Mathalicious 2011

lesson
guide

CALORIES IN, CALORIES OUT

Whats the mathematics behind gaining and losing weight? For all the money spent each year
on fancy diets, gym memberships, nutritional supplements, etc., its actually really simple: if
you burn more fuel than you consume, you lose weight; and if you consume more than you
burn, you gain weight.

In this lesson, well explore the three components of calories in & outResting Metabolic
Rate, eating and exerciseand will use the order of operations (PEMDAS) to develop a deep
understanding of how they work together.

Note: As you probably know, approximately 1 in 3 American children are overweight or obese, while many others struggle
with anorexia or even bulimia. To avoid insecurities, teasing, etc.in other words, typical middle school behaviorthe
lesson does NOT ask students to calculate their own RMRs . You may further de-personalize the issue by stressing that a
human body is fundamentally no different than a car or any other machine: something that requires fuel for optimal
functioning. This will allow students to distinguish between their bodies and themselves as people and take the emotion out
of what can be the very rational, mathematical decision-making of monitoring calories.

Students Will

Calculate the number of calories consumed, given someones daily diet,

Calculate the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) using a 3 variable formula
Analyze the formula for RMR and explain the relationship among weight, height, age, gender and RMR
Calculate number of calories burned per minute of exercise, and determine how long it would take to burn off foods by
multiplying fractions and whole numbers
Model how food, RMR & exercise all contribute to body weight
Create and communicateincluding a visual representation--an appropriate diet and fitness plan, given someones
weight goals

Common Core Standards

Grade 6

EE.2a, EE.2c, EE.6

Materials

Student Handout
Presentation
LCD projector & speakers

Approximate Time
75-100 minutes

Before Beginning
Students should be familiar with how to follow the order of operations and evaluate expressions with multiple variables.

Plot Summary & Teaching Tips

Preview

5-10 min.

People arent obese. Bodies are. This may sound semantic, but distinguishing between self and body will help students
approach the lesson objectively, and to view their bodies as a machine like any other.
Well begin by watching a 3-minute clip from PBS NewsHour about the obesity epidemic in Mississippi and the states attempts
to remedy it. Students discuss what causes a body to become obese, and obvious candidates include overeating & a lack of
exercise. Students should recognize that these are all variations of an imbalance of calories in and calories out.
They should also recognize what calories are: fuel. Like a car, the body needs fuel to operate.

Follow-Up Questions

What does the body use for fuel?

What happens if you try to overfill a cars gas tank? If you try to overfill a stomach?
Why do bodies have fat?
What are some of the health consequences of obesity, and why does being obese increase the odds of a heart attack?
How are income & obesity related? (Students may assume that people with lower incomes are more likely to be obese.
This may be truein certain countries. Its worth pointing out that developing countries dont have obesity epidemics.)
Why might it have been advantageous at one point for humans to store extra fuel or energy as fat?

Act One

15-20 min.

The narrative flow of the lesson is as follows. Act One looks at how calories come in: food. Acts Two and Three focus on the two
mechanismsone passive, one activeby which calories go out. The first calorie out mechanism is the Resting Metabolic
Rate: what your body burns automatically from digestion, heart rate, etc. The second is exercise. To help students understand
how these all work together to affect body weight, well follow four people through the entire lesson: Bradley, Hannah, Arthur &
Ernestine. Students will calculate what theyre taking in, what is being used up or going out, and then will predict consequence
of the resulting imbalance.
In Act One, students calculate the total amount of calories going into a body from different combinations of foods (using data
provided in the handout). The key insight is that fast food offers a lot of calories for little money, whereas healthier options
tend to be more expensive.

Follow-Up Questions

Why might someone need more than 2000 calories, and why might someone need less?
Though the lesson does not specifically ask for it, consider having students calculate the cost per calorie ($/cal.) for each
food item; alternatively they can calculate the number of calories they can get for $1 (cal./$).
Do you think the 12 year-old Bradley needs to eat 2000 calories? If not, do you think hed need more or less?
Is eating five apples (5 x 72 calories) equivalent to eating one McChicken (360 calories)?
Per calorie, which is the least expensive food, and why is fast food so much cheaper than healthy food?
At McDonalds, are the healthier options (e.g. grilled chicken, salad, oatmeal) more expensive than the unhealthy ones?

Act Two

20-25 min.

