Energy Expenditure and Intake in Children

Abstract

Daily energy expenditure and energy intake were estimated in twelve children living in Tokyo andnine children living in a rural mountain village. Activities of the children were recorded by directobservation for two days. For estimation of the daily energy expenditure, two methods were used: (1) Relative metabolic rate (RMR) of the child's activities reported by the Osaka City University studygroup (1967) and (2) Torún's energy expenditure rate (kcal/kg/min) for nine different categories ofactivity. The energy intake was calculated from the dietary record obtained by direct observation. The results were as follows: 1. In the rural children, energy expenditure by the RMR method waslarger than that by Torún's method. As for the urban children, there was no significant difference. 2. Energy expenditure in the rural children was larger than in the urban children. 3. Energy intakewas larger than energy expenditure in the rural children, irrespective of the estimation method used.