The effect of the preceding day's protein intake on basal metabolic rates in young adults

1. Changes in basal metabolic rates (BMR), following alterations in the preceding day's dietary protein (8.6, 11.5 and 14.0% of energy) were studied in eight, young, healthy adults over 4 d. 2. Results showed a significant training effect, with BMR values 4.8% lower on day 4 of the study period. Analysis of the results by ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between subjects and diets (P less than 0.005), a significant difference between subjects but no differences in BMR due to the protein content of the diets. 3. Mean coefficient of variation (CV) for intra- and inter-individual differences in BMR from day-to-day was of the order of 4 and 9% respectively. 4. Changes in protein content of the preceding day's diet do not influence variations in BMR which appear to be random in nature with a true CV of 3.8%.