Research

Energy balance

In older patients with diabetes mellitus, energy intake between 25 and 35 kcal/kg of body weight per day is associated with the lowest all-cause mortality, forming a U-shaped relationship where both lower and higher intakes increase mortality risk.

Older adults with diabetes should aim for an energy intake of 25 to 35 kcal per kilogram of body weight per day. This range is associated with the lowest risk of death. Both eating significantly less than this (leading to potential malnutrition/sarcopenia) and significantly more (excessive nutrition) increases mortality risk. This optimal range may be higher than what is traditionally calculated using standard body weight formulas.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
A U-shaped relationship was observed between energy intake per BW and mortality in older patients with diabetes mellitus, which suggests that the optimal energy intake per actual or target BW should encompass a wide range to prevent malnutrition and excessive nutrition in these patients.
Takuya Omura et al. · Geriatrics and gerontology international/Geriatrics & gerontology international · 2019

Why this rating

Prospective cohort study with 6-year follow-up and robust multivariate adjustment, but observational design prevents causal inference.

Source

Assessing the association between optimal energy intake and all‐cause mortality in older patients with diabetes mellitus using the Japanese Elderly Diabetes Intervention Trial

Takuya Omura et al. · Geriatrics and gerontology international/Geriatrics & gerontology international · 2019

DOI 10.1111/ggi.13820

cohort · n=756Cited 33×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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