The effects of supplementation of the diet with highly palatable foods upon energy balance in the rat.

Full energy balance studies have been performed for 9 weeks on four groups of four adult female rats housed in a continuously running indirect calorimeter; for four weeks two of the groups received highly palatable foods in addition to a standard pelleted diet. A further sixteen groups, of which eight received the palatable foods, provided additional carcass composition data. All practicable precautions were taken to measure energy exchange accurately. Comparison of 'start-to-finish' apparent energy balance with carcass composition changes showed a systematic error of approx. +3% of energy throughput. This was most probably caused by losses of energy in food and excreta, which led to over-estimation of energy intake. Variations among individual balance periods added a standard error of approx. +/- 1%: the source of error here was probably imperfect matching of animals analysed at intermediate stages. The rats offered the palatable foods increased their metabolizable energy (m.e.) intake by 106 kJ/day, 51% of the control groups' intake, in the first week of supplementation. Over the whole 4 weeks of supplementation the increase was 64 kJ/day, or 31%. Withdrawal of the palatable foods led to an immediate fall in intake to about two-thirds of control level, and a return to control level over the next 2-3 weeks. Energy expenditure rose more slowly than intake, reaching a fairly steady level ca. 5 days after introduction of the palatable foods. Expenditure was then ca. 22 kJ/day above control level; an increase of 12% above control expenditure or, allowing for systematic and random errors, 33-37% of the additional m.e. intake. Expenditure returned to control level over the 2 weeks after ceasing supplementation. The experimental groups gained weight at a declining rate throughout the period of supplementation. The gain in live body weight at the end was ca. 32 g, but this comprised a carcass weight gain of 37 g and a loss of 5 g gastrointestinal tract contents. The carcass weight gain comprised 27 g fat (i.e. ca. 70% of the weight gained), 9 g lean tissue and 1 g additional water. The gain of carcass energy was 1100 kJ. There was a small increase in body length, an increase in liver weight, and an increase in the weight of the interscapular brown adipose tissue pad. Regression analysis showed that the increase in the weight of the interscapular brown adipose tissue pad reflected the increase in total body fat.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)