Total Energy Expenditure and Basal Metabolic

Rate

At the end of the module, the student is expected to:

1. Differentiate total energy expenditure from basal metabolic rate
2. Determine how total energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate can
help in losing weight
3. Understand the thermic effects of activity, affecting basal metabolic rate

Total Energy Expenditure

The total energy expenditure is the amount of energy (calories) that a person
needs to carry out a physical function such as breathing, circulating blood,
digesting food, or physical movement. Your total daily energy expenditure
(TDEE) is the total number of calories you burn each day.
A sample of the TDEE Calculator is as follows:

Total Energy Expenditure Calculator. Image retrieved from:

http://www.scymed.com/en/smnxdg/health101/srcalx/sr35350.htm on April 15, 2017

The TEE equation followed by the calculator above is as follows:

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 Total Energy Expenditure Equation. Image retrieved from:
http://www.scymed.com/en/smnxdg/health101/srcalx/sr35350.htm on April 15, 2017

Components
According to POEHLMAN (1989), the total daily energy expenditure is
comprised of three major components.
1. Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) – thyroid hormone, lean body mass – 80%
2. The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) – food choice – 10%
3. The Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA) – movement – 10%

Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)

Resting metabolism can sometimes be called as basal metabolism. Your basal
metabolic rate (BMR) is the total number of calories your body burns at rest.
Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories required to keep your body
functioning at rest. BMR is also known as your body’s metabolism, therefore,
any increase to your metabolic weight, such as exercise, will increase your
BMR.
Resting Metabolic Rate and Weight Loss
Set your daily calories limit. To lose weight, you need to reduce your
calorie intake below your total daily calorie requirement indicated by
your BMR plus activity level.
 Lean tissue requires significantly more energy to maintain because of
the increase level of metabolic activity. In contrast, fat tissue requires
very little energy to maintain and has little influence on the resting or
basal metabolic energy needs.
Greater Lean Body Mass = Greater BMR or RMR
Resting Metabolism (REE) and Exercise/ Physical Activity

Resting energy components in Men and Women. Retrieved from: https://fitfolk.com/average-basal-

energy-expenditure-bee-basal-metabo lic-rate-bmr/ on April 20, 2018
The chart above illustrates the comparison of the basal metabolic rate of
women and men.
Women’s body composition has less muscles compared to men but with
almost the same amount of fat. The brain, liver, kidneys, and heart
comparably use more energy than muscles and fat for both men and women.
How do exercises affect your metabolism?
Most people think that doing exercise will help to speed up their
metabolism. However, this vague statement –while mostly true–
needs to be dissected a bit more in order for you to understand how
you can make your metabolism work for you with exercise.
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 The Ways to “Burn Calories”
The word “metabolism” essentially means “burning calories” to give your
body the energy it needs. There are three ways that your body burns calories.
1. Your body needs to supply your organs with energy even while
you do nothing and that’s what your RMR is: the calories your
body burns while at rest. It’s the energy you burn while sitting,
sleeping, standing, etc.
2. When you eat, your body has to turn up the heat in your digestive
system in order to process the food. It requires more energy than
when you’re sitting with an empty stomach. The thermic effect of
food (TEF) usually accounts for no more than 10 percent of the
energy that you use in a day.
3. The physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) is any energy that
is burned while you are working out or doing any kind of activity.
Whether you’re washing dishes, walking up the stairs, picking up a
box, or lifting hundreds of pounds of weight, this is PAEE. It’s all
dependent on your movement or activity during the day.
The amount of energy that you burn in a day is the sum total of these
three calorie-burning methods.
LEAN BODY MASS (also known as simply “Lean Mass” likely the source of
the word “Lean Muscle”) – the total weight of your body minus all the weight
due to your fat mass. It includes the weight of all your organs, your skin, your
bones, your body water, and your muscles.
FAT TISSUE – a normal body composition includes fat, but beyond a certain
percentage, you start to be exposed to weight-related diseases. Fat free mass
is one of two human body components. Fat free mass (FFM) includes internal
organs, bone, muscle, water, and connective tissues. Fat free mass is different
from fat mass.

Thermic Effects of Feeding

Specific dynamic action (SDA), also known as thermic effect of food (TEF) or
dietary induced thermogenesis (DIT), is the amount of energy expenditure
above the basal metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for use and
storage.

