International Journal of Obesity (2002) 26, 376–383

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PAPER
Sleeping metabolic rate in relation to body mass
index and body composition
K Zhang1*, M Sun2, P Werner1, AJ Kovera1, J Albu1, FX Pi-Sunyer1 and CN Boozer1
1
Obesity Research Center, St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, and Institute of Human Nutrition, Department of Medicine,
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, USA; and 2Mini-Sun, Fresno, California, USA

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether patterns of sleeping metabolic rate (SMR) are altered in obesity. Specifically to determine
the relationship between changes in SMR and body weight, body mass index (BMI, kg=m2), and fat-free mass (FFM); and to
compare resting metabolic rate (RMR) with SMR during different periods of sleep.
SUBJECTS: Eighteen healthy, pre-menopausal, obese (BMI > 30, n ¼ 9) and non-obese (BMI < 30, n ¼ 9), female subjects (six
Caucasians and 12 African-Americans), with an average age of 36 y (range 22 – 45).
MEASUREMENTS: Total energy expenditure (TEE or 24 h EE), metabolic rate (MR), SMR (minimum, average and maximum)
and resting metabolic rate (RMR) or resting energy expenditure (REE) measured by human respiratory chamber, and external
mechanical work measured by a force platform within the respiratory chamber. Physical activity index (PAL) was derived as
TEE=REE. Body composition was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).
RESULTS: SMR decreased continuously during sleep and reached its lowest point just before the subject was awakened in the
morning by the research staff. Although averages for RMR and SMR were similar, RMR was lower than SMR at the beginning of
the sleeping period and higher than SMR in the morning hours. The rate of decrease in SMR was faster with increasing body
weight ( 7 0.829, P < 0.0001), BMI (correlation factor 7 0.896, P < 0.0001) and FFM ( 7 0.798, P ¼ 0.001). The relationship
between the slope of SMR decrease and BMI (y ¼ 7 51076x2 þ 0.0002x 7 0.0028) is highly significant, with a P-value of
< 0.0001 and r2 value of 0.9622.
CONCLUSIONS: The rate of decline in metabolic rate during sleep is directly related to body weight, BMI and FFM. Average
SMR tends to be lower than RMR in obese subjects and higher than RMR in non-obese subjects.
International Journal of Obesity (2002) 26, 376 – 383. DOI: 10.1038=sj=ijo=0801922

Keywords: metabolic rate; sleeping metabolic rate; RMR; energy expenditure

Introduction might be an oversimplification of the relationship between

Human 24 h energy expenditure (EE) has three major com-
ponents: resting energy expenditure (REE); the thermic effect
of food; and the energy cost of physical activity. REE, which
accounts for as much as 60 – 75% of total energy expenditure
(TEE), has been studied extensively. However, sleeping meta-
bolic rate (SMR), which represents a large portion of 24 h EE,
is often calculated according to the FAO=WHO=UNU1
recommendations. These estimates of daily energy require-
ments are based on factorial calculations and assume that
the energy cost of sleep is equal to REE. This assumption
*Correspondence: K Zhang, Obesity Research Center, WH 1017, St.
Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, 1111 Amsterdam Avenue, New York,
NY 10025, USA.
E-mail: kz6@columbia.edu
Received 7 March 2001; revised 21 August 2001;
accepted 16 October 2001
REE and SMR since SMR is not constant and decreases during
sleep, as has already been reported by some researchers.2 – 6
Sleep is a complicated process and has been studied in
different aspects by different investigators. Fontvieille et al7
and other investigators2,5,8,9 have reported differences in
metabolic rate between the different sleep stages. Montgom-
ery et al10 have demonstrated that the total sleep time affects
SMR. However, we are aware of no studies to date of how
SMR changes with body weight, body mass index (BMI) or
body composition. The present study was designed to
determine whether EE patterns during sleep are related to
obesity. Obese and non-obese women were compared for
SMR during different sleeping periods, the decrease in SMR
in relation to body weight, fat-free mass (FFM) and BMI, and
the ratio of SMR to RMR at different time periods during
sleep.

