Human energy expenditure in affluent societies: an analysis of 574 doubly-labelled water measurements.

Abstract

There now exists a large and robust database of energy expenditure measurements obtained by the doubly-labelled water method. Analysis of the data from affluent societies shows that, in general, levels of energy expenditure are similar to the recommendations for energy requirements adopted by FAO/WHO/UNU (1985) and UK Department of Health (1991). PAL values for active subjects tend to be higher than is currently assumed. The current analysis provides a substantial body of normal data against which other estimates can be compared.