Whole body calorimetry in biological and nutritional research

WHOLE BODY CALORIMETRY IN BIOLOGICAL AND NUTRITIONAL RESEARCH 

This status is linked with a higher risk of other illnesses and longer lasting periods of being ill with more severe progression. Obese people have a higher mortality risk compared with normal weight subjects. 

A balanced diet constitutes not only of carbohydrates, fat and protein, but of water, dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals and micronutrients too. The demand of these diet components depends on various conditions like age and growth status, locomotor activity (work load), environmental temperature and probably on the season. The determination of the requirements of these nutrients under different conditions gives very important information on how to provide a balanced diet but to avoid ovemutrition. Whole body calorimetry is probably the most accurate and so the most important method both to estimate substrate and energy requirements and to calibrate other alternative methods to assess the energy metabolism like long-term heart rate measurements or the isotope dilution methods. 

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