Validation of Energy Expenditure Measures Study

NCT ID: NCT07155564

Last Updated: 2026-01-06

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Total Enrollment

34 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-08-26

Study Completion Date

2029-01-31

Brief Summary

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The energy that the human body burns and the amount of food consumed determine a person's body weight. If food intake covers the amount of energy burned, body weight remains constant - a state known as energy balance. Achieving an energy balance is not easy in everyday life. This is reflected in the increasing number of people suffering from morbid obesity. To counteract this development, it is important to have a better understanding of how much food a person should eat.

In this study, the investigators will investigate the amount of food needed to meet a person's energy needs and bring them into energy balance.

Primary aims of the study are i) to technically and biologically validate two whole-room indirect calorimeters (WRICs) and ii) by using whole-room indirect calorimetry, to achieve a more accurate estimate of a person's emergy balance compared to common approximation formulas.

Secondary study aims:

1. To investigate whether the transfer of a person into energy balance using WRIC has an influence on energy expenditure measures compared to the transfer into energy balance using the usual approximation formula.
2. To investigate whether the transfer of a person into energy balance using WRIC has an influence on activity-dependent energy expenditure measures compared to the transfer into energy balance using the usual approximation formula.
3. To investigate whether differences in energy expenditure during energy balance during moderate and strenuous physical activity influence food intake.
4. To investigate whether energy intake in relation to energy expenditure during energy balance is related to weight development

Detailed Description

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Technical Validation: Eight 24-hour methanol burns within each of the two WRICs will be conducted for technical validation.

Biological Validation and Energy Balance Component:

After providing informed consent and meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria, study participants will follow a weight-maintaining diet before their first 24-hour stay in a WRIC (Day 4). During this stay, energy expenditure will be measured under conditions of estimated energy balance. As a measure of energy expnediture relative to energy intake, energy balance will be estimated based on resting energy expenditure, an estimated physical activity level, and an approximation formula applied during the screening procedure.

A second 24-hour stay in the WRIC (Day 6), also under conditions of estimated energy balance, will serve for biological validation. After following the weight-maintaining diet for three additional days, a third 24-hour WRIC stay (Day 10) will assess the achievement of near-perfect energy balance. On the day following this stay (Day 11), participants will have access to a buffet and will be allowed to eat ad libitum.

Subsequently, a 3-day run-in period under weight-maintenance conditions will precede reassessment of 24-hour energy expenditure during increased physical activity in the WRIC (Days 15 and 17). Energy expenditure during energy balance will again be compared to ad libitum food intake at a buffet (Day 18).

Follow-up weight measurements will be conducted one year after study completion to evaluate the influence of achieving near-perfect energy balance-or deviations from it-on weight change. Additionally, fasting blood samples will be collected before and after each WRIC stay, as well as before and after ad libitum food intake, to measure hormones related to appetite control and satiety.

N = 34 subjects are required to detect a statistically significant difference in energy balance after measuring energy expenditure using a WRIC. However, interim analysis after n = 8 subjects will be conducted to adjust needed sample size to variability as detected using here implied methods of indirect calorimetry.

The statistical evaluation with regard to i) technical validation, ii) biological validation, and iii) testing the achievability of an energy balance and its effect on energy consumption are carried out using parametric and non-parametric tests. Data are given as mean value with standard deviation. The significance level is P \< 0.05.

Conditions

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Obesity Prevention Healthy

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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Healthy

Healthy subjects of both sexes meeting inclusion criteria.

No interventions assigned to this group

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Abilty to provide informed consent
* Written declaration of consent
* Healthy study participants
* Able to perform moderate physical exercise using a bike ergometer
* Women: continuous contraception/fullicular phase of menstrual cycle

Exclusion Criteria

* Weight change \> 5 kg or 5% of body weight in the last 3 months
* Nicotine abuse, Alcohol/drug abuse
* Strenuous physical activity in everyday life \> 1 h per day
* Body mass index \< 18.5 kg/m² or ≥ 40 kg/m²
* Chronic diseases with an impact on energy expenditure
* Food allergy/intolerance, vegan diet
* Circumstances that speak against the application of wearable accelerometers (e.g. silicone contact allergy)
* Impaired fasting glucose, diabetes mellitus and prediabetes
* Pregnancy/breastfeeding
* Claustrophobia
* Refusal to communicate incidental findings
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