Methods
Subjects
Subjects were 18 healthy, pre-menopausal women, six Cau-
casian and 12 African-American. African-American was
defined as having four African-American grandparents. All
volunteers had normal dietary habits and were weight stable
for at least 6 months before the study. They were all non-
smokers and did not use any contraceptive medications. The
mean age of the subjects was 35  8 y, while mean body
weight was 79.2  19.6 kg (range 54 – 121 kg) and BMI
29.5  6.6 (range 19.6 – 41.9; Table 1). Mean FFM was
48.5  7.6 (range 39.3 – 62.3) and fat mass averaged
37.9  11.5%, with a range of 13.7 – 52.5%. For analyses
based on BMI, nine subjects were classified as obese (BMI
> 30.0) and nine non-obese (BMI  30.0)
Protocol
Subjects were admitted to a standard hospital room the
evening before the 24 h EE measurement. They entered the
chamber at 9:00 am the following morning and exited at
8:00 am the next day. Energy requirements for the chamber
days were calculated from RMR, previously measured by
hood indirect calorimetry, and by using the formula
TEE ¼ 1.5RMR. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served at
9:30 am, 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm, respectively. Energy break-
down was 40% for breakfast, 20% for lunch and 40% for
dinner with no food served between meals. The activity
protocol for 23 h in the chamber included three 10 min
exercise sessions on a stationary bicycle with increasing
intensity: 10 min at 12:30 pm (60 W=60 rpm), 10 min at
4:00 pm (75 W=60 rpm) and 10 min at 7:00 pm (90 W=
60 rpm). For the remainder of the time the subjects were
asked to engage in quiet activities (reading, watching televi-
sion, etc) and to go to bed at 10:30 pm. At 7:00 am the next
morning, the subjects were awakened by the research staff
and asked to get up (and use the bathroom if necessary).
Then, subjects were asked to return to bed, remaining awake
and motionless for an additional 50 min for the measure-
ment of RMR.
The sleeping period was designated as the period from
10:30 pm to 7:00 am according to the protocol, but actual
sleeping period was more precisely determined by mechan-
ical work calculated from the force platform. Any energy
expended for physical activities during the sleeping period,
according to floor measurements, was excluded from SEE.
Table 1 Subject characteristics
n Mean  s.d. Maximum Minimum
Age (y) 18 35  8 45 22
Body weight (kg) 18 79.2  19.6 121.0 54.0
Body height (cm) 18 163.7  0.1 177.0 152.0
BMI (kg=cm2) 18 29.5  6.6 41.9 19.6
Body fat (%) 15 37.9  11.5 52.5 13.7
Fat-free mass (kg) 15 48.5  7.6 62.3 39.3
Sleeping metabolic rate and BMI
K Zhang et al
377
The first 30 min of actual sleeping time were not included in
calculation. Maximum SMR was defined as the average of MR
for the first half-hour of the rest of the sleeping period; mean
SMR is the average MR over the entire rest of sleeping period;
minimum SMR is average of MR for the last half-hour of the
rest of sleeping period before the subject was awakened
(6:30 – 7:00 am). Subjects were under constant supervision
by laboratory staff or the night nurse while in the chamber.
The protocol was approved by the hospital’s Institutional
Review Board and all subjects signed written consent to
participate.
Body composition
Body composition was determined by dual-energy X-ray
absorptiometry (DXA, Lunar Model DPX, Madison, WI,
USA, software version 3.8). FFM was calculated by subtract-
ing total body fat measured by DXA from body weight in
15 women (three subjects did not complete the body
composition measurements due to withdrawal from the
study).
Indirect calorimetry
SMR and RMR were measured by indirect calorimetry in the
human respiratory chamber at the New York Obesity
Research Center at St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. The
respiratory chamber is an air-tight room (22 000 l volume)
equipped with a bed, chair, desk, television, VCR, radio,
telephone, bicycle, sink and toilet. The temperature of the
room is maintained at 23  0.2 C. A fan draws mixed-air
(sample air) out of the chamber, while fresh air (reference
air) is forced into the chamber by the resulting negative
pressure. A flow-meter measures the flow-rate; aliquots of
entering reference air as well as of exiting sample air are
collected continuously. The air samples are dried and ana-
lyzed by differential oxygen (Magnos 4G) and carbon diox-
ide (Magnos 3G) analyzers (both Hartman-Braun, Frankfurt,
Germany). Actual oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide
production are calculated as the difference between the
composition of the entering and exiting air. The results are
corrected for barometric pressure, flow-rate and humidity. A
stationary bicycle is also connected to a computer for the
recording of exercise. Data are recorded every 10 s and are
averaged over 2 min intervals. The overall accuracy of the
system for both EE and resting quotient (RQ) measurements
was evaluated by 15 pure alcohol (99.5%.) tests. The average
time per test was 1381  126 min (mean  s.d.). The percen-
tage of computed VO2 vs the VO2 required to oxidize the
amount of alcohol burned was 98.48  0.82% (mean  s.d.),
CV ¼ 0.0083; the percentage of computed VCO2 recovered
was 98.58  0.84% (mean  s.d.), CV ¼ 0.0085. The measured
RQ was 0.6675  0.0029 (mean  s.d.) vs 0.6666 calculated,
CV ¼ 0.0044. From the relatively small s.d. in computed VO2
and accurate average RQ, we conclude that the error for EE
