Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:18:48.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is resting metabolic rate different between men and women?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Andrea C. Buchholz ,
M. Rafii  and
P. B. Pencharz
Andrea C. Buchholz
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences and Paediatrics, University of Toronto and the Research Institute, The Hosipital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X8, Canada
M. Rafii
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences and Paediatrics, University of Toronto and the Research Institute, The Hosipital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X8, Canada
P. B. Pencharz*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutritional Sciences and Paediatrics, University of Toronto and the Research Institute, The Hosipital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X8, Canada
*
*Corresponding author: Dr Paul B. Pencharz, fax +1 416 813 4972, email paul.pencharz@sickkids.on.ca
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A low resting metabolic rate (RMR) has been proposed as a possible cause for the increased body fat commonly seen in women compared with men. Absolute RMR is higher in men, but whether RMR adjusted for lean body mass (LBM) remains higher is unresolved. The objective of the present study was to determine whether RMR adjusted for various body composition factors differed between healthy adult men and women. Thirty men (28·3±8·0 years, BMI 23·7±2·1 kg/m2) and twenty-eight women (28·7±6·9 years, BMI 22·2±1·9 kg/m2) were included in the analyses. RMR was measured by open-circuit indirect calorimetry for 60 min. Extracellular water (ECW) was measured by corrected Br- space and total body water (TBW) by 2H dilution. LBM was estimated as TBW/0·732. Intracellular water (ICW) was calculated as TBW-ECW, and body cell mass (BCM) as ICW/0·732. Men were heavier and had higher BMI, LBM, BCM and ECW, but less fat mass. Absolute RMR was higher in men than women (7280±844 v. 5485±537 kJ/d, P<0·0001). This difference became non-significant when RMR was adjusted for LBM by ANCOVA (6536±630 v. 6282±641 kJ/d, P=0·2191), but remained significant when adjusted for BCM (6680±744 v. 6128±756 kJ/d, P=0·0249). Fat mass explained a significant amount of variation in RMR in women (r2 0·28, P=0·0038), but not in men (r2 0·03, P=0·3301). The relationships between body fat and the various subcompartments of BCM and RMR require further elucidation.

Keywords

Resting metabolic rateBody compositionLean body massFat mass
Type
Short communication
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 86 , Issue 6 , December 2001 , pp. 641 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2001

