We appreciate the enthusiasm of Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (
1
) for investigating depression and daily stressors as putative contributors to obesity.
However, the use of the linear extrapolation known as the “3500 kcal rule” erroneously
estimates the expected weight change contribution of these factors to obesity. The
3500 kcal rule is an estimation of the calorie amount required to cause 1 lb of weight
change that is frequently, but erroneously, used to calculate weight loss or gain
from changes in energy intake and expenditure (
2
).To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
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National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Body weight simulator. Available at :http://www.niddk.nih.gov/research-funding/at-niddk/labs-branches/LBM/integrative-physiology-section/body-weight-simulator/Pages/body-weight-simulator.aspx. Accessed July 29, 2014.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 08, 2014
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© 2015 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- Stress, Depression, and Metabolism: Replies to Bohan Brown et al. and Barton and YancyBiological PsychiatryVol. 78Issue 4
- PreviewWe recently reported adverse metabolic alterations related to stress and depression following high-fat meals (1). In their response our article, Bohan Brown et al. (2) raise an interesting question related to our caloric calculations; they suggest that the differences we observed would translate to a gain of 6.4 lb/year compared with the 10.8 lb/year that we had computed based on the 3500 kcal rule. Their argument is based on newer literature that has primarily addressed decreased caloric expenditure as weight loss occurs, but we acknowledge that the state of the field is such that we cannot calculate the total caloric impact over time with certainty.
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