Pedrianes-Martin PB, Martin-Rincon M, Morales-Alamo D, et al. - Treatment with antihypertensive medications that antagonize the renin-angiotensin system may confer normalization of elevated resting metabolic rate (RMR) per kg of lean body mass (LBM).

• Hypertension in obese and overweight patients is linked with an increased RMR.

• Participants were 174 volunteers; 93 (46.5 %) with hypertension, of which 16 men and 13 women were treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin blockers (ARB), while 30 men and 19 women with untreated hypertension formed the control group.

• Compared with ACEI/ARB-treated hypertensive women, the untreated ones exhibited 15% higher RMR normalized to the LBM.

• Patients taking ACEI/ARB had 2.9% lower RMR, post-accounting for LBM, whole-body fat mass, age, the double product (heart rate x systolic blood pressure), and the distance walked per day.

• Relative to males, untreated hypertensive overweight and obese females exhibited a greater RMR per kg of LBM, while this gender disparity was absent in patients treated with ACEI or ARBs.