Greater male variability in daily energy expenditure develops through puberty

Halsey, Lewis G. and Careau, Vincent and Ainslie, Philip N. and Alemán-Mateo, Heliodoro and Andersen, Lene F. and Anderson, Liam J. and Arab, Leonore and Baddou, Issad and Bandini, Linda and Bedu-Addo, Kweku and Blaak, Ellen E. and Blanc, Stephane and Bonomi, Alberto G. and Bouten, Carlijn V. C. and Bovet, Pascal and Brage, Soren and Buchowski, Maciej S. and Butte, Nancy F. and Camps, Stephan G. and Casper, Regina and Close, Graeme L. and Colbert, Lisa H. and Cooper, Jamie A. and Cooper, Richard and Dabare, Prasangi and Das, Sai Krupa and Davies, Peter S. W. and Deb, Sanjoy and Nyström, Christine Delisle and Dietz, William and Dugas, Lara R. and Eaton, Simon and Ekelund, Ulf and Hamdouchi, Asmaa El and Entringer, Sonja and Forrester, Terrence and Fudge, Barry W. and Gillingham, Melanie and Goris, Annelies H. and Gurven, Michael and Haisma, Hinke and Hambly, Catherine and Hoffman, Daniel J. and Hoos, Marije B. and Hu, Sumei and Joonas, Noorjehan and Joosen, Annemiek and Katzmarzyk, Peter and Kempen, Kitty P. and Kimura, Misaka and Kraus, William E. and Kriengsinyos, Wantanee and Kuriyan, Rebecca and Kushner, Robert F. and Lambert, Estelle V. and Lanerolle, Pulani and Larsson, Christel L. and Lessan, Nader and Löf, Marie and Martin, Corby K. and Matsiko, Eric and Meijer, Gerwin A. and Morehen, James C. and Morton, James P. and Must, Aviva and Neuhouser, Marian and Nicklas, Theresa A. and Ojiambo, Robert M. and Pietilainen, Kirsi H. and Pitsiladis, Yannis P. and Plange-Rhule, Jacob and Plasqui, Guy and Prentice, Ross L. and Rabinovich, Roberto and Racette, Susan B. and Raichen, David A. and Ravussin, Eric and Redman, Leanne and Reilly, John J. and Reynolds, Rebecca M. and Roberts, Susan and Samaranayake, Dulani and Sardinha, Luís B. and Schuit, Albertine J. and Silva, Analiza M. and Sinha, Srishti and Sjödin, Anders M. and Stice, Eric and Stunkard, Albert and Urlacher, Samuel S. and Valencia, Mauro Eduardo and Valenti, Giulia and van Etten, Ludo M. and Van Mil, Edgar A. and Verbunt, Jeanine A. and Wells, Jonathan C.K. and Wilson, George and Wood, Brian and Yoshida, Tsukasa and Zhang, Xueying and Murphy-Alford, Alexia and Loechl, Cornelia and Luke, Amy and Pontzer, Herman and Rood, Jennifer and Sagayama, Hiroyuki and Westerterp, Klaas R. and Wong, William W. and Yamada, Yosuke and Speakman, John R., IAEA DLW Database Consortium (2023) Greater male variability in daily energy expenditure develops through puberty. Biology Letters, 19 (9). 20230152. ISSN 1744-9561 (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0152)

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Abstract

There is considerably greater variation in metabolic rates between men than between women, in terms of basal, activity and total (daily) energy expenditure (EE). One possible explanation is that EE is associated with male sexual characteristics (which are known to vary more than other traits) such as musculature and athletic capacity. Such traits might be predicted to be most prominent during periods of adolescence and young adulthood, when sexual behaviour develops and peaks. We tested this hypothesis on a large dataset by comparing the amount of male variation and female variation in total EE, activity EE and basal EE, at different life stages, along with several morphological traits: height, fat free mass and fat mass. Total EE, and to some degree also activity EE, exhibit considerable greater male variation (GMV) in young adults, and then a decreasing GMV in progressively older individuals. Arguably, basal EE, and also morphometrics, do not exhibit this pattern. These findings suggest that single male sexual characteristics may not exhibit peak GMV in young adulthood, however total and perhaps also activity EE, associated with many morphological and physiological traits combined, do exhibit GMV most prominently during the reproductive life stages.

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