Energy requirements and energy expenditure of lean and overweight women, measured by indirect calorimetry

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Abstract
To estimate the energy requirement of lean and overweight women, 29 lean (body weight, 59 +/- 1 kg; means +/- SEM) and 18 overweight (94 +/- 5 kg) women consumed a weight-maintenance diet for 8 d. The final 80 h were spent in a whole-body indirect calorimeter. Actual metabolizable energy intake (ME) was measured by analyzing food, feces, and urine. Mean ME was 8.88 +/- 0.13 MJ/d (2123 +/- 30 kcal/d) (lean) and 10.12 +/- 0.29 MJ/d (2419 +/- 70 kcal/d) (overweight). Mean 24-h energy expenditure (24hEE) of the lean (8.58 +/- 0.13 MJ or 2052 +/- 32 kcal) was lower than that of the overweight (10.70 +/- 0.45 MJ or 2558 +/- 108 kcal; p less than 0.001) women. Energy balance was close to zero in both groups. Therefore, 24hEE was used as an estimation of energy requirement. Multiple-regression analysis showed body weight to be the best single predictor of 24hEE. Our data may be useful for prediction of energy requirements of women (aged 20–50 yr) in normal life.