Brandon Davis
Davis Psychological Services, USA
Title: Metabolic Factor: A stable measure of biological predisposition for obesity
Biography
Biography: Brandon Davis
Abstract
A new metric called Metabolic Factor (Resting Metabolic Rate/Weight) has previously been established that can differentiate between people who are obese, overweight and of normal weight. Previous studies were re-analyzed and found that people who lost weight did not experience a change in their Metabolic Factor. The current study measured the Metabolic Factor of 18 individuals before and after bariatric surgery. As expected, individuals lost nearly 100 pounds and therefore lowered their Resting Metabolic Rate from 2,614.3 to 1,954.4 kcal (p < 0.05). However, the pre-operative Metabolic Factor of 8.1 (1.1) calories/pound did not change significantly as it slightly increased to 8.6 (0.88) after surgery (p = 0.19). Weight loss was not statistically significantly correlated with change in Metabolic Factor (r = 0.22). The follow up Metabolic Factor negatively correlated with post-operative BMI, r = -0.48 (p < 0.05), indicating the higher the Metabolic Factor, the lower the post-operative BMI. This study seems to establish the possibility that Metabolic Factor is not simply a function of one’s current weight, but instead might be a stable characteristic unique to each individual.