Questions on Cellular Respiration

Questions on Cellular Respiration

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Please answer the following questions:

1. 5 pts. Your estimated height is __________5 feet 4 inches____________. Your estimated weight is_________120 pounds___________.

Using your textbook’s BMI chart on pg 121 and your estimated height and weight, would you be considered healthy, overweight, or obese?

The body max index, the estimated body fat based on weight and height (Shuster et al. 102), is calculated by dividing an individual’s height by weight. As such, dividing my estimated height (5 feet 4 inches) by my estimated weight (120 pounds) gives me a BMI of 20.6. Therefore, according to the BMI chart in the textbook, I would be considered healthy.

2. 1 pt. According to the textbook, what is NEAT the acronym for?

According to the textbook, NEAT stands for Nonexercise activity thermogenesis.

2 pts. Name 2 NEAT activities that you are currently doing at this very moment.

1. Typing
2. Sitting

1 pt. According to the textbook and lecture voiceover, are you currently burning calories doing NEAT?

Nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is the energy spent on everything an individual does throughout the day except for formal exercising, sleeping, and eating (Levine). In this regard, NEAT activities include fidgeting, walking, sitting, and gardening. Notably, these activities help lower calories: the lecture voiceover and the textbook note that NEAT activities – including the two I have identified above (typing and sitting), help burn calories.

3. 3 pts. According to our lecture, in aerobic respiration (also called cellular respiration), you take your food (which has carbohydrates) you digest it, and convert it to the energy-rich molecule ATP. This process occurs in 3 stages. What are those 3 stages?

• Glycolysis
• Citric acid cycle
• Electron transport chain

2 pts. Which stage is most of the ATP generated?

Electron transport chain

4. 5 pts. According to our lecture, how does the presence or absence of oxygen affect ATP production (the terms aerobic respiration and fermentation should be used in your answer)?

Aerobic means “in the presence of oxygen” (Shuster et al. 113). Therefore, aerobic respiration, the production of ATP from food energy, requires oxygen to extract energy from food. In a typical aerobic respiration process, when oxygen is in plenty, aerobic respiration follows three steps: glycolysis, citric acid cycle, and electron transport chain. In glycolysis, food molecules like glucose are broken down into smaller molecules. This occurs in the cytoplasm. The smaller molecules then enter the mitochondria, where energy is converted into small ATP molecules through glycolysis. Next, in the citric acid cycle, a sequence of reactions helps extract energy from high-energy electrons from food. Essentially, high-energy electrons are removed from hydrogen and carbon atom bonds, which are then carried by NADH molecules to the inner surface of mitochondria. This process produces a small number of ATP molecules and releases carbon atoms in the form of carbon dioxide exhaled through the lungs. Finally, in the electron transport chain, the high-energy electrons from the citric acid cycle pass down a chain of molecules to oxygen, powering a series of reactions that lead to the formation of many ATP molecules. Then, oxygen combines these electrons with hydrogen to form water.

On the other hand, in the absence of oxygen, aerobic respiration comes to a halt. Essentially, without oxygen, NADH cannot transport high-energy electrons to the inner mitochondrial surface; therefore, the fermentation process (anaerobic respiration) occurs in place of the citric acid cycle and electron transport chain. Remarkably, the process of glycolysis continues to occur even without oxygen. As such, food molecules are broken down into smaller molecules (pyruvate) in the cytoplasm, producing small amounts of ATP. Electrons removed from the food molecules during glycolysis are taken by NAD⁺, forming NADH. As mentioned, since NADH cannot carry high-energy electrons to the electron transport chain without oxygen, NADH donates these electrons to pyruvate and produces products such as lactic acid (in animals) or alcohol (in plants). As a result, during the fermentation process, ATP is made only at the glycolysis stage, implying that the amount of ATP produced during the fermentation process (in the absence of oxygen) is lesser than the amount produced during aerobic respiration (in the presence of oxygen).

5. 5 pts. According to our lecture, explain what factors influence weight gain or weight loss and also tell what factors make it different for each individual person.

The major factor influencing weight gain or loss revolves around the number of Calories ingested and how they are expended. Notably, eating is essential for energy extraction and sustenance. Nonetheless, when one ingests more calories than they need, the extra energy is stored as glycogen in liver and muscle cells (short-term storage) and triglycerides in fat cells (long-term storage). Subsequently, one gains weight as more energy is stored as fat. Further, several other aspects influence the amount of energy stored. These include the portion and the type of food an individual eats. For instance, taking larger portions and eating foods containing large amounts of carbohydrates contribute to weight gain since the body stores the extra energy as fats. History is another factor that affects weight gain and weight loss. In the past, when famine cases were prevalent, peoples’ bodies stored food energy as fats to get them through when food was scarce. Consequently, human bodies have been evolutionary programmed to store excess calories as fats, even in these modern days when food is abundant, predisposing individuals to weight gain.

Moreover, factors like genetics, culture, lifestyle, and gender make weight gain or weight loss unique to every individual. For example, genetic factors determine the amount of food one needs and the rate at which a person burns energy (Shuster et al. 108). As such, it is common to find a person who gains much weight after eating little portions of food and another who barely gains weight even after eating large portions. Similarly, culture plays a role in weight gain. For instance, Shuster et al. note that a research study found that Americans take larger portions of food than their French counterparts (104-105). In such a scenario, an American individual is more susceptible to weight gain than a French individual. Next, the factor of gender revolves around the ratio of muscle mass to the fat content in one’s body. Generally, men produce more muscle-building hormones and have more muscle mass than women. Muscle cells burn more calories compared to fat cells; therefore, even if men eat larger portions of food than women, they would not gain much weight compared to women.

Works Cited

Levine, James A. “Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT).” Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 16, no. 4, 2002, https://doi.org/10.1053/beem.2002.0227.

Shuster Michèle, et al. “Chapter 6 Dietary Energy and Cellular Respiration.” Biology for a Changing World: With Physiology, W.H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY, 2012, pp. 102–117.

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Please answer the following questions:

1. 5 pts. Your estimated height is ______________________. Your estimated weight is____________________.

Using your textbook’s BMI chart on pg 121 and your estimated height and weight, would you be considered healthy, overweight, or obese?

2. 1 pt. According to the textbook, what is NEAT the acronym for?

2 pts. Name 2 NEAT activities that you are currently doing at this very moment.

A.

B.

1pt. According to the textbook and lecture voice-over, are you currently burning calories while doing NEAT?

3. 3 pts. According to our lecture, in aerobic respiration (also called cellular respiration), you take your food (which has carbohydrates), digest it, and convert it to the energy-rich molecule ATP. This process occurs in 3 stages. What are those 3 stages?

A.

B.

C.

2 pts. Which stage is most of the ATP generated?

4. 5 pts. According to our lecture, how does the presence or absence of oxygen affect ATP production (the terms aerobic respiration and fermentation should be used in your answer)?
5. 5 pts. According to our lecture, explain what factors influence weight gain or weight loss and also tell what factors make it different for each person.