measurement was within 2.0%.
International Journal of Obesity
 Sleeping metabolic rate and BMI
378
Force platform
Mechanical work due to the physical activities of the subjects
in the chamber is measured by a force platform (96.5 feet)
that rests on four force transducers that measure forces in the
vertical direction. Except for time exercising on a stationary
bicycle and using the toilet, the subject remains on the force
platform the entire time while in the chamber. The four
transducers measure the ground reaction forces generated by
the subject for each movement. The position of subject and
mechanical power spent for the movement is then calculated
by using the following equation:
Position of subject
1 FAz ðnÞ FDz ðnÞ
xðnÞ ¼ ðl lÞ; or
2 FAz ðnÞ þ FDz ðnÞ
1 FBz ðnÞ FCz ðnÞ
xðnÞ ¼ ðl lÞ
2 FBz ðnÞ þ FCz ðnÞ
1 FAz ðnÞ FBz ðnÞ
yðnÞ ¼ ðh lÞ; or
2 FAz ðnÞ þ FBz ðnÞ
1 FDz ðnÞ FCz ðnÞ
yðnÞ ¼ ðh lÞ
2 FDz ðnÞ þ FCz ðnÞ
Delta displacement of center of mass
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Dsfn ¼ ðxðnÞ xððn 1ÞÞÞ2 þ ðyðnÞ yðn 1ÞÞ2
External mechanical work
P mean SMR equals SMR averaged over the entire sleeping
N 1 PN
Wext ¼ Fv ðnÞVt1 Dt þ Fv ðnÞ½
n¼1 m n¼1
N D2 s
P fn
mgÞDtDt þ m
n¼1 D2 t
where FAz, FBz, FCz, FDz are outputs of four transducers; l is
length of floor and h is width of floor; m is body mass; Dt ¼ T
is the sampling interval; Fv is the force subtracting the sum of
four forces (FAz, FBz, FCz, FDz) from their averaged baseline
weight; n is nth sample and N is number of samples.
The force platform was calibrated by an Omega LCCB-500
force transducer (Omega Engineering, Inc., Stamford, CT,
USA). After the platform was divided into 256 sub-regions
(1616) of 0.0212 m2 each, a subject performed activities
inside the room with a force transducer directly under his
feet. The actual force Fv measured by the transducer under
the feet and the force Fv measured by the direct sum of the
four platform transducers were in good agreement. The
0 0
average error ( j Fv 7 Fv j = j Fv j ) was 2%. By comparing
actual positions of human volunteers on the calorimeter
floor with computer-predicted positions, we determined
that the platform system could acutely determine the posi-
tion of the subject on the floor. Subjects were asked to stand
on marks on the calorimeter floor. Most of the observed error
was due to the large size of human feet in relation to the
small grids marked upon the floor. The average error distance
was 2.71 cm in the x direction and 2.62 cm in the y direction.
International Journal of Obesity
K Zhang et al
The maximum error was 6.2 cm (absolute distance) from the
actual position. These errors include both prediction error
and calibration error caused by inaccuracy in locating the
marks on which the subject was asked to stand. The size of
the platform was 274198 cm, so the relative errors for x and
y were 0.99 and 1.32%, respectively.
Thus, the force platform not only detects displacements of
the center of mass, but also calculates how much external
mechanical work is done during the movement. As with the
oxygen and the carbon dioxide data, floor data are collected
continuously, analyzed every 10 s and averaged over 2 min
intervals. In addition to providing a means to calculate
energy expended due to physical activity, the floor data
also allow an accurate determination of sleeping time.
ð1Þ
Data analyses
Data is presented as mean  s.d. For analyses based on BMI,
subjects were classified as obese (BMI > 30.0) or non-obese
(BMI < 30.0). Sleeping period was designated as the period
from 10:30 pm to 7:00 am according to the protocol, but
ð2Þ
actual sleeping period was more precisely determined by
mechanical work calculated from the force platform. Any
energy expended for physical activities during the sleeping
period, according to floor measurements, was excluded from
ð3Þ SEE. The first 30 min of actual sleeping time were not
included in calculation. The maximum SMR was calculated
from SMR for the first hour of the rest of the sleeping period;
Pn
ðFv ðkÞ period; minimum SMR was calculated from SMR 1h before
k¼0
ð4Þ the subject was awakened (6:00 to 7:00 am).
The slopes of SMR decrease from 18 subjects were calcu-
Dsfn
lated and the correlations with body weight, FFM and BMI
were examined in a cross-correlation matrix of Pearson
product – moment coefficients. First-order, second-order
and third-order equations that describe the relationship
between BMI (body weight and FFM) and the slope of SMR
decrease were tried. The second-order equation
(slope ¼ 7 51076 BMI2 þ 0.0002BMI 7 0.0028) fit the
model best. The model was also examined for the six Cau-
casians and 12 African-Americans separately. The resulting
equation for Caucasians (slope ¼ 7 51076 BMI2 þ 0.0002
BMI 7 0.0024 with P-value of < 0.0001 and r2 value of
0.9713) was similar to that for the African-Americans
(slope ¼ 7 51076 BMI2 þ 0.0002BMI 7 0.0028 with P-
value of < 0.0001 and r2 value of 0.9631). Therefore, ethni-
city does not appear to affect the relationship between the
slope of SMR decrease and BMI.
Results
Figure 1 shows a representative 24 h profile of metabolic rate
(MR) and mechanical work done by a subject. The mechan-
ical power has been enlarged five times to allow visualization
on the scale of MR. There was a significant difference
between daytime MR and SMR (P < 0.0001) for this subject,
with daytime MR 158% of SMR. During daytime, there was a
 Sleeping metabolic rate and BMI
K Zhang et al
379

