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Background/Objectives: In South Africa (SA), the prevalence of obesity in women is 56%, with black women being most at risk (62%). Studies in the United States have demonstrated ethnic differences in resting (REE) and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) between African American (AA) and their white counterparts. We investigated whether differences in EE exist in black and white SA women, explaining, in part, the ethnic obesity prevalence differences. Subjects/Methods: We measured REE, TDEE and physical activity EE (PAEE) in lean (BMI 30 kg [m.sup.-2]) SA women (N=44, 30[+ or -]6 year). REE, TDEE, PAEE and total awake EE were measured during a 21 h stay in a respiration chamber. Results: Black and white subjects within obese and lean groups were not significantly different for age, mass, BMI and % body fat. However, fat-free mass (kg FFM) was consistently lower in the black women (P Conclusions: In this sample of matched, lean and obese, black and white SA women, differences in TDEE were largely explained by ethnic differences in PAEE, and were not as a result of ethnic differences in REE. doi:10.1038/ejcn.2008.8; published online 13 February 2008 Keywords: ethnic differences; energy expenditure; physical activity, Introduction Studies (Albu et al., 1997; Carpenter et al., 1998; Hunter et al., 2000; Lovejoy et al., 2001; Sharp et al., 2002; Weinsier et al., 2002) have reported lower resting [...]