Comparison of total energy intakes estimated by 24-hour diet recall with total energy expenditure measured by the doubly labeled water method in adults

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The doubly labeled water (DLW) method is the gold standard for estimating total energy expenditure (TEE) and is also useful for verifying the validities of dietary evaluation tools. In this study, we compared the accuracy of total energy intakes (TEI) estimated by the 24-h diet recall method with TEE obtained using the doubly labeled water method. SUBJECTS/METHODS: -test was used to determine the significance of differences between TEI and TEE results, and the accuracy of the 24-h recall method was determined by accuracy predictions percentage, root mean square error, and bias. RESULTS: < 0.001). In all study subjects, mean TEI was 12.0% (307.5 ± 629.3 kcal/day) less than mean TEE, and 12.2% (349.4 ± 632.5 kcal/day) less in men and 11.8% (266.7 ± 632.5 kcal/day) less in women. Rates of TEI underprediction for all study subjects, men, and women, were 60.5%, 51.4%, and 66.7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that 24-h diet recall underreports energy intakes. More research is needed to corroborate our findings and evaluate the accuracy of 24-h recall with respect to additional demographics.