Abstract
Objective: To investigate the effect of a breakfast meal on bioelectrical impedance (BI).
Design: Three separate interventions.
Setting: A university based study.
Subjects: Young, healthy volunteers recruited from staff. Twenty-nine subjects (11 men, 18 women), ten subjects (two men and eight women) and 13 subjects (2 men and 11 women) completed the first, second and third protocol, respectively.
Interventions: Total body BI (protocol 1) or both total body BI and segmental BI (namely arm, leg or torso BI); (protocol 3) was measured in the fasting state and for up to 5 h after the consumption of a breakfast meal containing 28% energy from fat. In the second protocol, total body BI was measured in the same way on two occasions after subjects consumed isocaloric meals containing either 28% energy or 4% energy from fat.
Results: Consumption of a 2300 kJ meal was followed by a significant (P=0.0002) decrease in BI (95% confidence intervals 12.5 and 35.3), a change which occurred 2 h after the meal and continued until 5 h, irrespective of meal fat content. The fall in total body BI was accounted for primarily by a fall in the BI of the limbs, with virtually no contribution from the torso.
Conclusion: To ensure consistency in the interpretation of BI for body composition analysis, it is important that measurements are made in the fasting state.
Sponsorship: MRG received a Deakin University Postgraduate Award.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gallagher, M., Walker, K. & O'Dea, K. The influence of a breakfast meal on the assessment of body composition using bioelectrical impedance. Eur J Clin Nutr 52, 94–97 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600520
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1600520
- Springer Nature Limited
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Prognostic role of body composition in peritoneal carcinomatosis patients undergoing cytoreduction and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy
World Journal of Surgical Oncology (2023)
-
Having breakfast has no clinically relevant effect on bioelectrical impedance measurements in healthy adults
Nutrition Journal (2023)
-
Influence of subject presentation on interpretation of body composition change after 6 months of self-selected training and diet in athletic males
European Journal of Applied Physiology (2018)
-
Effect of birth weight and weight change during the first 96 h of life on childhood body composition—path analysis
International Journal of Obesity (2015)
-
Methodologies to assess paediatric adiposity
Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971 -) (2015)