Figure 1 24-h EE and mechanical work from one subject.

Figure 2 24-h EE for two subjects with different BMI.

International Journal of Obesity

 Sleeping metabolic rate and BMI
K Zhang et al
380
high rate of EE due to physical activity, whereas at night MR
dropped dramatically and physical activity decreased to
nearly zero except when the subject reportedly woke up.
During daytime, variances in physical activity accounted for
about 62% of the variance in metabolic rate (Pearson corre-
lation coefficient ¼ 0.84).
Figure 2 illustrates a typical pattern of 24 h MR of two
subjects with different BMI (BMI ¼ 20 and BMI ¼ 30). It
clearly shows that SMR continuously decreases during sleep
in both subjects, and that the decrease rate
( 7 0.00063 kcal=min) in SMR for the obese subject (BMI
¼ 30) is higher than the decrease rate ( 7 0.00022 kcal=min)
min) for the lean subject (BMI ¼ 20). At a low BMI, SMR is
almost constant during sound sleep, whereas at higher BMI
SMR might decrease by as much as 21% of its initial value
over the course of night, depending on how many hours the
subject slept.
For the 18 subjects studied, BMI was the best predictor for
the slope of SMR decrease (correlation factor 7 0.896,
P < 0.0001), although the slope of SMR was also highly
correlated with body weight ( 7 0.829, P < 0.0001) and
with FFM ( 7 0.798, P ¼ 0.001; Table 2). Figure 3 illustrates
the highly significant relationship between the slope of SMR
decrease and BMI (P-value of < 0.0001 and r2 value of
0.9622).
The variability in the decrease of SMR during sleep results
in differences in SMR at various sleep stages and in different
ratios between SMR and RMR when calculated for different
time periods over the course of a night. Mean, minimal and
maximal SMR and SMR=RMR and mean SMR=FFM for the
two groups are presented in Table 3. Analysis of variance
(ANOVA) showed significantly different values (P < 0.05) for
mean, minimal and maximal SMR in non-obese and obese
subjects, as well as in the ratio of mean and maximal SMR
and RMR. Neither the ratio of minimal SMR=RMR nor mean
SMR adjusted for FFM (kcal=kg=min) was different between
the two groups.
Since there were significantly different (P ¼ 0.01) mean
SMR=RMR ratios in obese and non-obese women, the rela-
tionship of mean SMR=RMR to BMI were compared next.
Although regression analysis showed no statistically signifi-
cant correlation (P ¼ 0.1234), there is a trend to a decreasing

