The expenditure of energy by men and women walking

Abstract

Benedict & Murschhauser (1915) and Passmore & Durnin (1955) collected together and summarized the main observations made on the expenditure of energy when walking at different speeds. Edholm, Fletcher, Widdowson & McCance (1955) added figures for marching. With few exceptions these observations were all made on men. Mahadeva, Passmore & Woolf (1953) found no sex difference in the expenditure of energy of persons walking at 3 m.p.h. on an indoor track. In observations on two women and four men walking at 3.5-4 m.p.h., Booyens & McCance (1957) noticed that the women expended less energy than the men. Although there are more women than men in the population, little is known about the energy normally expended by women when they are walking. The expenditure of energy of ten men and ten women have therefore been measured while they were walking in order to find out (1) the range of individual variation, (2) whether there is a sex difference. METHODSThe age, height and weight of the subjects and also the ratio between their height and the length of their legs are given in Table 1. Leg lengths were taken as the vertical distance from the greater trochanter to the floor, measured without shoes.The experiments were conducted over a straight outdoor level track 300 yards long. The subjects, wearing flat-heeled shoes, walked along it for 50 yards before their expired air was collected. This was then collected as they walked over the remaining 250 yards and back again. It is believed that these measurements of expenditures of energy will be within 5 % of steady-state figures; the two sex groups will be comparable in this respect.Single measurements of gross expenditure of energy and of length and frequency of stride were made on each subject while walking at two rates: (1) a leisurely one, and (2) 'to catch a bus'.Each speed was nearly the same within the group except for subject 2. Her leisurely walking speed resembled the fast walking of the other subjects, and she was consequently asked to walk more slowly, instead of faster, during the second measurement, so that her result could be compared with those of the others.Expired air was collected in Douglas bags (Douglas & Priestley, 1948). A conventional mouthpiece and valve holder with inspiratory and expiratory valves and two lengths of standard corrugated tubing were used in each measurement. The subjects wore the mouthpiece for 2-3 min 11 PHYSIO. CXXXVIII

Individual variations in the energy expenditure of standardized activities

“…Some of the subjects in the present series were, at first, mildly apprehensive of the apparatus but this had very little influence on their gross metabolism; had the opposite been the case, there would have been detectable changes in the energy expenditure with increasing practice and confidence. Booyens & Keatinge (1957) …”

Correlation between Six Minute Walk Test and Physiological Cost Index in Healthy Indian Females

“…The traditional parameter of measuring energy expenditure has been the oxygen uptake [7]- [8]. Authors developed the Physiological Cost Index(PCI) for measuring the energy expenditure of walking [9].…”

Proceedings of the Physiological Society

“…The suggestion of Booyens & Keatinge (1957) that, for anatomical reasons, the energy expenditure of women per kg body weight when walking at 31-4 m.p.h. is less than that of men can also be substantiated.…”