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  • Original Article
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Pregnancy-related changes in activity energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate in Switzerland

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 63, pages 1185–1191 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

To measure resting metabolic rate (RMR), activity energy expenditure (AEE), total energy expenditure (TEE) and physical activity pattern, that is, duration and intensity (in metabolic equivalents, METs) of activities performed in late pregnancy compared with postpartum in healthy, well-nourished women living in Switzerland.

Subjects/Methods:

Weight, height, RMR, AEE, TEE and physical activity patterns were measured longitudinally in 27 healthy women aged 23–40 years at 38.2±1.5 weeks of gestation and 40.0±7.2 weeks postpartum.

Results:

The RMR during late pregnancy was 7480 kJ per day, that is, 1320±760 kJ per day (21.4%) higher than the postpartum RMR (P<0.001). Absolute changes in RMR were positively correlated with the corresponding changes in body weight (r=0.61, P<0.001). RMR per kg body weight was similar in late pregnancy vs postpartum (P=0.28). AEE per kg during pregnancy and postpartum was 40±13 and 50±20 kJ/kg, respectively (P=0.001). There were significant differences in daily time spent at METs<1.5 (1067 vs 998 min, P=0.045), at 2.5⩽METs <3.0 (58 vs 82 min, P=0.002) and METs⩾6 (1 vs 6 min, P=0.014) during pregnancy and postpartum, respectively.

Conclusions:

Energy expenditure in healthy women living in Switzerland increases in pregnancy compared with the postpartum state. Additional energy expenditure is primarily attributed to an increase in RMR, which is partly compensated by a decrease in AEE. The decrease in physical activity-related energy costs is achieved by selecting less demanding activities and should be taken into account when defining extra energy requirements for late pregnancy in Switzerland.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof Claude Pichard for providing the indirect calorimetry equipment, without which our study could not have been conducted with the necessary precision, as well as Ms Magalie Tellenbach and Veronique Othenin Girard for valuable support during data collection. We also thank all the pregnant women who agreed to voluntarily participate in this study. The study was financed by a competitive grant to Drs Boulvain and Kayser by the CRC (Centre de Recherche Clinique), and further supported by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, and the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Movement Sciences and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    K Melzer & B Kayser

  2. Department of Physiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Y Schutz

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospitals of Geneva, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    M Boulvain

Authors
  1. K Melzer
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  2. Y Schutz
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  3. M Boulvain
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  4. B Kayser
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to B Kayser.

Additional information

Contributors: All authors participated in the study design. KM performed the recruitment of the subjects, the data collection, the statistical analysis and drafted the paper. YS, MB and BK provided expert advice on data interpretation and drafting of the paper. All authors approved the final version.

Appendix

Appendix

Branched combined model using activity (acceleration (Acc)) and heart rate (HR) for activity energy expenditure (AEE) estimation.

SHR, individual sleeping heart rate measured overnight; HR–EE, heart rate–energy expenditure relationship derived from the individual step test calibration; βstep, slope; αstep, intercept; HRaS, individual heart rate above SHR; Acc–EE, acceleration–energy expenditure relationship derived from group calibration regression equations (Brage et al., 2007).

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Melzer, K., Schutz, Y., Boulvain, M. et al. Pregnancy-related changes in activity energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate in Switzerland. Eur J Clin Nutr 63, 1185–1191 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2009.49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2009.49

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