Relation Between B.M.R. and S.D.A. of Proteins

Abstract

The specific dynamic action of proteins and certain amino acids has been reported to be greater than normal in conditions where a reduced basal metabolic rate prevails, viz., in undernutrition 1 and fasting. 2 On the basis of data obtained in routine class experiments on unselected subjects, this same inverse relationship between specific dynamic action and basal metabolic rate seems to apply to persons in a presumably normal nutritional state. The subjects were 13 male and 9 female university students selected at random from a class of 40. They came to the laboratory in the early morning in a post-absorptive state and underwent the following routine:

Table I gives the oxygen consumption before the protein meal and at 30, 60, and 90 minutes after. The subjects are listed in order of their relative basal rates. A comparison of the greatest percent of increase recorded at any test period with the basal rates reveals a consistently high negative relationship between the S.D.A.'s and B.M.R.'s. We have made rank-order comparisons of the data in Table I and find that for the male subjects the correlation between high B.M.R. and low S.D.A. is +.92. For the female sub jects the correlation is +.80, and for the entire unselected group, +86.