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General statement
Recommendations on requirements
Recommendations for future research
Working Group: JL Dupont,1 JVGA Durnin,2 A Ferro-Luzzi,3 SB Roberts,4 B Schürch5 and PS Shetty6
1Agricultural
Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture,
Beltsville, MD 20705, USA; 2Department of Human
Nutrition, Yorkhill Hospitals, Glasgow G3 8SJ, Scotland, UK; 3Instituto
Nazionale della Nutrizione, Via Ardeatina 546, 00179 Rome, Italy;
4The Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center
on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA
02111, USA; 5International Dietary Energy Consultative
Group (IDECG), c/o Nestlé Foundation, P.O. Box 581,1001
Lausanne, Switzerland; 6Centre for Human Nutrition,
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2 Taviton Street,
London
WC1H OBT, UK
Descriptors:
energy requirements, energy expenditure, physical activity,
research needs
Typically, the energy
requirements of an individual can be expected to decrease with
age, due to decreases in both basal metabolism and physical
activity (thus giving a decrease in PAL). It is recognized,
however, that the older population is an extremely heterogeneous
group and that individuals may differ widely from the expected
norm in their changes in energy requirements with advancing
years.
1. Equations to predict BMR
from weight or weight and height should be revised to include
recently available data and to divide the older population into
three age ranges. The ranges 65-75, 76-85 and 86 + years are
suggested.
2. Recommendations on expected energy requirements (expressed in the PAL system) should be integrated into a PAL system appropriate for adults of all ages.
3. It is expected that the range of healthy PALs in the older population (defined as >65 years) is 1.5-1.8. Limitations in the availability of valid TEE data in the older population currently prevent specific recommendations on typical PALs in relation to age. However, it was agreed that in general PALs will decrease with increasing age over 65 years, that older men can be expected to have somewhat higher energy requirements than older women (because of a lower proportion of fat) and that individuals with high levels of physical activity will have higher values for PAL than individuals with low physical activity. The lower end of the recommended range for PAL, 1.5 units, does not represent the minimum expected level of energy requirements in the older population but rather the lower limit thought to be compatible with levels of physical activity required to prevent accelerated changes in muscle and bone. It is recommended that older individuals be sufficiently physically active to at least meet a PAL level of 1.5. Older individuals who are extremely sedentary may have undesirably low requirements down to 1.4 PAL.
Correspondence
to: B Schürch
Information is required to
determine representative values for PAL for light, moderate and
strenuous physical activity in the older population, because the
ranges of values will differ from those appropriate for younger
adults. Within the older population, determination of PAL for
three age groups (65-75, 76-85, 86+) and in both men and women is
important. Values for light, moderate and strenuous activity
should be representative of population data on physical activity
in this age group. In addition, information is required from
older individuals in both affluent and developing countries.