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The anatomy of resting energy expenditure: body composition mechanisms

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 73, pages 166–171 (2019)Cite this article

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ABSTRACT

Body mass in humans and animals is strongly associated with the rate of heat production as defined by resting energy expenditure (REE). Beginning with the ancient Greeks up to the present time, philosophers and scientists have endeavored to understand the nature and sources of bodily heat. Today we recognize that body mass consists of organs and tissues, each of which produces a specified amount of heat at rest. An individual organ’s REE can now be estimated in vivo as the product of its assumed mass-specific metabolic rate and its imaging-derived mass; whole-body REE reflects the sum of organ and tissue metabolic rates. The sizes of organs and total body mass in adults are governed by two main factors, a person’s stature or height, and their level of adiposity. With greater body size, as represented by adult height independent of adiposity, organs remain stable or increase in mass according to distinct “scaling” patterns. Similarly, with greater relative adiposity organs adaptively accommodate to the increase in imposed mechanical and metabolic loading conditions. Through a detailed analysis of these stature and adiposity effects, we show how classical statistical REE prediction models can be mechanistically understood at the anatomic body composition level.

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Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges Melanie Peterson for her support in preparing this review.

Funding

This work was partially supported by two National Institutes of Health NORC Center Grants P30DK072476, Pennington/Louisiana; and P30DK040561, Harvard; and R01DK109008, Shape UP! Adults.

Author contributions

SBH, DMT, ABW, and MJM drafted the manuscript and edited the manuscript for intellectual content.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    Steven B. Heymsfield

  2. Department of Mathematical Sciences, United States Military Academy West Point, New York, NY, USA

    Diana M. Thomas

  3. Department of Human Nutrition and Food Science, Christian-Albrecht’s-University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Anja Bosy-Westphal & Manfred J. Müller

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  1. Steven B. Heymsfield
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  2. Diana M. Thomas
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  3. Anja Bosy-Westphal
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  4. Manfred J. Müller
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Correspondence to Steven B. Heymsfield.

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Conflict of interest

The author SBH is on the Medical Advisory Boards of Tanita and Medifast Corporations. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Heymsfield, S.B., Thomas, D.M., Bosy-Westphal, A. et al. The anatomy of resting energy expenditure: body composition mechanisms. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 166–171 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0319-3

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