Br J Nutr. 1986 Jul;56(1):1-9. Related Articles, Links
Deliberate overfeeding in women and men: energy cost and composition of the weight gain.
Forbes GB, Brown MR, Welle SL, Lipinski BA.
Department of Radiation Biology and Biophysics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York 14642.
1. Thirteen adult females and two males were overfed a total of 79-159 MJ (19,000-38,000 kcal) during a 3-week period at the Clinical Research Center, Rochester. The average energy cost of the weight gain was 28 kJ (6.7 kcal)/g, and about half the gain consisted of lean body mass (LBM) as estimated by 40K counting. 2. A survey of the literature disclosed twenty-eight normal males and five females who had been overfed a total of 104-362 MJ (25,000-87,000 kcal) under controlled conditions: twenty-five of these had assays of body composition, and three had complete nitrogen balances. 3. When these values were combined with those from our subjects (total forty-eight), there was a significant correlation between weight gain and total excess energy consumed (r 0.77, P less than 0.01) and between LBM gain and excess energy (r 0.49, P less than 0.01). Based on means the energy cost was 33.7 kJ (8.05 kcal)/g gain and 43.6% of the gain was LBM; from regression analysis these values were 33.7 kJ (8.05 kcal)/g gain and 38.4% of gain as LBM. 4. Individual variations in the response could not be explained on the basis of coïtus, initial body-weight or fat content, duration of overfeeding, type of food eaten, amount of daily food consumption or, in a subset of subjects, on smoking behaviour. 5. The average energy cost of the weight gain was close to the theoretical value of 33.8 kJ (8.08 kcal)/g derived from the composition of the tissue gained