Name: ________________________________ Period: _________________ Date: _____________

Lesson 1 Why Do I Lose Weight When I Exercise? Study Guide

1. Based on the evidence collected in the activity where a corn chip was burned, what claim can you make
about the relationship between burning food outside the body and food reacting with oxygen inside the body?

2. What evidence supports the claim you made in the last question? Name at least 3 things.

3. Is burning food a good model for the chemical reaction that provides energy to cells of your body from food
that you eat? Explain your answer. What limitations does it have?

5. If energy can only be converted from one type to another, the energy you observed when the tortilla chip
burned must have come from another type. Where do you think the energy you observed when the tortilla
chip burned came from? What type of energy was it originally?
Name: ________________________________ Period: _________________ Date: _____________
Lesson 1 Why Do I Lose Weight When I Exercise? Study Guide
1. Based on the evidence collected in the activity where a corn chip was burned, what claim can you make
about the relationship between burning food outside the body and food reacting with oxygen inside the body?
Burning food outside of the body is similar to the process your body uses when food molecules react
with oxygen to provide energy.
Another possible claim is that there are some differences between burning food outside the body and
food molecules reacting with oxygen to provide energy inside the body, but there are more similarities.

2. What evidence supports the claim you made in the last question? Name at least 3 things.
The products and reactants of the chemical reactions are the same. Both use oxygen since the amount
decreased from _____ to _____ % in burning and decreased from _____ to _____ % in the air we
breathe in and out). Both produce carbon dioxide since it increased from ______ to _____ ppm in
burning and increase from _____ to _____ ppm in the air we breathe in and out.

Some of the energy conversions are the same. In both we observed thermal and kinetic energy being
produced (and maybe sound energy).

Some of the energy conversions are different, though. In burning we observed light energy being
released, but we did not observe the body releasing light energy. Also, burning released more energy as
thermal energy than the chemical reaction in the body does.
3. Is burning food a good model for the chemical reaction that provides energy to cells of your body from food
that you eat? Explain your answer. What limitations does it have?

Yes; because the products and reactants are the same and the energy conversions are similar, you can study
one chemical reaction to learn about the other. One limitation of using burning as a model for the chemical
reaction that happens in the cells to provide energy from food is that when food burns in the environment
there is an unlimited supply of oxygen. When food molecules react with oxygen in cells, the amount of oxygen
is limited because the blood must carry the oxygen to the site of the reaction. Because it is now a very
controlled reaction, there are no “flames” in the body. One other limitation is that because it is controlled, the
energy that is provided allows the cells to undertake various cellular activities, whereas in burning the energy
that is released is converted to thermal and light energy. However, in the cells, when food reacts with oxygen,
a large amount of energy is converted to thermal energy to maintain body temperature.

5. If energy can only be converted from one type to another, the energy you observed when the tortilla chip
burned must have come from another type. Where do you think the energy you observed when the tortilla
chip burned came from? What type of energy was it originally?The tortilla chip energy was from the chemicals
in the chip. It was being converted into the light, thermal, kinetic, and sound energy I observed.