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Nitrogen Loss in the Feces: The Variability of Excretion in Normal Subjects on Constant Dietary Intakes

Five Figures

The Russell Sage Institute of Pathology, the Department of Medicine of Cornell University Medical College, and The New York Hospital, New York, N.Y.

A survey was made of the variation in fecal nitrogen excretion of 4 normal healthy subjects on constant dietary intakes for 4 to 5 months.

1. During 99 metabolic periods of 7 days each in which the nitrogen intake was identical among the 4 subjects (14.42 gm daily), the fecal nitrogen ranged from 0.91 to 2.22 gm and the mean percentage fecal N/intake N ranged from 7.9 to 13.0%.

2. Variation in fecal nitrogen excretion was more marked from one subject to another than from period to period in the same individual.

3. Since appreciable variation in fecal nitrogen loss occurred under optimum conditions for constancy, it would be unwise in an individual experiment to assume fecal nitrogen to be either 10% of the intake nitrogen or a fixed value of 1.3 gm. For reliability, direct analysis of fecal nitrogen is indispensable.