Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Short Communication
  • Published:

Body Composition Highlights Short Communication

Perceived energy compensation following various sports: an age and sex comparison. Preliminary observations

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 1344–1345 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Following periods of physical activity, it is not uncommon for exercisers to increase their energy intake as a reward deemed ‘earned’. Consumers’ awareness of the energy within food and expended from exercise has previously been found to be limited. Therefore, the aim was to investigate whether habitual exercisers (50 adults and 49 children from 5 sports clubs) were able to conceptualise the energy expenditure (EE), following 1 h of their regular sports training, into a quantifiable amount of perceived energy compensation (PEC) in the form of food (chocolate) or drink (sports drink). Mean percentage accuracy for the PEC against EE matched <30% (±29%), a significant underestimation irrespective of sex or sport. Percentage accuracy failed to significantly correlate to age. These findings indicate a necessity to improve nutrition education surrounding the energy costs of exercise relative to the energy contained within foods/drinks for both adults and children.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Department of Health. Dietary reference values for food energy and nutrient for the United Kingdom: report of the panel on dietary reference values 1991, Report on Health and Social Subjects No 41, DH: HMSO.

  2. Finlayson G, Caudwell P, Gibbons C, Hopkins M, King N, Blundell J . Low fat loss response after medium-term supervised exercise in obese is associated with exercise-induced increase in food reward. J Obes 2011; pii Article ID 615624.10.1155/2011/615624.

  3. Dohle S, Wansink B, Zehnder L . Exercise and food compensation: exploring diet-related beliefs and behaviors of regular exercisers. J Phys Act Health 2014; 12: 322–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Ainsworth BE, Haskell WL, Herrmann SD, Meckes N, Bassett DR, Tudor-Locke C et al. 2011 Compendium of physical activities: a second update of codes and MET values. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2011; 43: 1575–1581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ridley K, Ainsworth BE, Olds TS . Development of a compendium of energy expenditures for youth. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 2008; 5: 45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

JLV-C’s work has been funded by a project grant from Kellogg’s Ltd.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre, Sport and Health Sciences, St Luke’s Campus, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

    J L Varley-Campbell, R E Ewen & C A Williams

  2. School of Health Professions, Plymouth University, Plymouth, Devon, UK

    M S Moore

Authors
  1. J L Varley-Campbell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M S Moore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. R E Ewen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. C A Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C A Williams.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

DISCLAIMER

The results of the study do not constitute endorsement of Kellogg’s Ltd.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Varley-Campbell, J., Moore, M., Ewen, R. et al. Perceived energy compensation following various sports: an age and sex comparison. Preliminary observations. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 1344–1345 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.108

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.108

Search

Advanced search

Quick links