Basal metabolic rate and dietary seasonality among Tibetan nomads

The results of 51 overnight measurements of basal metabolic rate (BMR) in a sample of pastoral nomads resident permanently in Phala, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, are reported. Past studies demonstrated a culturally driven seasonality of diet, with very low summer and very high winter caloric intake. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that the ability of Phala nomads to subsist on low caloric intake for several summer months without signs of malnutrition is explained by lower summer BMR. However, BMR measurements of 40 nomads 13-69 years of age during the summer and remeasurement of 11 nomads during the winter of 1993 provide no evidence for low summer BMR to compensate for the low summer caloric intake. BMR in both seasons is within the normal range predicted by international equations. The BMR of males does not differ from that of females, and the BMR of females averages 7% higher than predicted. Anthropometric evidence reveals that the Phala nomads accumulate body fat during the winter. It is inferred that this may buffer the summer period of low intake. The pattern of subcutaneous fat accumulation in winter, moreover, may afford slight improvement in physiological cold insulation during the severe winters as a consequence of depositing winter fat on the trunk rather than on the periphery. Thus, the dietary seasonality in Phala is a stress that elicits fluctuation in fat energy stores but not BMR. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.