Fig. 9

Exploratory assessment of the time course of RMR during 20-week contest preparation with accompanying mean average (mean ± SEM; 95% CI) comparison between the BC and MBC on a) RMR expressed in kcal·d^− 1 and b) RMR expressed in kcal·kgLBM^− 1·d^− 1. The BC had a higher mean RMR rate in both analyses. The traditional expression (BC: 1557 ± 39.92; 95% CI: 1454–1660 kcal⋅d^− 1 vs MBC: 1416 ± 28.25; 95% CI: 1343–1489 kcal⋅d^− 1) and RMR normalized to kg LBM (BC: 39.66 ± .52; 95% CI: 38.32–41.00 kcal·kgLBM^− 1·d^− 1 vs MBC: 37.80 ± .34; 95% CI: 36.92–38.67 kcal·kgLBM^− 1·d^− 1). The red dashed line denotes the competition