Lesson 3.2: Energy Balance, Hunger, and Appetite

Overview

This lesson focuses on understanding the influences on hunger and appetite and develops the skill of determining how external factors can influence decisions. This lesson also focuses on understanding and identifying the two types of energy balance.

Learning Targets

  • Explain the concept of energy balance.
  • Explain how energy balance relates to health.
  • Identify how many calories are recommended each day for males and females aged 9 to 13 and 14 to 18.
  • Compare hunger and appetite, and explain what makes them different.
  • Identify and explain the major influences on appetite.

Preparation

For the Warm-Up Activity: Write the journal question on the board, or identify (and copy as needed) the worksheets you plan to use:

For the Content Focus: Open the Lesson 3.2 PowerPoint slides, or make copies of the Lesson 3.2 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Lesson 3.2 What Influences Your Eating? Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.

Warm-Up Activity

Select a warm-up activity to help get your class focused and on task.

  • Journal Question: What does it feel like to be hungry? Have you ever eaten something even though you weren’t hungry? What influenced you to eat when you weren’t hungry?
    • Option: Write or project the question, and have students respond in their journals as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the question with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in partners, or in small groups to complete the Lesson 3.2 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 3.2 Quiz to assess their prior knowledge.
    • Option: Collect the quizzes, and use them alongside posttests to demonstrate student learning.
    • Option: Have students share their answers with a partner and then go over the answers together as a class.

Lesson Content

Review the content from the textbook lesson.

Option: Use the Lesson 3.2 PowerPoint slides to review the chapter content.

Option: Have students use the Lesson 3.2 Note-Taking Guide to review chapter content. Ask students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Review the questions as a class if time permits.

Lesson Focus: What Influences Your Eating?

  1. Review the potential appetite influences as described in the textbook.
  2. Give each student a copy of the Lesson 3.2 What Influences Your Eating? Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.
  3. Ask students to think about the influences in their lives as they complete the worksheet.
  4. Ask students to use complete sentences when explaining how the influences they listed change their food choices.

Challenge Activity

Have students who need an additional challenge work on the following critical-thinking task.

Marcus goes to baseball games with his family almost every weekend. Both of his brothers play ball, and his dad is a volunteer coach. You’ve noticed that, whenever Marcus goes to a game, he eats a chili dog with fries. It doesn’t matter whether the game is in the afternoon or the evening or whether he has had a recent meal. The other families in the stands also bring popcorn, chips, and candy to snack on. Marcus never wants to be rude, so he always takes what he is offered. Why do you think Marcus is in this habit? What advice could you give him to help him think about his choices? Write out your response using complete sentences and proper grammar.

Reflection and Summary

Review the critical content from today’s lesson. Review the learning targets, and ask students to answer each question posed.

Can you…

  • Explain the concept of energy balance?

    Energy balance is the relationship between the calories (energy) you eat and the calories (energy) you burn off.

  • Explain how energy balance relates to health?

    If you eat more than you use, you have too many calories in your body. This is called positive energy balance. When you burn off more than you eat, your body does not have enough energy. This is called negative energy balance.

  • Identify how many calories are recommended each day for males and females aged 9 to 13 and 14 to 18?

    Females: ages 9-13 = 1,600-2,200; ages 14-18 = 1,800-2,400
    Males: ages 9-13 = 1,800-2,600; ages 14-18 = 2,200-3,200

  • Compare hunger and appetite and explain what makes them different?

    The communication inside your body that tells you when to eat is your hunger. External influences on food choices are called your appetite. Your appetite is what makes you want to eat, even when you are not feeling hungry. Appetite can also keep you from eating, even when your body is hungry.

  • Identify and explain the major influences on appetite?

    Culture: Culture can tell us what we should and shouldn’t eat. Culture can influence food choices if you grew up eating certain types of foods or your culture believes certain foods should not be consumed.
    Peers: Our peers’ food choices can be healthy or unhealthy, which influence our choices.
    Family: You may eat what your parents make you or what they buy and have available in the house.
    School and community: The types of lunches and food options available around you can change which foods you eat.

Assessment

Complete one or more of the following assessment tasks for this lesson.

  • Quiz: Have students take the Lesson 3.2 Quiz.
  • Vocabulary Review: Collect the Lesson 3.2 Vocabulary Review Worksheets, and evaluate them for accuracy.
  • Note-Taking Guide: Collect the completed Lesson 3.2 Note-Taking Guides, and spot check one or more items for completion and accuracy.
  • Skill-Building Worksheet: Have students submit the Lesson 3.2 What Influences Your Eating? Skill-Building Challenge Worksheets, and use the Analyzing Influences Holistic Rubric to evaluate their skill development.
  • Journal Question: Ask students to respond to the journal question again, adding information they learned from today’s class. Require a one-paragraph response that uses proper grammar.

Take It Home

Draw a picture or create a simple infographic (a collection of images with minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic) that shows how your family influences your appetite and the choices you make when you eat. Think about ethnic, cultural, and religious traditions as well as where you live and what access you have to foods. Use labels and headers to help explain your work. Discuss your infographic with your family to see whether they have anything to add.