Interindividual variation in metabolic rate

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey Docs,

I just wanted to know, in your experience with hundres or thousands of clients, how large is the inter indivdual varation in metabolic rate (considered age height etc is roughly the same).

I personally noticed huge differences. I need 1800-2000 kcal for maintainance, but some of my friends (same age and bmi ) eat 700 to 800 kcal more and dont gain weight.

If I would eat like the Harris-Benedict Equation suggests, I would be fat. :slight_smile: I’dont have thyoid or other endocrinological disorders im aware of.

Thanks for your time !

2

The resting metabolic rate is just under 1 Cal/kg/hr and the major input is LBM. Given the same LBM, the variations in baseline RMR are relatively small and unlikely to contribute to differences in energy balance. That said, there are strong genetic components to how metabolism changes in response to different feeding protocols (e.g. overfeeding or energy restriction) where some people will fall into obesity resistant or obesity sensitive categories based on how their RMR, thermic effect of food, and other processes change.

tl;dr- there are large inter-individual variations in how folks respond to a given dietary intake.

3

Do I understand correctly, that some people can handle more caloric surplus/restriction than others ?

Is there any evidence what feeding protocol or dietary pattern an obesitiy sensitive individual should choose ? Or is this more or less try and error?

Thanks !

4

Yes, there is significant variation in how an individual will handle energy restriction or surplus. This is not so much a function of a particular dietary pattern as much as it is about total energy balance.

5

Thanks ! Is there any book or paper that goes into detail?

6

There are many papers that discuss this in detail. We covered a few of them in this podcast: