Seasonal variation of basal metabolism was measured on seven young male (the Ground Self-Defence Force Officials) aged 19-26 for twelve months (from March 1983 through February 1984) at the Beppu Post in Oita. The results are as follows:
The basal metabolism fluctuates like sine curve. The highest value (5.2% higher than the annual mean) is obtained in April and the lowest (5.8% lower) is in October. Therefore, the annual deviation in the basal metabolism was 11.0% from the annual mean. The annual mean basal metabolism corrected to twenties, is 39.9 kcal/m2/hr, and this value is 6.6% higher than the reference value (37.5 kcal/m2/hr) . In Japanese, it has been accepted that basal metabolism is lower in summer and higher in winter, and the reasons of the seasonal variation are explained by the wide range of the temperature throughout the year, and by the lower ratio in fat intake. Our results generally agree them.
