STUDIES ON THE METABOLISM OF OBESITY

Abstract

The first line of experimentation followed by us in our studies on the metabolism of obesity was directed toward the possible discovery of variations in the specific dynamic action of foods in persons of widely different body build. In 1921 one of us 1 reported our first experiments on the specific dynamic action of carbohydrate. No definite conclusions were drawn from this study. The work has subsequently been extended, until at the present time we are able to report the original series of experiments on carbohydrate utilization performed with the Benedict portable respiration apparatus, and a larger series done with the Tissot gasometer in which carbohydrate, protein and fat meals were studied. When our work was first started, no very definite experimental data were available on variations in the specific dynamic action of foods. In the large series of cases studied by Benedict and Carpenter 2 no attention was paid in the