Now well look at the first way a body burns calories. The Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is the number of calories a body burns
from breathing, digestion, etc. A simple way to think of it is the number of calories youd burn if you stayed in bed all day. The
RMR is a function of gender, weight, height & age and can be found using the following expressions:
RMR, Male

RMR, Female

4.5w + 15.9h 5a + 5

4.5w + 15.9h 5a 161

w = weight (pounds)
h = height (inches)
a = age (years)

Though the handout only asks a handful of questions, you could spend a long time exploring these expressions with
studentsand we encourage you to do exactly that. (See the follow-up questions below for suggestions.) Students should
recognize that:

all things being equal, men require 166 more calories than do women,

the coefficients really mean that when you gain a pound your body needs 4.5 additional calories each day,

getting older by a year requires five fewer calories.

The most challenging part of this lesson will come when students use the diagrams below to determine who has the higher
RMR. Youll notice that the specific heights & weights arent listed, so students will need to approach these logically. One
method is to determine which person has the calorie advantage for each criteria, e.g:

Gender

--

--

--

--

Weight

--

--

--

--

Height

--

Age

+15

--

--

--

RMR+

Right

Unknown

+166

Right

+166

+166

+166

--

--

--

--

--

--

+25

+170

+50

Right

Left

Unknown

Once students solve the puzzle, well return to the heart of the matter: calories. Specifically, students will calculate how many
calories each character is netting after their RMR burn. In Act One Arthur ate 5155 calories. His RMR is 3198, which is what his
body will burn automatically. Thus hell leave Act Two with 5155 3198 = 1957 excess calories. If he were to go to bed
without burning any additional calories, hed gain weight.

Follow-Up Questions

All things being equal, how many more calories does a man need than a woman?
What would cause the RMR to go down, and could it ever be negative? (Ans: consider a newborn girl.)
At what point in your life is your RMR the greatest?
At what point in your life does your RMR change the most? (This is particularly apropos for growth-spurt teens!)
Can you change the weight without changing the height? Change the height without changing the weight?

Act Three

10-15 min.

Arthur enters Act Three with 1957 calories still in his belly. In this section well explore the second component of calories out:
those burned from exercise. (Youll notice that bodies burn calories the same way a car burns fuel. Students may
appreciate the vocabulary tidbit.) The number of calories a body burns during exercise is a function of the bodys weight and
the type of exercise. For instance, one minute of walking burns 0.036 calories for every pound of body weight. Therefore:
Weight

115 lb.

507 lb.

Calories Burned in One Minute

115 x 0.036 = 4.14 cal./min.

507 x 0.036 = 18.25 cal./min.

Students use this to calculate how long each person would have to exercise to burn off the calories leftover from Act Two.

Follow-Up Questions

How long would it take to burn off an apple? A Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Extra Value Meal??
Should we really count calories burned from sitting still, or are these already included in the RMR?
How many calories do we burn from other types of activities? (Click here for more info.)

Act Four

15-20 min.

At this point students have the three pieces of the puzzle: calories in via food, calories out passively via RMR and calories out
actively via exercise. Now its time to put them together and predict weight gain or loss The key insight is that if a body ends
the day with positive calories itll gain weight; if it ends with negative calories itll lose weight; and if it ends with net zero
calories, itll maintain its weight:
Calories Out
RMR

Exer.

Calories In

Effect

<
=
>

Food

< weight gain

= no change
> weight loss

To bring it all home, students come up with a diet & fitness plan for our four characters. For example, Hannah wants to lose 12
pounds in 4 weeks. According to nutritionists, 3500 calories = one pound. Therefore:

12 pounds in 4 weeks
3 pounds in 1 week
-10,500 calories each week
-1500 calories each week

To reach her weight goal, Hannah would need to end up at

-1500 calories each day. One possible plan could look like:

Follow-Up Questions

For the average person, which do you think takes care of more calories: RMR or exercise? Is this what youd expect?
If you want to lose weight, which is the easiest: eat less, exercise more or increase your RMR?
Is not eating an effective way to lose weight? (Ans: Nope. If the body gets no calories, itll assume that theres a food
shortage and will actually conserve as much energy as possible. Thus, you actually have to eat to lose weight!)

Just One More

10 min.

To end the lesson well look at efforts in the United States to curb obesity at both the national and individual level. Even though
the lesson avoids requiring students to measure their own RMRs, food intake, etc., you can expect that curiosity will lead them
to calculate their personal RMR, food intake, etc. Thus, its important that students walk away understanding not only the
mathematics of weight gain & loss, but feeling confident that managing a healthy weight is entirely within their reach.
Indeed, you might encourage them to set weight goals for themselves and their family members, and create the diet & fitness
plans to accomplish them. Thatd be pretty cool, huh?