetry in 46 climacteric women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The equation showing the best concordance was that of the FAO/WHO/UNU formula (0.63), which proved to be better than the Harris & Benedict equation (0.55) for the sample studied.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  On the basis of the results of the present study, we conclude that the FAO/WHO/UNU formula can be used to predict better the resting metabolic rate of climacteric women. Further studies using more homogeneous and larger samples are needed to permit the use of the FAO/WHO/UNU formula for this population group with greater accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine/Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, Avenida dos Bandeirantes 3900, Monte Alegre, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: R D S
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: V M M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Suen
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Marchini
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Iannetta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001481:Basal Metabolism; D002153:Calorimetry, Indirect; D002979:Climacteric; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies