A cross-sectional study was designed to determine the relationship between aerobic fitness and resting metabolic rate (RMR) in 69 males exhibiting a wide range of aerobic fitness levels (VO2max = 32.8-78.1 mL.kg-1.min-1). The results of this study indicated that RMR was not significantly different between trained and untrained individuals when expressed in kJ.kg fat-free weight-1.hr-1 or using an ANCOVA with fat-free weight as the covariate and RMR as the dependent variable (F ratio = 0.353, P less than 0.70). In addition, this study also failed to support a previously suggested hypothesis that an elevated RMR may only be observed in those individuals exhibiting both high VO2max values and currently training a minimum of 12-16 h/wk. Thus, the results of this study strongly suggest that RMR is independent of both a person's current aerobic level and training status.