If you need to inhale at a slower rate than most people, is your body using oxygen more efficiently, or do you just have abnormally large lungs or something?

Question

i.e. Non-athlete having a resting breathing rate of 5-10 in comparison to the standard 12-20.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Needing oxygen is not the driving force behind how often/how deeply you breathe. There is a lot of oxygen in the air, and as long as your lungs are healthy, you will be able to get enough oxygen. So, breathing slower isn’t a sign of using oxygen more efficiently, since it doesn’t matter. What you *are* doing when you breathe less is getting rid of less CO2. If you make more CO2, you need to breathe more and vice versa. Too much or too little CO2 can affect the pH in your blood, so your body is good about making your you’re breathing enough to get rid of the right amount of CO2 (this is all assuming your lungs and everything else are healthy)