40 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Helmholtz Center Munich

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of Pisa

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of Leipzig

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Sascha Heinitz

Physician

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Sascha Heinitz, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Leipzig

Locations

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Department of Internal Medicine, Clinic for Endocrinology, Nephrology and Rheumatology, University of Leipzig

Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Germany

Central Contacts

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Sascha Heinitz, MD

Role: CONTACT

+49 341 97 13389

Haiko Schlögl, MD

Role: CONTACT

+49 341 97 13389

Facility Contacts

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Sascha Heinitz, MD

Role: primary

+49 341 9713389

Haiko Schlögl, MD

Role: backup

+49 341 9713389

References

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Stinson EJ, Rodzevik T, Krakoff J, Piaggi P, Chang DC. Energy expenditure measurements are reproducible in different whole-room indirect calorimeters in humans. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2022 Sep;30(9):1766-1777. doi: 10.1002/oby.23476. Epub 2022 Aug 3.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 35920141 (View on PubMed)

Piaggi P, Krakoff J, Bogardus C, Thearle MS. Lower "awake and fed thermogenesis" predicts future weight gain in subjects with abdominal adiposity. Diabetes. 2013 Dec;62(12):4043-51. doi: 10.2337/db13-0785. Epub 2013 Aug 23.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 23974925 (View on PubMed)

Weyer C, Snitker S, Rising R, Bogardus C, Ravussin E. Determinants of energy expenditure and fuel utilization in man: effects of body composition, age, sex, ethnicity and glucose tolerance in 916 subjects. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 1999 Jul;23(7):715-22. doi: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0800910.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 10454105 (View on PubMed)

Hollstein T, Ando T, Basolo A, Krakoff J, Votruba SB, Piaggi P. Metabolic response to fasting predicts weight gain during low-protein overfeeding in lean men: further evidence for spendthrift and thrifty metabolic phenotypes. Am J Clin Nutr. 2019 Sep 1;110(3):593-604. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqz062.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 31172178 (View on PubMed)

Reinhardt M, Thearle MS, Ibrahim M, Hohenadel MG, Bogardus C, Krakoff J, Votruba SB. A Human Thrifty Phenotype Associated With Less Weight Loss During Caloric Restriction. Diabetes. 2015 Aug;64(8):2859-67. doi: 10.2337/db14-1881. Epub 2015 May 11.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25964395 (View on PubMed)

Heinitz S, Hollstein T, Ando T, Walter M, Basolo A, Krakoff J, Votruba SB, Piaggi P. Early adaptive thermogenesis is a determinant of weight loss after six weeks of caloric restriction in overweight subjects. Metabolism. 2020 Sep;110:154303. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2020.154303. Epub 2020 Jun 27.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 32599082 (View on PubMed)

Ravussin E, Lillioja S, Anderson TE, Christin L, Bogardus C. Determinants of 24-hour energy expenditure in man. Methods and results using a respiratory chamber. J Clin Invest. 1986 Dec;78(6):1568-78. doi: 10.1172/JCI112749.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 3782471 (View on PubMed)

Venti CA, Votruba SB, Franks PW, Krakoff J, Salbe AD. Reproducibility of ad libitum energy intake with the use of a computerized vending machine system. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Feb;91(2):343-8. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28315. Epub 2009 Nov 18.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 19923376 (View on PubMed)

Weise CM, Hohenadel MG, Krakoff J, Votruba SB. Body composition and energy expenditure predict ad-libitum food and macronutrient intake in humans. Int J Obes (Lond). 2014 Feb;38(2):243-51. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2013.85. Epub 2013 May 23.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 23736368 (View on PubMed)

Basolo A, Votruba SB, Heinitz S, Krakoff J, Piaggi P. Deviations in energy sensing predict long-term weight change in overweight Native Americans. Metabolism. 2018 May;82:65-71. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2017.12.013. Epub 2018 Jan 3.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29305947 (View on PubMed)

Hall KD, Heymsfield SB, Kemnitz JW, Klein S, Schoeller DA, Speakman JR. Energy balance and its components: implications for body weight regulation. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Apr;95(4):989-94. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.036350. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 22434603 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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121-24/ek

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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