Summary
Analysis of the results of studies of the energy exchange in obesity, in regard to their evidence for or against a passive dependence of the excessive energy stores on the balance between the inflow and the outflow of energy, indicates that these stores have a significant degree of independence of the energy balance. This ppears to necessitate an explanation of obesity on the basis of some intrinsic metabolic defect. The decline in energy expenditure which occurs when the obese go on low calorie diets appears to have the same significance as it has when people of normal weight are subjected to undernutrition. A treatment of obesity, alternate to that of caloric restriction, takes into account the metabolic defect in obesity, aims at a primary decrease in the excessive energy stores, and allows for weight reduction without any decline in the energy expenditure and without any enforcement of caloric restriction.
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Pennington, A.W. Obesity: Overnutrition or disease of metabolism?. Amer. Jour. Dig. Dis. 20, 268–274 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02881331
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02881331