LECTURE TWO

BASAL METABOLISM
 BASAL METABOLISM
• What is Basal Metabolism?
• Basal Metabolism refers to the least amount of energy necessary to maintain
the vital involuntary activities, including breathing, maintenance of heat,
heartbeat and blood circulation, and the activities of the nervous system and
internal organs.

• The basic metabolic rate (BMR) in humans is measured in the so-called basal
state: comfortably at rest mentally and physically, awake at normal room
temperature, at least 14 hours after eating.
• The BMR is an important diagnostic tool, especially in determining
disorders of the thyroid gland.

• Inadequate secretion of the thyroid may lead to greatly depressed

metabolism, with mental and physical lethargy; by contrast, over
secretion may greatly stimulate activity and the BMR by as much as
100 percent.
 FACTORS AFFECTING BASAL METABOLISM IN HUMAN BODY
i. Body composition
• All body tissues are metabolically active.
• The rate of basal metabolism depend on body tissue activity for
instance muscle, brain and various glands and organs such as liver
consume large amounts of oxygen and thus have high basal
metabolism compared to other tissues such bone tissue and adipose
tissue consume little oxygen and thus have low rate of basal
metabolism.

• Total basal metabolism per unit body weight is high when muscle
tissue occurs in higher proportion of the total weight, and lower when
fat or bone account for higher proportion of the total weight.
 ii. Body condition
• A person in a good physical condition has usually developed a greater
proportion of muscle tissue than someone in poor condition caused
by lack of exercise.
• Example,
suppose two men are of the same age, height and weight, but one is a
construction worker, whose job involves much physical activity, and
other is an accountant which is essentially sedentary occupation, more
of the weight of the accountant is from the fat tissue than muscle
compared with proportions of these tissue in construction worker.
• Thus the accountant has lower basal metabolic rate.
 iii. Gender
• There are well documented differences in body composition that are
generally found between men and women of the same age, height and
weight.
• Women characteristically develop more adipose tissue and less muscle
tissue than men.

• Between the ages of 20 to 25 years, fat account for about 10kg of the weight
of a typical 63kg woman.

• So young adult man contain about 14% fat by weight, where as young adult
females contain about 23% to 32% fat by weight.

• The basal metabolism rates for women are correspondingly about 10% to
iv. Hormonal secretion
• The hormonal secretion of the adrenal and thyroid glands have a
stimulating effect on the metabolic rate

v. Sleep
• During sleep, both muscle and emotional relaxations, there is greater
drop in energy and thus the basal metabolism rate is low.
 vi. Age
• Basal metabolism rate change with age.
• This is largely because of changes in the proportions of different
tissues.

• Infants have relatively high proportion of the most metabolically

active tissue as compared to adults.

• In general, the basal metabolism rate is high at birth, increase until

the subject is 2 years of age and then gradually declines throughout
life.
 vii. Pregnancy
• During the sixth to ninth months of pregnancy basal metabolism rate
increases to 20% above normal.
• This is caused by the high metabolic activity of the foetus and
placenta or by an increase in the metabolic activity in the maternal
tissues or by some combinations of these factors.

vii. Body temperature

• Basal metabolism rate increase with increase in body temperature.
• A rise of 1oF in body temperature leads on average to an increase of
7% in basal metabolism rate.
ix. Environmental temperature
• Environmental temperature means the temperature around you.

• A sudden decrease in environmental temperature, if not

compensated for by additional clothing, causes shivering.
• This result into increased basal metabolism.

• The lower the environmental temperature the higher the basal

metabolism rate.