The Nation - News from July 10, 1986

The number of calories people burn when they are resting appears to be inherited, possibly explaining how obesity may be passed down through families, a new study said. In the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Clifton Bogardus of the National Institutes of Health said in Phoenix he found strong evidence that the basal metabolic rate may explain how the tendency to become obese is passed along. The rate was measured by the amount of oxygen consumed and the amount of carbon dioxide produced. The results showed the standard method of calculating the rate by body size, age and sex was only 83% accurate, Bogardus said.