Body Composition of Indians and Its Relation to Basal Metabolic Rate

¹ From the Department of Physiology, Presidency College, Calcutta, India

To study the suitability of ‘metabolically active’ component of the body as a reference standard for the expression of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in Indians, basal O₂ consumption and the body composition such as total body water, extracellular fluid volume, serum volume and body fat were determined in 14 normal men and 6 women by various methods, and values for cell solids, cell mass and lean body mass were calculated. Basal O₂ consumption of these subjects had significantly greater correlation with cell mass or cell solids than with the surface area of the body. The difference between the basal O₂ consumption of these subjects and that of the people living in cold environment was much less when the oxygen consumption of these subjects was expressed in terms of cell solids or cell mass than when it was expressed in terms of the surface area of the body. The low BMR observed in Indians is mostly explained by the amount of metabolically active component of the body. The observations indicate the greater suitability of cell mass or cell solids as the reference standard for the expression of BMR.