Ben works as a medical assistant he needs to take a patient’s vitals but the patient is refusing to cooperate he has an experienced this before so he decides to ask him to ask for advice

In regards to acetyl coa in the tca/kreb's cycle: how many cycles minimum would it take for an acetyl coa carbon to be removed? (what is the first step that this removal could happen? why can't we know for sure how many turns it takes?