Ann Nutr Metab. 1992 ; 36(3): 141-7.

Thermic responses to vegetarian meals and yoga exercise.

Agte V, Chiplonkar S.

Department of Biometry and Nutrition, Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science, Pune, India.

The thermic effect (TEF) of vegetarian meals was measured for breakfast and lunch in 6 lean healthy men (18-25 years) during normal feeding (NF) and with 20% overfeeding (OF) on 28 successive days. The energy contents of breakfast were 223 +/- 10 and 330 +/- 48 kcal, and those of lunch were 1,033 +/- 220 and 1,247 +/- 222 kcal in NF and OF, respectively. In NF, the TEF per 180 min was 32.7 +/- 8.6 and 54.8 +/- 6.3 kcal for breakfast and lunch, respectively. In OF, the TEF was 38.3 +/- 8.3 kcal for breakfast and 57.2 +/- 5.4 kcal for lunch. The increase in total TEF due to OF was nonsignificant (p greater than 0.2). In response to 20% OF, adaptive thermogenesis was manifested mainly through an increase in the resting metabolic rate of 4.9% (p less than 0.001). In both feeding, regimes, the percent TEF was higher for breakfast than for lunch (p less than 0.05). Regression analysis of TEF versus calorie load indicated a stable component of 42 kcal with a 2% rate of increase. Yoga exercises were performed from 16.00 to 17.00 daily. The thermic effect of yoga exercises observed from 17.10 to 18.30 was 21 kcal and persisted beyond 90 min, indicating the role of yoga in energy metabolism.