Effects of age on energy expenditure and substrate oxidation during experimental overfeeding in healthy men

Abstract

Relatively little is known about the influence of age on energy regulation during energy imbalance: We compared the effects of overfeeding on changes in energy expenditure, substrate oxidation, and energy deposition between young men (age 23.7 ± 1.1 [SEM] years) and older men (age 70.0 ± 7.0) of normal body weight who were leading unrestricted lives. Changes in total energy expenditure, resting energy expenditure (REE), the thermic effect of feeding (TEF), respiratory quotient (RQ), and body energy content were determined in response to overeating by 4.09 ± 0.07 Megajoule (MJ)/day for 21 days in 16 healthy subjects consuming a typical diet. After excluding data from one young subject with unusual results and adjusting for individual differences in excess energy intake, there was a tendency towards a smaller increase in REE in older men compared to the young men (p = .07) which was accounted for by their lower fat-free mass (p = .016). There was also a significantly smaller increase in resting energy expenditure averaged over fasting and fed states (i.e, REE + TEF) with overfeeding in older men than in young men (p < .02). There were also significant effects of age on fasting RQ (p < .001) and the change in RQ with overfeeding (p