Table 2 The correlation of decrease in sleeping metabolic rate (SMR)

with body weight, body composition and BMI

SMR slope (kcal=min)

a
Body weight (kg) Pearson correlation 7 0.832
Significance (two-tailed) 0.000
n 18
a
Fat-free mass (kg) Pearson correlation 7 0.789
Significance (two-tailed) 0.000
n 15
BMI (kg=cm2) Pearson correlation 7 0.896a
Significance (two-tailed) 0.000
n 18
a
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed). Figure 3 Decrease rate of SMR in relation to BMI.

Table 3 Comparison of SMR and RMR, and ratio of SMR=RMR at different sleep periods

Total (n ¼ 18), BMI < 30 (n ¼ 9), BMI > 30 (n ¼ 9), African-

mean  s.d. mean  s.d. mean  s.d. Caucasians Americans

RMR (kcal=min) 1.0020 1.0020 1.2166 1.1015 1.1132

 0.1063  0.1063  0.1282  0.2019  0.1429
Mean SMR (kcal=min) 1.0314 1.0314 1.1852a 1.1198 1.1027
 0.1309  0.1309  0.1289  0.2037  0.1235
a
Minimal SMR (kcal=min) 0.9469 0.9469 1.1018 1.0092 1.0319
 0.1152  0.1152  0.1259  0.1971  0.1147
a
Maximal SMR (kcal=min) 1.0998 1.0998 1.2926 1.2173 1.1856
 0.1593  0.1593  0.1484  0.2329  0.1570
Mean (SMR=RMR) 0.9743 0.9743 1.0281a 1.0173 0.9931
 0.0235  0.0235  0.0438  0.0507  0.0399
Min (SMR=RMR) 0.9058 0.9058 0.944 0.9152 0.9298
 0.0425  0.0425  0.0381  0.0458  0.044
a
Max (SMR=RMR) 1.0621 1.0621 1.0947 1.1041 1.0656
 0.0351  0.0351  0.0671  0.0652  0.0461
Mean (SMR=FFM; kcal=kg) 0.02213 0.02213 0.02363 0.02304 0.02295
 0.00228  0.00228  0.00256  0.00294  0.00241
a
Significantly different values in obese (BMI > 30) vs non-obese (BMI < 30; P < 0.05, ANOVA).

