• Question: Around how much energy does an average human contain?

    Asked by etherdenc09 to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Mark Burnley

      Mark Burnley answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      The average adult (70 kg) human contains (Hargreaves, 1991):

      7.5 megajoules (MJ) of muscle glycogen,
      1.17 MJ liver glycogen,
      0.2 MJ blood/extracellular glucose,
      292 MJ of fat (triglycerides),
      420 MJ of protein (in 32 kg of muscle)

      So, all together, about 720 MJ of energy (or 171,000 kilocalories).

      If you want to know how much energy the body could use under normal (non-starvation) circumstances, discount the muscle and 5-10% of the fat stores quoted above. I’ll leave you to calculate that!

    • Photo: Helen O'Connor

      Helen O'Connor answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Right now, this average human contains very little!

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