USEFULNESS OF INDIRECT CALORIMETRY IN BODY-BUILDER AND NON-BODY-BUILDER ATHLETES FOLLOW-UP

Abstract

Natural body-building requires a constant control of body composition/regulation of metabolism through diet. Nutritional status (NS) assessment in these athletes is scarce in literature (1). Bio-impedance (BI) is the gold standard for NS and indirect calorimetry is those for energy expenditure vs. caloric intake ratio (ECR) assessment in humans (2). Thus, we aimed to assess NS and ECR of body-builder (BB) and non-body-builder athletes vs. healthy controls, matched for sex and age. we consecutively enrolled BB and non-body-builder athletes (namely, non-professional runners (NR)) vs. healthy controls (HV), matched by sex and age. The subjects had a complete NS assessment (BI end ECR) at the outpatient Nutrition clinic of the Internal Medicine Unit of San Benedetto del Tronto General Hospital. We consecutively enrolled 30 athletes (12 BB (8 females, mean age 29.2±2.5 years, BMI 22.2±0.7 Kg/m2), 18 NR (12 females, mean age 35.5±1.7 years, BMI 24.3±0.7 Kg/m2), and 16 HV (11 females, mean age 36.7±1.9 years, BMI 23.4±0.8 Kg/m2). BB athletes and HV showed a significant difference in BI (phase angle: 5.1 vs. 6.8°, p<0.05), explained by the significantly lower content of extracellular water (p<0.05); ECR showed a similar difference (1534±28 vs. 1003±18 kcal, p<0.05). For the first time, unexpectedly, this prospective pilot single-center study showed a significant difference of NS between BB vs. HV: BI difference was not explained by a bigger amount of lean mass but by lower extracellular water content of BB; ECR difference between BB and HV was explained by a lower basal metabolism.