Validated caloric expenditure estimation using a single body-worn sensor

Abstract

In 2007, approximately 30% of US adults were obese, with related health care costs exceeding 100 billion dollars. Clearly, the obesity epidemic represents a growing societal concern. One challenge in weight control is the difficulty of tracking food calories consumed and calories expended by activity. This paper presents a system for automatic monitoring of calories expended using a single body-worn accelerometer. Our system uses activity inference combined with signal analysis to estimate calories expended in real-time using regression formulas developed by the American College of Sports Medicine. To validate our system, we have collected data from 51 subjects in a laboratory setting using a treadmill and a more natural field test. Actual caloric expenditure was determined using the medical "gold standard" measurement, of oxygen consumption. We are able to achieve 89% accuracy with lab data and 79% with field data -- both high enough to be useful in practice.