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Klaas R. Westerterp
Energy Balance in Motion
1 3
Klaas R. Westerterp
Department of Human Biology
Maastricht University
Maastricht
The Netherlands
ISSN 2192-9866 ISSN 2192-9874 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-642-34626-2 ISBN 978-3-642-34627-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-34627-9
Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012953017
© The Author(s) 2013
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Preface
Man survives in an environment with a variable food supply. Energy balance is
maintained by adapting energy intake to changes in energy expenditure and vice
versa. Human energetics is introduced using an animal energetics model including
growth efficiency, endurance capacity and adaptation to starvation. Animal energet-
ics was the starting point for assessment of energy expenditure with respirometry and
doubly labelled water and of body composition with densitometry and hydrometry.
Examples of endurance performance in athletes and non-athletes illustrate limits in
energy expenditure. There is a complicated interaction between physical activity
and body weight. Body movement requires energy as produced by muscles. Thus,
there is an interaction between physical activity, body weight, body composition
and energy expenditure. Overweight is caused by energy intake exceeding energy
expenditure. The questions of how energy intake and energy expenditure adapt to
each other are dealt with. The evidence presented, originating from fundamental
research, is translational to food production and to physical activity-induced energy
expenditure in competitive sports. Another obvious and relevant clinical application
deals with overweight and obesity, with the increasing risk of developing diabetes,
cardiovascular disease and cancer. Finally, activity induced energy expenditure of
modern man is put in perspective by compiling changes in activity energy expendi-
ture, as derived from total energy expenditure and resting energy expenditure, over
time. In addition, levels of activity energy expenditure in modern Western societies
are compared with those from third world countries mirroring the physical activ-
ity energy expenditure in Western societies in the past. Levels of physical activity
expenditure of modern humans are compared with those of wild terrestrial mam-
mals as well, taking into account body size and temperature effects. Taken together
this book shows how energy balance has been in motion over the past four decades.
v
About the Author
Dr. Klaas R. Westerterp is professor of Human
Energetics in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life
Sciences at Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
His M.Sc in Biology at the University of Groningen
resulted in a thesis titled ‘The energy budget of the
nesting Starling, a efi ld study’. He received a grant
from the Netherlands Organisation for Scienticfi
Research (FUNGO, NWO) for his doctorate research
in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
at the University of Groningen. His Ph.D. thesis was
titled ‘How rats economize, energy loss in starva-
tion’. Subsequently, he performed a three-year post-
doc at Stirling University in Scotland supported
by a grant from the Natural Environment Research
Council (NERC), and a two-year postdoc at the University of Groningen and the
Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO, KNAW) with a grant from the Netherlands
Organisation for Scienticfi Research (BION, NWO) in order to work on iflght ener -
getics in birds. In 1982, he became senior lecturer and subsequently full professor
at Maastricht University in the Department of Human Biology. Here, his efi ld of
expertise is energy metabolism, physical activity, food intake and body composition
and energy balance under controlled conditions and in daily life. He was editor in
chief of the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society and he is currently a member of
the Editorial Board of the journal Nutrition and Metabolism (London) and of the
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and editor in chief of the European Journal
of Applied Physiology.
vii
Acknowledgments
The content of this book is based on work performed with many students and
colleagues as reflected in the references. Paul Schoffelen and Loek Wouters tech-
nically supported measurements on energy expenditure with respirometry and
doubly labelled water. Margriet Westerterp-Plantenga reviewed the subsequent
drafts of the manuscript. Louis Foster edited the final text.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction, Energy Balance in Animals ....................... 1
2 Energy Balance............................................. 15
3 Limits in Energy Expenditure................................. 37
4 Energy Expenditure, Physical Activity, Body Weight
and Body Composition....................................... 47
5 Extremes in Energy Intake ................................... 63
6 Body Weight ............................................... 71
7 Growth, Growth Efficiency and Ageing ......................... 83
8 Modern Man in Line with Wild Mammals ...................... 91
Appendix..................................................... 97
Glossary ..................................................... 101
References.................................................... 105
Index ........................................................ 111
xi
Abbreviations
ADMR Average daily metabolic rate
AEE Activity-induced energy expenditure
ATP Adenosine triphosphate
BMI Body mass index
BMR Basal metabolic rate
COPD Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
DEE Diet-induced energy expenditure
DEXA Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry for the measurement of body
components like mineral mass
EE Energy expenditure
EG Energy deposited in the body during growth
EI Energy intake
FAO Food and agriculture organisation of the United Nations
FFM Fat-free body mass
FM Fat mass of the body
SMR Sleeping metabolic rate
TEE Total energy expenditure
Tracmor Triaxial accelerometer for movement registration
UNU United Nations University
WHO World Health Organization
xiii
Chapter 1
Introduction, Energy Balance in Animals
Abstract Man is an omnivore and originally met energy requirements by hunt-
ing and gathering. Man evolved in an environment of feast and famine: there were
periods with either a positive or negative energy balance. As an introduction to
human energetics, this book on energy balance in motion starts with a chapter on
animal energetics. How do animals survive and reproduce in an environment with
a variable food supply? The examples on animal energetics illustrate how animals
grow, reproduce and survive periods of starvation. It is an introduction to method-
ology and basic concepts in energetics. Growth efficiency of a wild bird in its nat-
ural environment, here the Starling, is similar to a farm animal like the Domestic
Fowl. Reproductive capacity is set by foraging capacity, determined by food avail-
ability and the capacity parents can produce food to the offspring. Birds feeding
nestlings reach an energy ceiling where daily energy expenditure is four times
resting energy expenditure. Starvation leads to a decrease in energy expenditure,
where the largest saving on energy expenditure can be ascribed to a decrease in
activity energy expenditure.
Keywords Activity factor • Body temperature • Doubly labelled water method •
Energy ceiling • Gross energy intake • Growth efficiency • Metabolizable energy •
Starvation
The Energy Budget of the Nestling Starling
From the late Middle Ages, nestling Starlings were harvested to prepare paté or
soup. As such, Starlings were a source of animal protein in a hunter and gatherer
system. Passerine birds have short incubation periods (12–14 days) and a nestling
period of some weeks, characterized by rapid growth. The conversion ratio of food
to energy incorporated in the growing body is high. Here the energy budget of
the nestling Starling is presented for the calculation of the growth efficiency of a
wild animal in its natural environment. The result is compared with figures for the
Domestic Fowl, one of our current sources for animal protein.
In the Netherlands, wild Starlings were offered artificial nest sites by mount-
ing ‘Starling pots’ against a building (Fig. 1.1). Pots were made from clay with a
K. R. Westerterp, Energy Balance in Motion, SpringerBriefs in Physiology, 1
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-34627-9_1, © The Author(s) 2013