References

Referenses

Arciero, PJ, Goran, MI & Poehlman, ET (1993) Resting metabolic rate is lower in women than in men. Journal of Applied Physiology 75, 2514–2520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogardus, C, Lillioja, S, Ravussin, E, Abbott, W, Zawadzki, JK, Young, A, Knowler, WC, Jacobowitz, R & Moll, PP (1986) Familial dependence of the resting metabolic rate. New England Journal of Medicine 315, 96–100.Google Scholar
Cunningham, JJ (1980) A reanalysis of the factors influencing basal metabolic rate in normal adults. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 33, 2372–2374.Google Scholar
Diffey, B, Piers, LS, Soares, MJ & O'Dea, K (1997) The effect of oral contraceptive agents on the basal metabolic rate of young women. British Journal of Nutrition 77, 853–862.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dionne, I, Despres, J, Bouchard, C & Tremblay, A (1999) Gender difference in the effect of body composition on energy metabolism. International Journal of Obesity 23, 312–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferraro, R, Lillioja, S, Fontvieille, A, Rising, R, Bogardus, C & Ravussin, E (1992) Lower sedentary metabolic rate in women compared with men. Journal of Clinical Investigation 90, 780–784.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foster, GD, Wadden, TA & Vogt, RA (1997) Resting energy expenditure in obese African American and Caucasian women. Obesity Research 5, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fukagawa, NK, Bandini, LG & Young, JB (1990) Effect of age on body composition and resting metabolic rate. American Journal of Physiology 259, E233–E238.Google ScholarPubMed
Gallagher, D, Visser, M, Wang, Z, Harris, T, Pierson, RN & Heymsfield, SB (1996) Metabolically active component of fat-free body mass: Influences of age, adiposity and gender. Metabolism 45, 992–997.Google Scholar
Garby, L, Garrow, JS, Jorgensen, B, Lammert, O, Madsen, K, Sorensen, P & Webster, J (1988) Relation between energy expenditure and body composition in man: specific energy expenditure in vivo of fat and fat-free tissue. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 42, 301–305.Google Scholar
Goran, MK, Kaskoun, M & Johnson, R (1994) Determinants of resting energy expenditure in young children. Journal of Pediatrics 125, 362–367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heymsfield, SB, Wang, Z, Baumgartner, RN & Ross, R (1997) Human body composition: Advances in models and methods. Annual Review of Nutrition 17, 527–558.Google Scholar
Jensen, MD, Braun, JS, Vetter, RJ & Marsh, HM (1988) Measurement of body potassium with a whole-body counter: Relationship between lean body mass and resting energy expenditure. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 63, 864–868.Google Scholar
Jervis, RE, Hancock, RGV, Hill, DE & Isles, K (1977) Biomedical and health studies with the new Canadian Slowpoke nuclear reactor. Journal of Radioanalytical Chemistry 37, 463–471.Google Scholar
Klausen, B, Toubro, S & Astrup, A (1997) Age and sex effects on energy expenditure. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 65, 895–907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, ET, Tsang, LB & Lui, SS (1999) Resting metabolic rate and thermic effects of a sucrose-sweetened soft drink during the menstrual cycle in young Chinese women. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 77, 544–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCrory, MA, Kim, H-R, Wright, NC, Lovelady, CA, Aitkens, S & Kilmer, DD (1998) Energy expenditure, physical activity, and body composition of ambulatory adults with hereditary neuromuscular disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 67, 1162–1169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meijer, GA, Westerterp, KR, Saris, WH & ten Hoor, F (1992) Sleeping metabolic rate in relation to body composition and the menstrual cycle. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 55, 637–640.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mifflin, MD, St Jeor, ST, Hill, LA, Scott, BJ, Daugherty, SA & Koh, YO (1990) A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure in healthy individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 51, 241–247.Google Scholar
Molnar, D & Schutz, Y (1997) The effect of obesity, age, puberty and gender on resting metabolic rate in children and adolescents. European Journal of Paediatrics 156, 376–381.Google Scholar
Moore, FD (1980) Energy and the maintenance of the body cell mass. Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 4, 228–260.Google Scholar
National Institutes of Health (1998) Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults: The Evidence Report. NIH publication 98-4083. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.Google Scholar
Nelsen, KM, Weinsier, RL, Long, CL & Schutz, Y (1992) Prediction of resting energy expenditure from fat-free mass and fat mass. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 56, 848–856.Google Scholar
Owen, OE (1988) Resting metabolic requirements of men and women. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 63, 503–510.Google Scholar
Pace, N & Rathbun, EN (1945) Studies on body composition III: The body water and chemically combined nitrogen content in relation to fat content. Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, 685–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paolisso, G, Gambardella, A, Balbi, V, Ammendola, S, D'Amore, A & Varricchio, M (1995) Body composition, body fat distribution, and resting metabolic rate in healthy centenarians. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 62, 746–750.Google Scholar
Piers, LS, Diffey, B, Soares, MJ, Frandsen, SL, McCormack, LM, Lutschini, MJ & O'Dea, K (1997) The validity of predicting the basal metabolic rate of young Australian men and women. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 51, 333–337.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piers, LS, Diggavi, SN, Rijskamp, J, van Raaij, JM, Shetty, PS & Hautvast, JG (1995) Resting metabolic rate and thermic effect of a meal in the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle in well-nourished Indian women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61, 296–302.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poehlman, ET, Toth, MJ, Ades, PA & Calles-Escandon, J (1997) Gender differences in resting metabolic rate and noradrenaline kinetics in older individuals. European Journal of Clinical Investigation 27, 23–28.Google Scholar
Ravussin, E, Lillioja, S, Fontvieille, AM, Rising, R & Bogardus, C (1986) Determinants of 24-hour energy expenditure in man: Methods and results using a respiratory chamber. Journal of Clinical Investigation 78, 1568–1578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ravussin, E, Lillioja, S, Knowler, WC, Christin, L, Freymond, D, Abbott, WG, Boyce, V, Howard, BV & Bogardus, C (1988) Reduced rate of energy expenditure as a risk factor for body-weight gain. New England Journal of Medicine 318, 467–472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schoeller, DA, Van Santen, E, Peterson, DW, Dietz, W, Jaspen, J & Klein, PD (1980) Total body water measurements in humans with 18O and 2H labeled water. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 33, 2686–2693.Google Scholar
Schofield, WN (1985) Predicting basal metabolic rate, new standards and review of previous work. Human Nutrition: Clinical Nutrition 39C, Suppl. 1, 5–41.Google Scholar
Scrimgeour, CM, Rollo, MM, Mudambo, SMKT, Handley, LL & Prosser, SJ (1993) A simplified method for deuterium/hydrogen isotope ratio measurements on water samples of biological origin. Biological Mass Spectrometry 22, 383–387.Google Scholar
Solomon, SJ, Kurzer, MS & Calloway, DH (1982) Menstrual cycle and basal metabolic rate in women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 36, 611–616.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaisman, N, Pencharz, P, Koren, G & Johnson, J (1987) Comparison of oral and intravenous administration of sodium bromide for extracellular water measurements. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 46, 1–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Z, Heshka, S, Gallagher, D, Boozer, CN, Kotler, DP & Heymsfield, SB (2000) Resting energy expenditure–fat-free mass relationship: New insights provided by body composition modeling. American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism 279, E539–E545.Google Scholar
Weinsier, RL, Schutz, Y & Bracco, D (1992) Reexamination of the relationship of resting metabolic rate to fat-free mass and to the metabolically active components of fat-free mass in humans. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 55, 790–794.Google Scholar
Welle, S & Nair, KS (1990) Relationship of resting metabolic rate to body composition and protein turnover. American Journal of Physiology 258, E990–E998.Google ScholarPubMed
Weyer, C, Snitker, S, Rising, R, Bogardus, C & Ravussin, E (1999) Determinants of energy expenditure and fuel utilization in man: Effects of body composition, age, sex, ethnicity and glucose tolerance in 916 subjects. International Journal of Obesity 23, 715–722.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (2000) Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic. Report of a WHO Consultation. WHO technical report series 894. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar