Anaerobic and aerobic respiration are conducted in many steps and energy is released in steps. The advantages of stepwise release of energy are: 1. It facilitates the utilization of the relatively higher proportion of the energy in ATP synthesis. 2. Activities of enzymes for the different steps may be enhanced or inhibited by specific compounds. This provides a mean of controlling the rate of the pathway and the energy output according to the need of the cell. 3. The same pathway may be utilized for forming intermediates used in the synthesis of other biomolecules like amino acids.