Paul Deurenberg
Paul Deurenberg
Paul Deurenberg is a Dutch retired academic, nutritional biochemist, and consultant. He spent many years as an associate professor in the Department of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University (WU) and is best known for his work on energy metabolism, body composition, and how we measure and interpret body fat.
Education and early career
- BSc in chemistry from RWTH Aachen University (1969)
- MSc in chemistry and biochemistry from RWTH Aachen University (1971)
- PhD in chemistry from RWTH Aachen University (1973)
- Post-doctoral study in Nutrition in Maastricht, Netherlands (1979)
- Summer Course in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA (1981)
Career
- Lecturer in biochemistry and nutrition at the School for Dieticians in Heerlen (1969–1980)
- Senior Lecturer at the same school (1975–1980)
- Associate professor, Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University (1980–2002)
Research and contributions
- Deurenberg’s work bridged biochemistry, physiology, and nutritional epidemiology, focusing on energy metabolism, body composition, and food intake. He authored or co-authored more than 450 journal papers.
- Body composition: He studied fat, fat distribution, and body water across all ages. He was known for his work on bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and the importance of standardizing methods. He showed that while BIA can be useful in healthy people and those with certain diseases when using appropriate formulas, it is not recommended for routine patient assessment in people with hydration issues or extreme body weights.
- Body fat and BMI: He built on earlier work to develop formulas that estimate body fat percentage from BMI, highlighting that BMI has limitations because body fat varies by sex, age, and ethnicity. He collaborated with others to create equations to predict body composition from simple measurements and emphasized the need for population-specific obesity cutoffs.
- Ethnic differences: His research found important differences in how BMI relates to body fat among different ethnic groups, including Asians and people from Singapore. He showed that Asians can have higher body fat at lower BMI and urged considering ethnicity when assessing health risks related to weight.
- Hydration and fat-free mass: He explored the hydration of fat-free body mass and critiqued measurement methods, contributing to the understanding that hydration status can affect body composition estimates.
Energy metabolism
- Deurenberg studied resting metabolic rate (RMR) and diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT), including how body composition and fat distribution relate to energy expenditure. He examined how these factors vary with age, weight loss, and different body fat distributions, and he emphasized the importance of individual calibration for estimating energy expenditure.
Selected articles (representative works)
- Body mass index as a measure of body fatness: age- and sex-specific prediction formulas (British Journal of Nutrition, 1991)
- Body mass index and percent body fat: a meta-analysis among different ethnic groups (International Journal of Obesity, 1998)
- Asians are different from Caucasians and from each other in their body mass index/body fat percentage relationship (Obesity Reviews, 2002)
- Bioelectrical impedance analysis—Part I: review of principles and methods (Clinical Nutrition, 2004)
- Bioelectrical impedance analysis—Part II: utilization in clinical practice (Clinical Nutrition, 2004)
Impact
- Deurenberg’s work helped reshape how scientists and clinicians view body fat measurement and obesity risk. He highlighted the limitations of BMI, stressed the importance of ethnicity-specific considerations, and contributed to practical methods for estimating body fat and energy expenditure. His research underscored the need for standardized measurement techniques and individualized approaches in nutrition and health assessments.
This page was last edited on 1 February 2026, at 20:57 (CET).