Does menarche mark a period of elevated resting metabolic rate?

Abstract

; 10.1152/ ajpendo.00410.2003.-Resting metabolic rate (RMR) and body composition were measured in 44 initially nonoverweight girls at three time points relative to menarche: premenarche (Tanner stage 1 or 2), menarche (Ϯ6 mo), and 4 yr after menarche. Mean absolute RMR was 1,167, 1,418, and 1,347 kcal/day, respectively. Absolute RMR was statistically significantly higher at menarche than at 4 yr after menarche despite statistically significantly less fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM), suggesting an elevation in RMR around the time of menarche. The pattern of change in RMR, adjusted for FFM, log transformed FM, age, race, parental overweight, and two interactions (visit by parental overweight, parental overweight by FFM), was also considered. Adjusted RMR did not differ statistically between the visits for girls with two normal-weight parents. For girls with at least one overweight parent, adjusted RMR was statistically significantly lower 4 yr after menarche than at premenarche or menarche. Thus parental overweight may influence changes that occur in RMR during adolescence in girls. parental overweight; puberty; adolescence; obesity; energy expenditure ADOLESCENCE, THE PERIOD OF GROWTH from puberty to adulthood, has been proposed as a critical period in the development of obesity (13). Females in particular appear to be at greater risk for the onset of obesity during this time and are more likely than males to develop obesity that persists into adulthood (9). Because obesity results from positive energy balance, understanding the pattern of change in energy intake and energy expenditure that occurs during adolescence may provide insight into the etiology of incident obesity during this time period.Approximately 60-80% of daily energy expenditure is accounted for by resting metabolic rate (RMR) (39). The single best predictor of metabolic rate is fat-free mass (FFM) (39), whose metabolically active components are organ mass and muscle mass. On average, organ mass has a metabolic rate 15-25 times greater than that of muscle mass (24). After the first year of life, muscle mass increases more rapidly than organ mass and therefore makes up an increasingly greater proportion of FFM (52). As the ratio of muscle mass to organ mass increases, RMR per kilogram of FFM decreases (26). The metabolic contribution of 1 kg of FFM to RMR has been shown cross-sectionally to decrease from infancy to adolescence to adulthood (52). Observations of an inverse relationship between age (30, 46) or pubertal maturation (32, 44) and RMR adjusted for FFM in children and adolescents have been attributed to a decline in the metabolic activity of FFM. Longitudinal data are needed to evaluate this proposed decline.Fat mass (FM) (4, 18, 30, 46), sex (7,18,30,46), and race/ethnicity (4, 12, 32, 44, 46, 48) also independently predict metabolic rate in children. In addition, an influence of parental weight status on metabolic rate has been explored, but the findings lack accord (4,17,20,48,58). Finally, because of known pubertal changes in gro...

Combined effect of body position, apparatus and distraction on children's resting metabolic rate

“…Numerous studies of RMR in non‐obese children of similar ages to the present study have been completed with subjects measured lying and the RMR values have ranged between 1012±105 and 1420±157 (kcal/day) 36–40, and in a seated position the RMR values ranged between 1133±241 and 1358±280 (kcal/day) 9, 27, 28. It is this wide variability among different studies that prompted the main focus of this study, which was to investigate the lack of comparability using different methodological approaches for RMR measurement.…”

Longitudinal changes in energy expenditure in girls from late childhood through midadolescence1–3

“…Because RMR adjusted for body composition appears to be lower in black than in white girls (2, 25, 32-34), we evaluated a race ҂ visit interaction term to assess any racial differences in the changes that occur in TEE and its components with age. In addition, we tested a parental overweight ҂ visit interaction term in all adjusted analyses because we previously observed in another subgroup of girls a significant parental overweight ҂ visit interaction in RMR evaluated before menarche (baseline), at menarche, and 4 y after menarche (31). We also determined the significance of changes with age in absolute FFM, FM, PAL, and time spent sleeping, being sedentary, and in moderate and vigorous activity.…”

“…Only a few longitudinal studies have published data on changes in TEE, RMR, or AEE (or all) in children (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)31). One study was restricted to boys (4).…”

The influence of physical characteristics on the resting energy expenditure of youth: A meta‐analysis

“…Although some studies have used large sample sizes (Hosking et al, ; Lazzer et al, ; Schofield, ; Zakeri et al, ), the majority of studies have been completed on relatively small numbers of subject (<100) and incorporated wide age ranges (Bandini et al, ; Buchowski et al, ; Dugas et al, ; Goran et al, ; Rush et al, ; Spadano et al, ; Trowbridge et al, ; Zemel et al, ), such that differences between 8 and 15 year olds were not taken into consideration. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive examination of the existing literature to determine the combined effect of age, sex, and anthropometric characteristics on youth REE.…”