Do African American Women Require Fewer Calories to Maintain Weight?

Abstract

Background The high prevalence of obesity in African American (AA) women may result, in part, from a lower resting metabolic rate (RMR) than non-AA women. If true, AA women should require fewer calories than non-AA women to maintain weight. Our objective was to determine in the setting of a controlled feeding study, if AA women required fewer calories than non-AA women to maintain weight. Materials and Methods This analysis includes 206 women (73% AA), aged 22–75 years, who participated in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial—a multicenter, randomized, controlled, feeding study comparing the effects of 3 dietary patterns on blood pressure in individuals with prehypertension or stage 1 hypertension. After a 3-week run-in, participants were randomized to 1 of 3 dietary patterns for 8 weeks. Calorie intake was adjusted during feeding to maintain stable weight. The primary outcome of this analysis was average daily calorie (kcal) intake during feeding. Results AA women had higher baseline weight and body mass index than non-AA women (78.4 vs 72.4 kg, P < .01; 29.0 vs 27.6 kg/m2, P < .05, respectively). During intervention feeding, mean (SD) kcal was 2168 (293) in AA women and 2073 (284) in non-AA women. Mean intake was 94.7 kcal higher in AA women than in non-AA women (P < .05). After adjustment for potential confounders, there was no difference in caloric intake between AA and non-AA women (Δ = −2.8 kcal, P = .95). Conclusion These results do not support the view that AA women are at greater risk for obesity because they require fewer calories to maintain weight.

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“…Our results are in agreement with several studies carried in the Black African American subject linked to a lower resting metabolic rate [ 111 ]. This study highlight elevated obesity prevalence in the black population [ 112 ].…”

Do we need race-specific resting metabolic rate prediction equations?

“…Lower RMR has been hypothesized to be a contributor to increase in obesity prevalence in AA 33,45 . AA women also have been shown to lose less weight despite similar adherence to interventions and it was attributed to lower energy requirements 46,47 . It has been previously shown that lower RMR predicted future weight gain in Pima Indians and pregnant AA women 12,48 .…”

“…Apart from the implication toward etiology of obesity, lower mRMR has practical ramifications in day-to-day clinical practice in determining daily caloric requirements by the dieticians in individuals who are attempting to lose weight. As the current validated formulas are flawed, some have suggested use of race-specific RMR formulas to improve accuracy of predicative equations 25,51 , but others have concluded that this discrepancy in RMR in AA is not clinically relevant 47,52 . Our study found that AA have a lower daily EE by an average 144 kcal/day compared with Caucasian participants of the same height, weight, age, and gender, and after adjustment for total fat mass and fat-free mass.…”