Further Experiments on the Relation of Fat to Economy of Food Utilization

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Abstract
Fluctuations in the curves of heat production for the 24-hour day for albino rats receiving equicaloric diets containing either 2 or 30% fat have been studied, using 12 rats on each diet. The heat production was measured by the carbon-nitrogen balance procedure at intervals of three hours each. Characteristic differences in the curves of heat production for the two diets were observed. The influence of activity at different times of the day is clearly evident, as is the difference in dynamic effect of the diets. Although fluctuations in metabolism were great among three-hour periods, the total heat for the day compared favorably with earlier results. A further study was also made of the dynamic effect of the diets to determine whether activity had been a serious factor in these measurements. By choosing a time of day in which to make these determinations least likely to support previous contentions as judged by the curve of total heat production, it was found that the high fat diet resulted in a much lower heat increment than the low fat diet, again confirming earlier findings.