Energy compensation and adiposity in humans

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Doubly Labeled Water (DLW) Database Consortium, Carlijn V.C. Bouten

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Abstract

Understanding the impacts of activity on energy balance is crucial. Increasing levels of activity may bring diminishing returns in energy expenditure because of compensatory responses in non-activity energy expenditures.1-3 This suggestion has profound implications for both the evolution of metabolism and human health. It implies that a long-term increase in activity does not directly translate into an increase in total energy expenditure (TEE) because other components of TEE may decrease in response-energy compensation. We used the largest dataset compiled on adult TEE and basal energy expenditure (BEE) (n = 1,754) of people living normal lives to find that energy compensation by a typical human averages 28% due to reduced BEE; this suggests that only 72% of the extra calories we burn from additional activity translates into extra calories burned that day. Moreover, the degree of energy compensation varied considerably between people of different body compositions. This association between compensation and adiposity could be due to among-individual differences in compensation: people who compensate more may be more likely to accumulate body fat. Alternatively, the process might occur within individuals: as we get fatter, our body might compensate more strongly for the calories burned during activity, making losing fat progressively more difficult. Determining the causality of the relationship between energy compensation and adiposity will be key to improving public health strategies regarding obesity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4659-4666.e2
JournalCurrent Biology
Volume31
Issue number20
Early online date26 Aug 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Funding

The DLW database, which can be found at https://doubly-labelled-water-database.iaea.org/home, is hosted by the IAEA and generously supported by Taiyo Nippon Sanso and SERCON. We are grateful to the IAEA and these companies for their support and especially to Takashi Oono for his tremendous efforts at fundraising on our behalf. The authors also gratefully acknowledge funding from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS 153E11KYSB20190045) to J.R.S. and the US National Science Foundation (BCS-1824466) awarded to H.P. The funders played no role in the content of this manuscript. We are grateful for the data submission of David Ludwig and Cara Ebbeling, and for the analysis by Steve Heymsfield of his own data indicating no change in FFM hydration with age in adults. V.C. and L.G.H. suggested the idea of testing for energy compensation in the available dataset, undertook analyses, and led on the manuscript writing. J.R.S. contributed to manuscript writing. All authors apart from L.G.H. and V.C. provided DLW data to the database that was used in the analyses, read the manuscript, and commented if they wished. J.R.S. C.L. A.H.L. A.J.M.-A. H.P. J.R. D.A.S. H.S. K.R.W. W.W.W. and Y.Y. assembled and manage the database. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The DLW database, which can be found at https://doubly-labelled-water-database.iaea.org/home , is hosted by the IAEA and generously supported by Taiyo Nippon Sanso and SERCON. We are grateful to the IAEA and these companies for their support and especially to Takashi Oono for his tremendous efforts at fundraising on our behalf. The authors also gratefully acknowledge funding from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS 153E11KYSB20190045 ) to J.R.S. and the US National Science Foundation ( BCS-1824466 ) awarded to H.P. The funders played no role in the content of this manuscript. We are grateful for the data submission of David Ludwig and Cara Ebbeling, and for the analysis by Steve Heymsfield of his own data indicating no change in FFM hydration with age in adults.

FundersFunder number
National Science FoundationBCS-1824466
National Institutes of HealthL30AA015010, R01DP000092
National Institute on AgingR33AG070455, R01AG029914, U01AG020478, R01AG024119, U01AG022132, R56AG067200, U01AG020480
National Heart, Lung, and Blood InstituteR01HL082988, T32HL007633, U01HL138638
National Cancer InstituteR01CA107545, R01CA119171
Chinese Academy of Sciences, BeijingCAS 153E11KYSB20190045
International Atomic Energy Agency

    Keywords

    • activity
    • basal metabolic rate
    • daily energy expenditure
    • energy compensation
    • energy management models
    • exercise
    • Homo sapiens
    • trade-offs
    • weight loss

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