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Self-reported dietary intake in obese women significantly underestimates actual energy expenditure, whereas lean women's self-reports are accurate.
Do not trust your own estimate of how much you eat if you are obese. This study shows obese women under-report their intake by nearly 850 calories per day compared to lean women, whose reports are accurate. To manage weight, rely on objective tracking methods or professional assessment rather than self-estimation.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Self recorded energy intakes were accurate in the lean subjects but underestimated expenditure by 3-5 MJ/day (837 kcal/day) in the obese group.
Why this rating
Validated by doubly labelled water method against weighed food records.
Source
High levels of energy expenditure in obese women.
Ann Prentice et al. · BMJ · 1986
DOI 10.1136/bmj.292.6526.983
cohort · n=22Cited 583×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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