Introduction:

karate is a millennial martial art, currently inserted in the context of Olympic Combat Sports. However, important scientific gaps still persist in monitoring high-performance athletes, including the basal metabolism measurement of female karate athletes.

Aim:

to contribute to understanding the applicability of equations for predicting basal metabolic rate in this population.

Methods:

this is a cross-sectional study with a retro-analytical component, in which data were obtained from the medical records of seven athletes participating in the project "Karate São Paulo Olímpico" (São Paulo Olympic Karate) (KSPO) during their nutrition counseling, including body composition and indirect calorimetry testing, with the aim of comparing these data to basal metabolic rate prediction equations.

Results:

only one out of the five evaluated equations did not have a significant statistical difference relative to the value obtained by open-circuit indirect calorimetry.

Conclusion:

in case basal metabolism cannot be measured through standard methodology (calorimetry), Cunningham's prediction equation (1980) would be appropriate to obtain total energy expenditure for high-performance female karate athletes.

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