VARIABILITY OF FECAL ENERGY CONTENT MEASURED IN HEALTHY WOMEN

The variability of daily stool energy losses was examined in six healt hy adult women over a complete menstrual cycle. On average, stool ener gy was 0.74 +/- 0.15 kJ/d (xBAR +/- SD) for the group. For a given ind ividual, daily stool energy varied up to twofold. The variability for rolling averages of daily fecal energy losses over 3-, 5-, and 7-d per iods showed no significant differences between collection periods of 3 and 5 d and 5 and 7 d. There was a close linear relationship between the energy content of the stool and either the wet or dry weight of st ool (range 17-460 g wet wt). In metabolic studies of healthy women rep resentative values for daily losses of energy in stool can be obtained from a 3-d collection. The energy content of wet stool was almost-equ al-to 7 kJ/g. Under field conditions, weighing the stool provides a si mple, useful method of assessing fecal energy losses.