The caloric allotment with Squad A was determined primarily with a view to lowering the body-weight to approximately 10 per cent below the initial weight and subsequently providing sufficient calories to maintain the body-weight at that level. It was believed that with a group of 12 men the body-weight, carefully measured over a period of several days, if not weeks, could be taken as an index of caloric requirement for weight maintenance. The total amount of calories required to hold the body-weight at maintenance level would thus be the amount actually required for the daily activity of this group of men. Had there been but one subject, we could have apportioned the total daily calories in one meal or one allotment and allowed the subject to eat as freely as he chose throughout the day, either in three meals or in more, if he wished. With certain members of our squad this plan might have been very successful, for not infrequently the desire to eat away from the table was disquietingly strong. For a group of men, however, this method of procedure would give a less strict control. We therefore considered it best for the men to eat at the table under the supervision of a member of the Laboratory staff.

The caloric allotment was not regular from day to day. One might ask why a definite number of calories was not assigned each day, for theoretically this would have been the proper procedure. Practically the caloric allotment was in large part decided by the character of the food served in the regular mess hall by the chef on that particular day. If the food was especially fat-rich, the energy was liable to be large; if it was fat-poor, the energy was low, for we usually attempted to serve small portions, irrespective of the character of the food itself. Consequently, an examination of the tables giving the daily intakes of nitrogen and energy shows relatively large fluctuations from day to day. On the other hand uniform average levels for the intake of energy may be found with practically all the subjects for periods of weeks, as shown in nearly all the tables. These average levels have been blocked in on the body-weight curves (see figs. 57 to 68), the energy intake being in this case the net calories - that is, the caloric intake less the calories of urine and feces.

An inspection of these curves shows that the net calories during comparable periods of time remained fairly uniform from individual to individual. Obviously the large men as well as the more active men required more calories. While there were wide fluctuations from day to day, the averages for a week or ten days are alone to be considered. This method of allowing a reasonably free food intake, without stipulation as to the exact number of calories or grams of nitrogen for each day, made it much easier to use the food ordinarily served in the dining room and thus provide the necessary variety. We still see no reason for altering this procedure.

In summation, therefore, we should state that the diets given to these subjects were, so far as character is concerned, those ordinarily employed in the dining-room. A great variety of foods was supplied. No special dietetic control, such as special amounts of protein, fats, or carbohydrates, was insisted upon. The sole aim was to alter the energy sufficiently to produce loss in body-weight to a definite point and thereafter to increase the energy only when needed to hold the body at that weight-level.