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🫁 The Respiratory Quotient: What Your Breath Reveals About What You're Burning

RQ:
O2/CO2:
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🫁 The Respiratory Quotient: What Your Breath Reveals About What You're Burning

This simulator demonstrates how the respiratory quotient shifts along a continuum from about 0.7 to 1.0 depending on the proportion of fat versus carbohydrate being metabolized, and how it can even exceed 1.0 during active lipogenesis.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

This simulator demonstrates how the respiratory quotient shifts along a continuum from about 0.7 to 1.0 depending on the proportion of fat versus carbohydrate being metabolized, and how it can even exceed 1.0 during active lipogenesis.

🎮 How to Use

Adjust the fuel mix or overfeeding sliders to see how the calculated RQ changes in real time, and compare the resulting value against the reference points for pure fat, protein, and carbohydrate oxidation.

💡 Did You Know?

During intense sprint exercise, RQ can temporarily rise above 1.0 not from lipogenesis but from rapid buffering of lactic acid, which releases extra carbon dioxide independent of fuel oxidation.