A CRITICAL-EVALUATION OF HEART-RATE MONITORING TO ASSESS ENERGY-EXPENDITURE IN INDIVIDUALS

The prediction of energy expenditure (EE) from minute-by-minute heart rate (HR) recording was evaluated in 40 female workers, with emphasis on the inter- and intraindividual variation of this method. The result s show that the relationship between EE and HR varied greatly between and within subjects. The inter- and intraindividual CVs were 14-18% an d 11-20%, respectively. The poor limits of agreement in EE (mean diffe rence +/- 2 SD) between group and individual calibration curves indica te that estimated EE from group curves is inferior to estimated EE fro m individual curves. Therefore, it is concluded that to have the best estimates of individual EE, only individual calibration curves should be used. At different occasions these curves should be generated again . Because the limits of agreement in EE between individual curves base d on 18 and 9 different activities were wide (-2399 to 1817 kJ/16 h), it is preferable to have a wide range of different activities in the i ndividual calibration procedure.