A 55kg woman, Carmen, is training for a marathon. During her training run it is determined that she is consuming 2 liters of oxygen per minute. How many calories are expended for this activity?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Let's parse the question: Carmen is consuming 2 liters of oxygen per minute during a training run, and we want to estimate calories expended per minute from this oxygen usage.
Option 15 kcal/min: This would correspond to about 3 L/min of O2 (since 3 L × ~5 kcal/L ≈ 15 kcal). Since the given VO2 is 2 L/min, this overestimates energy cost and is not consistent with the typical caloric equivalent.
Option 20 kcal/min: This would imply roughly 4 L/min of O2 (4 L × ~5 kcal/L ≈ 20 kcal). Again, the measured VO2 is 2 L/min, so this option would require a higher oxygen uptake than provided, making it inaccurate.
Option 10 kcal/min: Using the common approximation that each liter of O2 consumed yields about 4.5–5 kcal of energy (often simplified to 5 kcal/L for quick estimates), a VO2 of 2 L/min produces about 10 kcal/min (2 L/min × 5 kcal/L = 10 kcal/min). This aligns with the standard metabolic energy cost for aerobic metabolism at moderate intensities.
Option 5 kcal/min: This would correspond to roughly 1 L/min of O2 (since 1 L × 5 kcal/L ≈ 5 kcal). Since the measured O2 uptake is 2 L/min, this option underestimates energy expenditure and is not consistent with the data provided.
In summary, applying the typical caloric equivalent of about 5 kcal for each liter of O2 consumed, 2 L/min of O2 translates to about 10 kcal/min. The other options either assume a much lower or higher O2 cost than what is given, leading to incorrect estimates.

A 55kg woman, Carmen, is training for a marathon. During her training run it is determined that she is consuming 2 liters of oxygen per minute. How many calories are expended for this activity?

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