In 16-day-old conscious Zucker rats, at a time when pre-obese fa/fa rats were not yet hyperinsulinaemic compared with their lean Fa/fa littermates, the whole-body glucose-metabolism rate was decreased by 10% in pre-obese compared with lean pups. The markedly decreased glucose utilization found in brown adipose tissue (BAT) of pre-obese compared with lean pups accounted for at least 70% of the difference in whole-body glucose metabolism observed between the two genotypes. In pre-obese fa/fa rats, the 20% decrease in noradrenaline content of BAT reported in this study is consistent with the diminished glucose utilization by this tissue, and further supports the hypothesis of a defect in the sympathetic-nervous-system regulation of BAT metabolism as one of the primary causes for this genetic obesity.