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Updated: Aug 7, 2026
Body Composition and Metabolic Caging Analysis in High Fat Fed Mice
Published on: May 24, 2018
A twin study of weight loss and metabolic efficiency
V Hainer1, A Stunkard, M Kunesová
1Obesity Unit, 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, The First Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. vhai@lf1.cuni.cz
Objective:
To assess the genetic contribution to determinants of therapeutic weight loss in obese female identical twins.
Design:
Subjects were studied for 40 days on an inpatient unit in three phases: 7 baseline days; 28 days of weight reduction by a very low calorie diet (1.6 MJ per day); and 5 days after weight reduction.
Subjects:
Fourteen pairs of premenopausal obese female identical twins (age: 39.0+/-1.7 y; body weight (BW): 93.9+/-21.2 kg; body mass index (BMI): 34.2+/-7.8 kg/m2).
Measurements:
: Body composition by hydrodensitometry and resting metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry were assessed before and after weight loss.
Results:
: There was great variability among pairs in loss of weight (5.9-12.4 kg) and body fat (3.1-12.4 kg). By contrast, the intraclass correlation (ICC) within twin pairs was 0.85, P<0.001 for weight and 0.88, P<0.001 for body fat. A measure of metabolic efficiency, calculated as the difference between 'estimated' and 'measured' energy deficit showed high intrapair correlation (ICC=0.77; P<0.001).
Conclusions:
The high correlation in metabolic efficiency within twin pairs in response to therapeutic weight loss suggests a strong genetic contribution.
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