I don’t think you can burn calories without oxygen intake directly proportional to the calorie loss, so it’s actually an excellent measure. Is oxygen not what allows us to catalyze the energy in the first place?
That is correct. The core chemistry of animal life requires that oxygen is used at a directly proportional rate to metabolic rate. This makes oxygen use an excellent measure of energy use.
You can burn calories without oxygen (anaerobic metabolism), but it mainly occurs during really intense exercise or loss of blood flow. I think it ends up averaging out in the long run, but I’m not really finding answers at my reading level. At mild exertion levels, the o2-calorie relationship is basically 1:1.
The “true” answer would be a whole-room calorimeter, but thats a much more significant investment of time and resources.
Would that hold true for someone who just has better musculature in their legs, and needs more calories to maintain that muscle? I suppose the average difference in oxygen consumption standing versus sitting wouldn’t necessarily be impacted by muscle any more than it would be by anything else.
I don’t think you can burn calories without oxygen intake directly proportional to the calorie loss, so it’s actually an excellent measure. Is oxygen not what allows us to catalyze the energy in the first place?
That is correct. The core chemistry of animal life requires that oxygen is used at a directly proportional rate to metabolic rate. This makes oxygen use an excellent measure of energy use.
You can burn calories without oxygen (anaerobic metabolism), but it mainly occurs during really intense exercise or loss of blood flow. I think it ends up averaging out in the long run, but I’m not really finding answers at my reading level. At mild exertion levels, the o2-calorie relationship is basically 1:1.
The “true” answer would be a whole-room calorimeter,
but thats a much more significant investment of time and resources.
If that’s true, that makes more sense.
Would that hold true for someone who just has better musculature in their legs, and needs more calories to maintain that muscle? I suppose the average difference in oxygen consumption standing versus sitting wouldn’t necessarily be impacted by muscle any more than it would be by anything else.
Fair enough!