 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. Why Skippy, it looks like you are burning up. Well, burning calories anyway. Every time you move, it takes energy. How much energy? Excellent question. Scientists have a tool they use to measure that. It is called a metabolic chamber. Do you want to be our test subject? Skippy, don't be a scaredy cat. This will be fun. Remember, we can find out how many calories are in food by burning the food up in a bomb calorimeter and measuring the heat. To find out how many calories you burn when you do exercise, we... no, no, no, no Skippy. We don't burn you up, but we do put you in a special room and find out how many calories you burn up on your own. This sealed room is called a metabolic chamber. How does it work? Good question. It is pretty clever, really. The room has lots of sensors that measure different things. One sensor will measure the air temperature. Your body gives off heat when it burns calories. The more physical activity you do, the more calories you burn and heat you give off. This changes the temperature of the chamber. You didn't even know you were putting off heat, did you? Well, the sensors in the room know. They are very sensitive. What else? They also have a way to measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. When you breathe out, you expel carbon dioxide. The more physical activity you do, the more you breathe. And therefore, the more carbon dioxide you produce. This tells scientists how much oxidation is taking place. Skippy, that is not a toy. Yes, there is more. Some metabolic chambers even have special floors that can measure how much force you are exerting when you do certain activities. It is all very technical. We don't have time to go into it right now. The scientists can also learn lots from testing blood and urine samples provided by the person in the chamber. They take samples at different times to see what your body does during regular activities. What's wrong? You don't like needles? Calm yourself. We can't put you in a real metabolic chamber. You're just a drawing. But it is important to understand how much energy you eat in calories and how much movement you need to do to burn off those calories. Maybe you can help us with our in and out meter. Kids will pick different foods and activities and get to see how much activity it takes to burn off the calories. Sound interesting? We will have a list of foods they can feed you and they will be able to see the calories for each food. Then they choose an activity from another list. They will also be able to see how long the activity needs to be done to burn off the calories that you are fed. What do you think? Want to give it a go? That's the spirit. Let's go. Preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.