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Old 05-09-07, 06:56 AM
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slowandsteady
Faster but still slow
 
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Originally Posted by Enthalpic
Yes the amount of work done to the bicycle will be identical if the above conditions are met. However, the number of calories burnt to produce that amount of work may vary slightly.



Considering that the circulatory and pulmonary systems do not work for free you just pointed out the first difference. The gasping person and the normal-breather may be delivering the same amount of oxygen, on a molar basis, but the unfit persons system is working harder due to all that chest flapping.

Other considerations:

Temperature regulation – buckets of sweat don’t fall off without some metabolic cost.

Primary macronutrient providing energy – the very fit person will be burning more fat and less carbs and protein than the gasper; all while generating less lactate and waste products like urea. Even if a calorie is a calorie (debatable) the differing systemic perturbations will also have differing chemical and energetic demands.
But is it a significant difference? NO.


It is the cruel joke for the fat unfit person trying to lose weight. They have to feel practically dead to burn roughly the same calories as the fit person who feels at worst, invigorated.

If it wasn't the case there would be essentially no fat people because no matter how fit or unfit you were, calorie expenditure would balance itself out.
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