A metabolism trial was conducted for 7d to determine residual feed intake (RFI=measure of the difference between actual feed intake and expected feed requirement), dry matter intake (DMI), digestibility and metabolism of nutrients at the end of a 57 days (d) of a feeding trial with 18 Murrah buffalo heifers (279kg±16; and 684±131d of age). Preliminary selection of heifers as efficient and less efficient was done by regressing actual DMI on predicted DMI (g/head/d) using the model DMI (g/kg BW) = β 0 + β predicted DMI (g/kg BW) and RFI categories were sorted out by regressing mean DMI for the 57 days feeding period on BWG and mid-test MBW using the model Yi = β0 + β1 BWG (g/d) + β2 mid-test MBW (kg) + ei; where Yi = DMI, β0 = regression intercept, β1 and β2 = regression coefficients on BWG and mid-test MBW, respectively, and ei = uncontrolled error or RFI, heifers with +ve RFI values are less efficient and those with -ve RFI values efficient. Differences were not statistically significant. The actual dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), digestible organic matter (DOM) and total digestible nutrient (TDN) intakes of RFI-I heifers (6.73±0.56; 0.99±0.008; 5.06±0.47; and 4.95±0.47 kg/head/d, respectively) were not different from those of RFI-II (6.51±0.50; 0.97±0.07; 5.11±0.42; and 5.00±0.42 kg/head/d, respectively). RFI-II heifers digested DM, OM and NDF (70.84±1.48; 73.96±1.54 and 66.33±2.08%, respectively) better than those of RFI-I heifers (68.74±1.66; 71.49±1.72% and 63.05±2.32%, respectively) and thus RFI-II had higher N balance (45±8 head/d) than that of RFI-I heifers (38±9 g/head/d). Water loss per unit of water intake (WI) in feces of RFI-II (69.70±8.40 %) was lower than that of RFI-I heifers (73.41 ± 9.39%) and improved amount of water available for RFI-II for metabolism as a result of which water loss in urine proportionally increased in RFI-II (32.65 ± 2.04%WI) than in RFI-I heifers (31.84 ± 2.28%WI). Water loss per unit of DMI in feces (157 ± 18 vs. 145 ± 16 % DMI) and urine (69 ± 10 vs. 76 ± 9 %DMI, for RFI-I vs. RFI-II, respectively) followed similar trend as that of water loss per unit of WI. Mainly because of small sample size differences in nutrient intakes between RFI-I and RFI-II heifers were not significant; however, RFI-II with similar feed intake had higher N-balance, digestibility of nutrients and level of water utilization and could be selected as being more feed efficient heifers.