Energy expenditure over 24 hours, thermal comfort and fat-free mass in Asian men.

Energy expenditure while sitting or sleeping was measured over 24 h in eight young Asian immigrants to France by a suit calorimeter and also by continuous measurement of respiratory gas exchange. Fat-free mass (FFM) was estimated from skinfold measurements. The energy intake per kilogram FFM of the Asians was similar to a group of well-off North Americans of larger body size but similar body composition who had been the subjects of an earlier study. In both groups thermoneutrality was controlled by adjusting the circulating water temperature of the suit calorimeter according to the subjects' preferences. The hourly energy expenditure/kg FFM was 1.2 kcal during sleep and 1.7 kcal while sitting. The mean energy expenditure/kg FFM during a quiet day was 37 kcal/d or 1.5 kcal/h. Using published equations, the estimated BMR was 1490 kcal (6.2 MJ). This estimated value agrees quite well with the BMRs of these subjects as previously determined. In the metabolic room the daily sedentary energy expenditure averaged 1.15 BMR and the energy intake averaged 1.26 BMR for the study subjects in free-living conditions in an urban environment. This is below the 1.4 X BMR currently recommended as a 'minimum' energy intake for subjects of low activity.

Self-esteem and perception of attractiveness: an investigation of early rheumatoid arthritis.

During an investigation into the self-esteem of early rheumatoid patients and controls matched individually by age and sex, it was found that at their first visit to out-patients, patients had lower self-esteem. The items of low self-esteem showed a similarity with features of the rheumatoid personality. An observation that the word attractive in the Carlson Adjective Checklist was rarely used by both groups, and that items at the beginning and end of the checklist were less often ticked, led to a second study of 67 undergraduates where the position of the word attractive was experimentally varied in three forms of the scale. The results show that position only marginally affects response to this item. Probability analyses confirm that the word attractive is used very rarely by patients, rarely by healthy adults and less often than expected by healthy students, possibly demonstrating the respective effects of pain and illness, and age. Attractive tends to be included in the self-concept only after self-esteem reaches a relatively high level.

Calorimetric evaluation of the diary-respirometer technique for the field measurement of the 24-hour energy expenditure.

The results of measuring the 24-h energy expenditure by the diary-respirometer technique (factorial method) have been compared to those obtained by direct measurement of heat output and continuous recording of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Anthropometric and skinfold measurements were used to estimate lean body mass in eight male Asian subjects. They remained for 36 h in a metabolic chamber wearing a calorimeter suit. A ventilated hood and differential gas analysers were used to measure oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. While the subjects were sitting inactive, the KM respirometer indicated a mean energy expenditure which was significantly lower than with the calorimeter suit or with the ventilated hood. During exercise on an ergometer at 25 W and 75 W the respirometer gave readings of energy expenditure which were also significantly lower than either the ventilated hood or the calorimeter suit. The daily energy expenditure expressed in MJ for a standard body weight of 60 kg (MJ/60 kg) measured from the calorimeter suit was 9.79 MJ; from the ventilated hood, 9.51 MJ; from the diary-respirometer method, 8.30 MJ. The mean energy intake, measured for 10 consecutive d after the the subjects had left the metabolic room was 7.87 MJ, while during their stay in the metabolic room, their spontaneous intake was 7.74 MJ. The diary-respirometer technique tends to cumulate the errors from an incorrect time and motion recording and the potential lack of representativeness of the measurement of the energy cost of the activities. In the present study, it seems that the discrepancy observed between the results of the different methods can be attributed almost entirely to the underestimation of the energy cost of the activities by the respirometer. Contrary to our expectation the diary-respirometer technique does not seem to overestimate systematically the daily energy expenditure.