Thermic effect of food

If you are trying to lose weight, the calories you burn with cardio and
strength training, as well as the calories you eat from food will have an effect
on your body. There’s also the basal metabolic rate, the calories our bodies
expend doing things like breathing, blinking, sleeping and just generally
existing.
The extra energy your body requires during digestion is called the thermic
effect of food and is often used when determining how many calories you
need each day.
 Thermic effect of food, exercise and total energy expenditure
Exercise and the thermic effect of food contribute to total energy expenditure
and overall maintenance of health. The am of this study was to determine the
interaction between TEF and exercise.
The thermic effect of food and thermic effect of exercise are often overlooked
by an individual when energy balance is considered, related to the amount of
physical activity they perform. Obesity is considered by many to be a simple
balance between energy consumed and energy expended, but this does not
take into account the many ways in which the body is able to waste or
preserve energy. Consuming food causes a thermic effect called the thermic
effect of food and this can vary depending on the type of food consumed.
Thermogenesis can account for a considerable amount of the daily energy
expenditure and this turn is dependent on the type and quantity of food
consumed as well as the type and amount of exercise performed. Eating less
and exercising more is therefore no guarantee that energy balance will be
tipped favorably towards weight loss. Eating food may actually increase the
productivity of exercise by the food consumption having a positive effect on
the possible improvements in the body composition. This may be the reason
that some individuals actually lose body fat following increases in energy
intake. This assumes that the energy ingested is on high quality, as low
quality food containing metabolic poisons would not be expected to benefit
thermogenic responses.

Implication of the thermic effect of food on metabolic rate

Based on the definition provided, the thermic effect of food will increase your
metabolic rate but the real question is, “How much calorie burn does the
thermic effect of food account for?” The general consensus in the scientific
community is that the thermic effect of food accounts for roughly 5 to 10% of
the energy content of food ingested and calories can be burned in the process
of digesting, absorbing, and storing the nutrients from the meal. Calories will
be burned each day as a result of the thermic effect of food.
Factors that influence the thermic effect of food
There are many factors that influence the magnitude of the thermic effect of
food. These factors include things that are under your control such as meal
size, meal frequency, meal composition, meal pattern, and bod composition
and things that are not under your control such as age, gender, hormone
levels and genetics.

Influence of Meal Size on the Thermic Effect of Food

There is a direct correlation between meal size and the thermic effect of food.
The more calories there are in a meal, the greater the thermic effect of food
will be as a result of consuming that meal. This thermic effect of food is
caused by the digestion, absorption and storage of consumed nutrients, so if

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 you consume more nutrients, it follows that your body will need to expend
more energy to process them.

Influence of meal frequency on the thermic effect of food

The thermic effect of food is larger when a set amount of calories are
consumed as one single meal, rather than broken up into many smaller meals
eaten over a longer period of time.

Influence of meal composition on the thermic effect of food

The thermic effect of food due to a meal will vary depending on the relative
proportions on the macronutrients that make up the meal. Protein is the
macronutrients that induces the largest thermic effect of food response.

Thermic Effect of Activity

Apart from the energy used in exercise itself, habitual physical activity affects
basal metabolic rate by virtue of its effect on body composition. The thermic
effect of food is the energy we use to process/metabolize the food we
consume.
The thermic effect of activity (TEA) typically accounts for 15 to 30% of the
energy you expend in a day depending on how active you are. The heavier
you are, the more calories you’ll expend at any given activity. The lighter you
are, the fewer calories you’ll expend. Depending on the intensity and
duration of the activity, the metabolic boost from the thermic effect of
activity can linger for hours after exercise even when at rest and this is
perhaps one of the most significant weight loss benefits of exercise. Thus,
recent studies suggest that the more vigorous the exercise, the gre ater this
“afterglow” is.

References:
Total Energy Expenditure, Energy Intake, and Body Composition in
Endurance Athletes Across the Training Season: A Systematic Review.
Retrieved from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5292109/ on April
18, 2018
Energy Expenditure. Retrieved from: http://www.myhealthywaist.org/the-
concept-of-cmr/the-obesity-and-type-2-diabetes-epidemics/the-
concept-of-energy-balance/energy-expenditure/page/3/print.html
on April 18, 2018
Assessment of Body Composition and Total Energy Expenditure in Humans
Using Stable Isotope Techniques. Retrieved from: https://www-
pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1370_web.pdf on April 18,
2018
 Total Daily Energy Expenditure Calculator. Retrieved from:
https://www.tigerfitness.com/articles/post/tdee-calculator-total-
daily-energy-expenditure on April 19, 2018
Total Energy Expenditure Calculator. Retrieved from: https://www.health-
calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced on April 25, 2018
Basal Metabolic Rate. Retrieved from:
https://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/basal-metabolic-
rate#ixzz4VufL3exN on April 17, 2017
Videos
Total Energy Expenditure. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrgraqST8Tk on April 21, 2018
Learn to Calculate your “Total Energy Expenditure” in a Day. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAfUPhyWrPY on April 21, 2018
Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrRBqRyCAi4 on April 21, 2018

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