3.4. Reduced physical activity in chronic energy deficiency

Perhaps the most often mentioned result of chronic energy deficiency, after small body size and reduced BMR, is decreased physical activity. As a way of adapting to low energy intake, this is quite logical, but the objective evidence to describe its occurrence in real life is scanty. This topic has been treated elsewhere (PARÍZKOVÁ 1983) and it is not intended to review it here. But the lack of available information makes studies of the patterns of energy expenditure in populations at nutritional risk imperative.