Research

Energy balance

Self-reported dietary intake methods (Remote Food Photography Method) significantly underestimate energy intake compared to doubly labelled water (DLW) derived estimates, leading to an overestimation of the prevalence of Low Energy Availability (LEA) in female soccer players.

If you are a female soccer player or coach using food photography or logs to track energy availability, be aware that you are likely under-reporting intake by about 22%. This means you might think you have Low Energy Availability (a risk factor for injury and hormonal issues) when you actually don't. Do not make drastic dietary changes based solely on self-reported data without considering this potential under-reporting bias.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Data demonstrate the potential to significantly underestimate EI when using self-report methods. This approach can therefore cause a misrepresentation and an over-prevalence of LEA, which is the underlying aetiology of ‘relative energy deficiency in sport’ (REDs).
Samuel J. McHaffie et al. · Experimental Physiology · 2024

Why this rating

High-quality objective measurement (DLW) used as a gold standard against a common field method, with a large sample size (n=45) for this specific demographic.

Source

Energy expenditure, intake and availability in female soccer players via doubly labelled water: Are we misrepresenting low energy availability?

Samuel J. McHaffie et al. · Experimental Physiology · 2024

DOI 10.1113/ep091589

cross_sectional · n=45Cited 8×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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