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Energy expenditure—body size associations: molecular coordination

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 72, pages 1314–1319 (2018)Cite this article

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What do the following three equations for predicting resting energy expenditure (REE, kcal/d) in adult women have in common?

$${\rm{REE}} = 72.4 \times {\rm{Body}}\,{\rm{Mass}}\,\left( {\rm{kg}} \right)^{0.73}$$
(1)
$${\rm{REE}} = 9.6 \times {\rm{Body}}\,{\rm{Mass}}\left( {\rm{kg}} \right) + 1.85 \times {\rm{Height}}\left( {\rm{cm}} \right) - 4.7 \times {\rm{Age}}\left( {\rm{yrs}} \right) + 655$$
(2)
$${\rm{REE}} = 16.2 \times {\rm{Fat}}-{\rm{Free}}\,{\rm{Mass}}\left( {\rm{kg}} \right) + 8.0 \times {\rm{Fat}}\,{\rm{Mass}}\left( {\rm {kg}} \right) - 4.7 \times {\rm{Age}}\left( {\rm{yrs}} \right) + 714$$
(3)

The answer is that all three [1,2,3] reveal a predictable empirical association between REE and body size. Why and how is body size related to a person’s heat production at rest? At one level the answer to this question is obvious: people who are large have more heat-producing cells and tissues than do people who are small. But at a deeper level the answer is much more complex and brings to light an unforeseen connection between the fields of clinical nutrition, evolutionary biology, and developmental biology.

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Acknowledgements

SBH acknowledges Melanie Peterson for her support in preparing this manuscript and Drs. Anja Bosy-Westphal and Manfred J. Muller for their generous data support used in this review.

Funding

This work was partially supported by two National Institutes of Health NORC Center Grants P30DK072476, Pennington/Louisiana; and P30DK040561, Harvard; and R01DK109008, Shape UP! Adults.

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SBH drafted the manuscript and edited the manuscript for intellectual content.

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  1. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Steven B. Heymsfield

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Correspondence to Steven B. Heymsfield.

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The author is on the Medical Advisory Boards of Tanita and Medifast Corporations.

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Heymsfield, S.B. Energy expenditure—body size associations: molecular coordination. Eur J Clin Nutr 72, 1314–1319 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0214-y

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