ABSTRACT
The basal metabolic rate (BMR) of 70 postmenopausal women (age: 60.6±4.2 yrs., height: 154.9±5.2cm, body weight (BW) : 52.7±6.2kg; mean ±SD) was evaluated in relation to body composition (body fat mass (FM) : 17.3±3.9kg, lean body mass (LBM) : 35.3±3.6kg) . BMR was 1, 148±126kcal/day, 21.9±2.2kcal/kgBW/day, 32.7±3.2kcal kgLBM/day in all subjects. BMR (kcal/day) significantly correlated with BW (r=.635, p<0.001) and LBM (r=.598, p<0.001) . When divided into two groups, (lower %fat group (LF; <35%fat) and higher %fat group (HF; ≥35%fat) ), BW and FM were significantly higher in HF than in LF (BW: 56.6±6.4 vs 51.0±5.3 kg, FM: 21.7±2.8 vs 15.5±2.7 kg, p<0.001, respectively) . No difference was observed in LBM between the two groups (34.9±3.9 vs 35.5±3.5 kg) . BMR (kcal/kgBW/day) was lower in HF than in LF (21.0±1.8 vs 22.3±2.3, p<0.05), but HF group had higher BMR in terms of kcal/kgLBM/ day than LF (34.0±3.1 vs 32.1±3.1, p<0.05) . Multiple regression analysis was performed to predict BMR. A single predictor LBM and a pair of predictors LBM and FM explained 35.7% and 42.7% of the variance of BMR. This study suggested that a decrease in LBM is a major factor in affecting the reduction of BMR in postmenopausal women, whereas FM gained after menopause could be considered to have metabolic activity related to BMR.