{"id":154,"date":"2010-03-13T03:06:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T02:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/?p=154"},"modified":"2010-03-10T03:15:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T02:15:29","slug":"e-letter-energy-expenditures-of-the-masai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2010\/03\/13\/e-letter-energy-expenditures-of-the-masai\/","title":{"rendered":"E-letter: Energy Expenditures of the Masai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This E-letter is in response to <em><strong>Daily energy expenditure and cardiovascular risk in Masai, rural\u00a0and urban Bantu Tanzanians<span style=\"font-style: normal\"><span style=\"font-weight: normal\"> <a href=\"http:\/\/bjsm.bmj.com:80\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/44\/2\/121\" target=\"_self\">Abstract<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/bjsm.bmj.com:80\/cgi\/content\/full\/44\/2\/121\" target=\"_self\">Full Article<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Mbalilaki and associates have reported very high\u00a0daily energy expenditures for a sample of Masai pastoralists and farmers\u00a0(56% of whom were women)(1). The stated average of 10.7 MJ\/day (2565\u00a0kcal\/day) appears to be a gross value for that part of the day when the\u00a0subjects were physically active, although this is not specifically\u00a0indicated in their paper. The expenditure is suggested as equivalent to\u00a019 km of walking, which would occupy a total of some 4 hours. The\u00a0remaining 20 hours would contribute at least a further 6 MJ of resting\u00a0energy expenditure, for a daily total of some 16.7 MJ or 4010 kcal. One\u00a0earlier Kofranyi-Michaelis respirometer study of traditional male Inuit\u00a0did observe daily expenditures ranging from 10.5 to 18.5 MJ\/day for\u00a0different categories of hunting in a harsh arctic environment (2).\u00a0However, the figure of 16.7 MJ\/day proposed for the Masai sample is\u00a0somewhat surprising on several counts, including the low average body\u00a0mass of the subjects (56.8 kg), the relatively low physical working\u00a0capacity seen in a previous Masai sample\u00a0(3) and the conclusions from at least one energy input-output analysis\u00a0that food requirements in this environment could be satisfied by working\u00a0only two days per week (4).<\/p>\n<p>One potential issue is the method adopted when determining\u00a0energy expenditures. Mbalilaki and associates (1) apparently based their\u00a0estimate on an interviewer-administered North American \u00a0questionnaire\u00a0(5), translated into Swahili and slightly adjusted for Tanzanian\u00a0conditions. The nature of these slight adjustments and their possible impact on test\u00a0validity are not discussed, but there are clearly important limitations\u00a0to the absolute accuracy of information obtained from most physical\u00a0activity questionnaires (including the instrument of Paffenbarger and\u00a0associates,\u00a05) even in an urban North American environment (6),and many of the items\u00a0listed in the published version of the instrument of Paffenbarger et\u00a0al.(5) would have little relevance to the Masai sample.<\/p>\n<p>Given the importance of understanding physical activity\u00a0patterns in populations that have a low prevalence of cardiovascular\u00a0risk factors, I hope that Mbalilaki and associates will soon find\u00a0opportunity to replicate their interesting observations, using currently\u00a0available and relatively inexpensive objective physical activity\u00a0monitors.<\/p>\n<p>Roy J. Shepard<br \/>\nProfessor Emeritus<br \/>\nUniversity of Toronto<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Mbalilaki JA, Msesa Z, Stromme SB et al. Daily energy\u00a0expenditure and cardiovascular risk in Masai, rural and urban Bantu\u00a0Tanzanians. Br J Sports Med 2010; 44: 121-126.<\/p>\n<p>2. Godin G, Shephard RJ. Activity patterns in the Canadian\u00a0Eskimo. \u00a0In: Edholm O, Gunderson EK, eds. Polar Human Biology, London, UK: \u00a0Heinemann, 1973.<\/p>\n<p>3. Wyndham CH, Strydom NB, Morrison JF et al. Differences\u00a0between ethnic groups in physical working capacity. \u00a0J Appl Physiol\u00a01963; 18: 361- 366.<\/p>\n<p>4. Lee RB. Kung bushmen subsistence: An input-output analysis.\u00a0In: \u00a0Vayda AP. Environment and cultural behavior. New York, NY: Natural\u00a0History Press.<\/p>\n<p>5. Paffenbarger RS, Blair SN, Lee IM et al. Measuring physical\u00a0activity to assess health effects in free-living populations. Med Sci\u00a0Sports Exerc 1993; 25: 60-70.<\/p>\n<p>6. Shephard RJ. Limits to the measurement of habitual physical\u00a0activity by questionnaires. Br J Sports Med 2003; 37: 197-206.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This E-letter is in response to Daily energy expenditure and cardiovascular risk in Masai, rural\u00a0and urban Bantu Tanzanians Abstract | Full Article Mbalilaki and associates have reported very high\u00a0daily energy expenditures for a sample of Masai pastoralists and farmers\u00a0(56% of whom were women)(1). The stated average of 10.7 MJ\/day (2565\u00a0kcal\/day) appears to be a gross [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2010\/03\/13\/e-letter-energy-expenditures-of-the-masai\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1105],"tags":[1598,1596,1597,1595],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-letters","tag-e-letter","tag-energy","tag-expenditure","tag-masai"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>E-letter: Energy Expenditures of the Masai - BJSM blog - social media&#039;s leading SEM voice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bjsm\/2010\/03\/13\/e-letter-energy-expenditures-of-the-masai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"E-letter: Energy Expenditures of the Masai - BJSM blog - social media&#039;s leading SEM voice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This E-letter is in response to Daily energy expenditure and cardiovascular risk in Masai, rural\u00a0and urban Bantu Tanzanians Abstract | Full Article Mbalilaki and associates have reported very high\u00a0daily energy expenditures for a sample of Masai pastoralists and farmers\u00a0(56% of whom were women)(1). 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