Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of different measurement internals upon the resting metabolic rate (RMR). Subjects were 15 volunteers from the Adult Physical Fitness Program and the Ball State community. Each subject underwent two 30 minute RMR measurement trials within two days. The RMR from the 15 subjects was evaluated by different measurement internals: 1. the lowest value obtained during the collection period; 2. the average of the first 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes and 30 minutes; 3. the highest and lowest values were discarded and the remaining values were averaged. These measurement internals were evaluated within 3 different data sets: 1. all of the RMR data; 2. RMR data without the U02 outliers; 3. RMR data without the C02 outliers. Data were analyzed using an ANOUR procedure. This study found no significant interaction between the measurement internal and the measurement day within all of the data sets (p = .671, .591, .998 for all RMR data, without U02 and C02 outliers respectively). Similarly, the 3 data sets revealed no significance (p = .926, .661, .608 for all RMR data, without U02 and C02 outliers respectively) for the day effect upon RMR. However, a significant difference (p < 0.001) was found between the measurement internals for all data sets. The Scheffe post-hoc analysis identified the low measurement internal as being significantly (p < 0.05) lower than any of the other measurement internals. In addition, the data set which excluded the U02 outliers revealed 2 other significant comparisons. The average of the first 10 minutes was significantly higher than both the high/low and 30 minute measurement internals. In conclusion, this study indicated that the low and 10 minute measurement internals were significantly different from any other measurement internal evaluated. Therefore, the measurement internal should be a factor taken into consideration when the RMR results are compared between investigators.