Is There a Role for Nonprotein Calories in Developing and Evaluating the Nutrient Prescription?

The concept of nonprotein calories has been used in a variety of ways by nutrition support clinicians. Nonprotein calories may refer to the combined energy from lipid and carbohydrate but are also used to describe the balance between energy and protein in the form of the nonprotein calorie-to-nitrogen ratio. Nonprotein calories have been used as the basis for calculating nutrient needs, but this practice is no longer recommended as it may result in overfeeding. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nonprotein calorie concept using a clinical scenario and review of the literature.