Proliferating cells adapt metabolism to support the conversion of available nutrients into biomass. How cell metabolism is regulated to balance the production of ATP, metabolite building blocks, and reducing equivalents remains uncertain. Proliferative metabolism often involves an increased rate of glycolysis. A key regulated step in glycolysis is catalyzed by pyruvate kinase to convert phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to pyruvate. Surprisingly, there is strong selection for expression of the less active M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) in tumors and other proliferative tissues. Cell growth signals further decrease PKM2 activity, and cells with less active PKM2 use another pathway with separate regulatory properties to convert PEP to pyruvate. One consequence of using this alternative pathway is an accumulation of 3-phosphoglycerate (3PG) that leads to the diversion of 3PG into the serine biosynthesis pathway. In fact, in some cancers a substantial portion of the total glucose flux is directed toward serine synthesis, and genetic evidence suggests that glucose flux into this pathway can promote cell transformation. Environmental conditions can also influence the pathways that cells use to generate biomass with the source of carbon for lipid synthesis changing based on oxygen availability. Together, these findings argue that distinct metabolic phenotypes exist among proliferating cells, and both genetic and environmental factors influence how metabolism is regulated to support cell growth.All cells rely on a source of nutrients for growth and survival. These nutrients are taken up from the environment and directed into metabolic pathways to maintain homeostasis and fuel cell-type-specific functions. For all cells, these processes include maintenance of ion gradients across membranes, transport of materials between intracellular compartments, and other housekeeping functions such as protein turnover. Many of these processes are thermodynamically unfavorable and thus are coupled to ATP hydrolysis as a source of free energy. To provide metabolic support for these functions, cells have evolved pathways, such as the oxidative metabolism of glucose, that when coupled to mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation can efficiently generate ATP from available nutrients.Proliferating cells, including cancer cells, metabolize nutrients to support these same housekeeping functions. They also must take up additional nutrients, metabolize these nutrients through pathways that produce ATP, and generate all the components necessary to duplicate the mass of the cell and allow for cell division (Fig.