STANDARDS FOR PREDICTING BASAL METABOLISM IN THE IMMEDIATE PRE-ADULT YEARS

Abstract

Basal metabolism tests on 62 healthy high school and university boys aged 17-21 (Wisconsin) supplementing a previous study of girls of the same ages show the sex difference in heat-production to be 13% in cal. sq. m./hr., instead of the 7% assumed in the DuBois standards, for which discrepancy a possible psychic differential of general applicability is cited. The Harris-Benedict adult standard extrapolated for these ages predicts somewhat more successfully for both sexes than the Aub-DuBois or the Dreyer. In comparison, Benedict''s special prediction for girls of 12-20 affords an outstandingly poor fit for the 216 girls of 17-20 included in this and the previous Wisconsin study. This is the only one of the standards which gives heat-production as a simple function of the body wt. It should be abandoned as a prediction basis to avoid grave misconceptions in cases oi atypical body build.