Question

Tim weighs 196 pounds and is running on a treadmill at a constant speed and slop. You are measuring Tim’s volume of oxygen consumed (VO₂) and the volume of carbon dioxide produced (VCO₂) while he is running. You find that his VO₂ is 22.47 ml ∙ kg^-1 ∙ min^-1. Based on this information and a respiratory exchange ratio of 5 kcal/L how many kcal is Tim expending per minute (kcal/min)?

Answer 1

Determining Caloric Expenditure

Calculating caloric expenditure from VO₂.

1. Multiply the VO₂ value in ml/kg/min by the Tim’s weight in kilograms (convert pound to kg as 1 pound = 0.45359237 kg)

Result will be with a VO₂ value in ml/min.

2. Divide above value by 1,000 to convert VO₂ to L/min.

Once VO₂ is in liters,we can calculate how many kcal clients are expending during exercise. For every liter of oxygen consumed, approximately 5 kcal are burned, so kcal can be determined from VO₂ by using this conversion factor.

3. multiply VO2 in L/min with 5 kcal/L. we will get answer of kcal burning in min

Solution:

Weight of Tim = 196 pound = 88.90 kg

Step 1: 22.47ml/kg/min * 88.90kg = 1997.583 ml/min

Step 2: 1997.583/1000 = 1.997583L/min

Step 3: 1.997583 * 5 = 9.98kcal/min

Result: Tim is burning 9.98Kcal / min