694 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



diabetic, together with the course of the disease, almost invariably 

 results in a great loss of fat and not a little nitrogenous tissue; hence 

 we believe that the loss of nitrogen as well as loss of flesh in the diabetic 

 contributes towards this lowered metabolism after the cellular stimulus 

 of acidosis has been removed by the Allen fasting treatment. 



CALORIC REQUIREMENT FOR WEIGHT MAINTENANCE. 



In the discussion of the caloric intake at weight maintenance (see 

 p. 283), emphasis was laid upon the fact that if the body- weight were 

 held at a constant level for a sufficient length of time (probably months 

 rather than weeks), the net caloric intake could be rationally taken 

 as a measure of the caloric requirement. 



Certain difficulties were experienced in finding sharply marked 

 periods of body-weight maintenance covering a considerable length 

 of time in this series of tests, and in no other phase of the research do 

 we regret more the necessity for the uncontrolled period during the 

 Christmas recess. There were, however, two periods of reasonably 

 constant weight which appear on the several charts for Squad A. From 

 an inspection of these data we inferred that weight maintenance at 

 the lower level was held with net calories ranging from 1,600 calories 

 for Kon, Pec and Tom to 2,500 calories for Can. The average for the squad 

 was approximately 1,950 net calories. Since the intake prior to diet 

 restriction was somewhat over 3,000 calories, and Squad B, living under 

 substantially the same conditions aside from diet, required nearer 3,800 

 calories, it can be seen that the diet for Squad A at these periods of 

 weight-maintenance was a reduction of from one-third to nearly 

 one-half of the normal diet. 



Emphasis must be laid again, however, upon the fact that the body- 

 weight is an extremely unsatisfactory and indeed crude index of 

 caloric needs, unless maintained for a much longer period of time than 

 was possible in these experiments. Recourse was had, therefore, to 



other criteria. 



BASAL GASEOUS METABOLISM. 



From two entirely independent types of respiration experiments 

 certain fundamental data were available to show profound alterations 

 in basal metabolism of all of these subjects following the reduction in 

 diet. These reductions in basal metabolism were not only absolute — 

 that is, each member of the squad had a basal metabolism very much 

 lower at the end of the experiment than at the beginning — but they 

 were likewise relative, for the basal metabolism on both of the two 

 usual comparison bases, namely, the heat production per kilogram of 

 body-weight and per square meter of body-surface, showed reductions 

 approximating 15 to 20 per cent. On the more logical method of 

 comparison of the basal metabolism with the predicted values from a 

 series of tables based upon an extensive study of normal data obtained 

 in this Laboratory, it would likewise seem that whereas these men at the 



