ABSTRACT

Studies of energy expenditure are valuable in understanding the cause of childhood obesity. Children and adolescents with overweight and obesity are at an increased risk of co-morbidities including type 2 diabetes, endocrine and orthopaedic disorders, and low health-related quality of life (Cumming and Riddoch, 2008). Dietary energy requirements and recommendations for youth are usually predicted from estimation of daily energy expenditure. Sport is probably one of the most relevant forms of physical activity in young people and the determination of the amount of energy that adolescents are expending in different contexts of sport participation is of interest to public health. The contribution of organized sport to daily physical activity and energy expenditure is not clear and may be culturally specific. Previous studies were performed in the US (Katzmarzyk and Malina, 1998; Wickel and Eisenmann, 2007) and considered attendees of a mid-Michigan junior high school and participants from youth basketball, soccer and flag football programmes sponsored by recreation departments. The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of participation in institutionalized and adult-supervised sports to estimated daily energy expenditure in female adolescents aged 12−16 years.