Do we lose weight by respiration ? (Losing carbons)

Astra-Rudra

We take in Oxygen (O2) & give Carbon dioxide (CO2) .
Say a guy somehow does not digest any food or fat for 5 min .. So will lose weight equal to all the "C" lost from his body in that 5 min ??

CompuChip

I recall having heard this story once (I'm going to abuse your thread to check whether it was actually true :-)) about someone who actually performed the experiment.
He constructed a very accurate scale, and sat on it for 24 hours. All the changes in his mass were accurately recorded: how much food and water he took in, how much he sweat, urinated, ... At the end there was a small amount of mass actually missing from the balance. Allegedly, this was due to the fact of him breathing out more mass than he breathed in (namely, one molecule of C for every oxygen molecule).

I actually wonder whether this story can be true (I suppose that the mass you lose in C-molecules is really, really, REALLY very tiny, possibly smaller than the uncertainties in your other measurements, like sweat excretion).

It does contribute however, so if you wanted to make it really accurate, you would at least have to include this effect (based on an average lung volume, respiration rate, etc) you would be able to estimate this effect.

Astra-Rudra

thx .. i have no interest on losing weight .. lol .. just wanted to know . thx

CompuChip

Did a quick-and-dirty calculation, based on the following data:

* 7,5 litres of air per minute (source, fig 1)
* air weighs 28.97 g/mol (source) of which 20.95 % vol is O₂ (source)
* for every 5 molecules of O₂ one molecule of C is exhaled (i.e. 20% of the O₂ is converted to CO₂ - could not find a source for this so it's a wild guess)
* C weighs in at 12,01 grams per mole
* all other properties of the air (non O[sub]2[sub]-components, density, moistness / saturation) are unchanged

According to my rusty chemistry, punching in this numbers, you lose a little under 1 gram every 5 minutes, as long as you breathe. Since all the calculations are linear, it's easy to adjust for changes (e.g. if you want to convert all the O₂, multiply by 5; if you want to double the intake of air volume, multiply by 2, etc.)

Note that 1 gram, is also 1 ml of water. So although the number is not as small as I suspected, you probably lose more weight water every minute (through breathing in dry air and breathing out damp air, as well as sweating) than in C every 5 minutes :P

You are right though, if you wanted to lose weight, this would be a bad way to start :P

Ygggdrasil

Well when we think of losing weight, we think of burning calories. When we convert fuel (carbohydrates and fat) into energy, we produce carbon dioxide and water. For example, for glucose:

C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ --> 6H₂O + 6CO₂

Now most of the mass of the water produced comes from oxygen (during oxidative phosphorylation, hydride ions are transfered to oxygen to produce water). So, by this logic, when we are burning calories, most of the mass of the mass of the fuel molecules is going away as carbon dioxide!

JerryClower

There is definitely a difference in the weight of the change, but it is probably too small for measure or significance.

jselin

I thought this conclusion was common knowledge. We are in effect, "burning" our food as fuel. Whatever we don't excrete out the back or build fat and proteins with we breathe out as "exhaust".