Energy requirements in patients with chronic kidney disease

Knowledge concerning energy requirements of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is important to providing a sufficient amount of energy to maintain adequate nutritional status for these patients. Data regarding energy expenditures of CKD patients are still scarce, and the results obtained are conflicting, with studies showing energy expenditures to be similar, higher, or lower than those of healthy individuals. More recently, studies focusing the role of the comorbidities and of the dialysis procedure on energy expenditure have been carried out, opening a new field of discussion that may help to clarify the profile of the energy expenditure of CKD patients. Another point of interest is related to the evaluation of energy intake. It has been shown that energy intake of CKD patients is lower than the 30 to 35 kcal/kg/day usually recommended. Although anorexia and consequently reduction of food intake is often present in these patients, a degree of underreporting in energy intake cannot be excluded. This review provides an overview of the studies that evaluated energy expenditures as well as those that studied the energy intakes and energy requirements of patients with CKD.