Question

why would someone doing an experiment of metabolism will include both routine and mass specific oxygen consumption data?

Answer 1

The answer to this question is as metabolism is a generic term for all the chemical reactions that breakdown or burn food to provide energy for the operation of an organism.The word burn is used advisely, because the energy yield from a food in the human metabolic process is comparable to energy obtained by actual combustion.The energy available from a food is commonly stated in dietary calories, and the calorie rating of a food may actually be obtained by burning it in a pure oxygen atmosphere.The metabolism of food requires a supply of oxygen and produces carbon dioxide as a combustion product.

For various food one can state a representative energy yield,an amount of oxygen required.The amount of energy produced for the types of food is roughly proportional to the amount of oxygen use,so that the metabolic rate can be measured by measuring the rate of oxygen consumption, and it is also necessary for ATP synthesis by oxidative phosphorylation in the metabolism process.