Cellular respiration

Cellular respiration is the set of the metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert energy from nutrients intoadenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products.  That energy is used for the essential processes of life.  
All living cells must carry out cellular respiration. It can be aerobic respiration in the presence of oxygen or anaerobic respiration. Aerobic respiration requires oxygen in order to generate energy (ATP). Although carbohydrates,fats, and proteins can all be processed and consumed as reactant, it is the preferred method.

The first step in cellular respiration in all living cells is glycolysis, which can take place without the presence of molecular oxygen. If oxygen is present in the cell, then the cell can subsequently take advantage of aerobic respiration via the TCA cycle to produce much more usable energy in the form of ATP than any anaerobic pathway. Nevertheless, the anaerobic pathways are important and are the sole source of ATP for many anaerobic bacteria. Eukaryotic cells also resort to anaerobic pathways if their oxygen supply is low. For example, when muscle cells are working very hard and exhaust their oxygen supply, they utilize the anaerobic pathway to lactic acid to continue to provide ATP for cell function.