International Journal of Obesity


Figure 4 Relation of the ratio of (mean SMR)=RMR and BMI.
ratio of mean SMR=RMR as BMI increases. This results in a
tendency for mean SMR > RMR for non-obese women and
mean SMR < RMR in obese women (Figure 4).
Discussion
The primary finding of this study is that SMR decreases
during sleep as a function of BMI and the decrease rate in
SMR is larger as BMI increases (correlation factor ¼ 7 0.896).
Thus, the following equation can be used to describe the
change of SMR:
D SMR ¼ t j a j
where a is SMR slope (kcal=min) and t is the duration of sleep
(min). As shown in Figure 3, a is always negative and
decreases as BMI increases.
Our data show that SMR rate continuously decreases
during the sleeping period and reaches the lowest point
just before waking in the morning. The absence in this
study of the increase in MR prior to waking reported by
Fontvieille et al7 is presumably due to the fact that our
subjects were awakened by our staff, rather than being
allowed to wake up naturally.
The increased slope in SMR decrease that we observed in
obese vs non-obese subjects was due to both a higher MR at
the beginning of sleep and a lower MR at the end of sleep. A
higher value at the beginning of the night could theoreti-
cally be caused by increased or prolonged thermic effect of
food and=or exercise. The standard chamber protocol
observed by all subjects makes it is unlikely, however, that
either of these affected values in this study. As total 24 h
energy intake was provided in proportion to RMR, obese
subjects could not have over-eaten compared with non-
obese. Dinner was the same fraction of the total energy
intake and was served at 5 pm, 5.5 h before the beginning
Sleeping metabolic rate and BMI
K Zhang et al
381
of sleep, making it unlikely that the influence of diet-
induced thermogenesis was significant in any of the subjects.
It has been reported that physical activity may affect
SMR11 – 13 and RMR,14 – 19 but in our study, the last exercise
session was at 7 pm, allowing 3.5 h to recover from physical
activity before going to bed. The protocol for the chamber
day prescribed the same time, rate and type of exercise for all
subjects. The similarity between the physical activity index
(PAL, calculated as TEE=REE due to physical activity) of obese
(1.41  0.11) and non-obese subjects (1.49  0.07) provides
evidence that these exercises did not increase the thermic
effect of exercise to a greater extent in obese. It unlikely,
therefore, that differences in either TEF or thermic effect of
exercise contributed to our observations of different rates of
decrease in SMR in obese vs non-obese.
Nonetheless, an increased MR at the beginning of sleep
could be related to a slower rate of heat dissipation by obese
as has previously been hypothesized.20 – 22 Rising and collea-
gues found that low MR was correlated with low body
temperature assessed orally23 although a subsequent study
failed to find a correlation of MR with core body tempera-
ture.24 The latter study, however, did find that Pima Indians
had lower core body temperatures during sleep than Cauca-
sians. Although slopes were not compared, continuous body
core temperature data presented also appears to decline more
during sleep in Pimas.
Lower SMR at the end of sleep may be an additional
indicator of increased susceptibility to subsequent weight
gain. Lower RMR is generally considered as one of the
contributors to weight gain.13,25 – 29 In comparison with
Caucasians, African-Americans13,25,29 and Pima Indians20,27
have lower RMR and greater prevalence of obesity. As in
previous reports, our data showed that RMR of African-
Americans normalized by either body weight or FFM was
more than 12% lower than RMR of Caucasians. We also
found that average SMR of African-American women, nor-
malized by either body weight or FFM, was more than 14%
lower than in Caucasians (more than 10% difference for
minimal SMR and 15% for maximal SMI, respectively).
While the lower rates for both SMR and RMR are consistent
in African-American vs Caucasian women, there were no
differences in rates of decline in SMR between the two
ethnic groups. The even greater difference in SMR between
Caucasians and African-Americans, may, however, indicate an
increased propensity for further weight gain in the African-
Americans.
Our data showing that SMR=RMR is lower in obese con-
firms the observation by Fontvieille et al,20 that RMR=SMR
was inversely correlated with indices of obesity. The relation-
ship seen here between BMI and SMR decline, may also
indicate a greater susceptibility to further weight gain in
our already obese subjects. This suggestion also raises the
possibility that SMR in pre-obese might be even lower, than
the low RMR that has already been described.27
The present study did not examine mechanisms for dif-
ferences between SMR and RMR, the energy cost of arousal.
International Journal of Obesity
 Sleeping metabolic rate and BMI
K Zhang et al
382
However, this cost is thought to be mediated by both central
nervous system and sympathetic nervous system,20,30 which
has been reported to be inversely correlated with the percen-
tage of body fat.16,20 Additional postulated factors influen-
cing arousal costs include rates of glucoenogenesis, substrate
cycling, SNS sleep regulation mechanisms and cation trans-
port.20 Impaired glucose tolerance may also be a significant
factor.31
The average ratio of (mean SMR)=RMR for all subjects is
1.0011. Therefore, the use of mean SMR ¼ RMR, as recom-
mended by FAO=WHO=UNU for the calculation of daily
energy requirements, is not inappropriate in a general
sense. However, use of RMR to estimate SMR would under-
estimate SMR by 3% in non-obese subjects and overestimate
SMR in obese subjects by about the same amount. However,
since sleeping time accounts for only about one-third of a
24 h period (8=24 h), the overall variance introduced over
24 h is not larger than  1%, which is insignificant for most
analyses.
Our findings of a strong and highly significant correlation
between decline in SMR and BMI are striking. They cannot
be explained by differences in diet-induced or exercise-
induced thermogenesis or by differences in ethnicity. Addi-
tional longitudinal studies will reveal whether increased rate
of decline in SMR is an additional indicator of increased
susceptibility to future weight gain and the mechanisms for
these observations.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by National Institute of Diabetes
and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Grant P30 DK-26687 and
by a Swiss National Science Foundation Post-Doctoral Fel-
lowship to P Werner.
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