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The magnitude of the energy imbalance in obesity is generally underestimated

International Journal of Obesity volume 32, pages 879–880 (2008)Cite this article

As the efforts to defeat the obesity epidemic amplify around the world, it is important to understand the true magnitude of the energy imbalance associated with excess weight. The energy imbalance in a weight gain situation is the difference between the number of calories ingested and the total caloric expenditure on the same day. In this regard, it would be useful to quantify the size of the energy imbalance in a number of states such as in early and late weight gain. However, there is another dimension to the topic that has begun to receive some attention, and it is an issue of the utmost importance. It has to do with the so-called ‘energy gap.’ The energy gap is defined as the difference in the amount of calories consumed or expended between normal weight individuals and persons at various levels of excess weight but when weight stability is present.

Estimating the energy gap under weight stability conditions requires that a few key principles be taken into account. First, not all the excess calories consumed are recovered as energy stored in the body. The issue is still a matter of debate and is influenced by a number of factors that will not be discussed here, but a conversion fraction of 65% is often used. In our own relatively long-term overfeeding experiment, we calculated that 64% of the excess calories consumed over 100 days were, on average, recovered as body energy gain.1 However, the increase in body substance decreased as a function of the duration of the exposure to positive energy balance conditions. Thus, using a fraction of 65% may be convenient but will likely lead to underestimates of the true energy gap in obesity.

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  1. Human Genomics Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    C Bouchard

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  1. C Bouchard
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Correspondence to C Bouchard.

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Bouchard, C. The magnitude of the energy imbalance in obesity is generally underestimated. Int J Obes 32, 879–880 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803796

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