Reliable dynamic descriptions of cellular growth are important for many practical applications including bioreactor design and control. A chemically structured growth model of Escherichia coli has been formulated and herein we focus on finding the essential dynamic order of the metabolic part of this model. Standard linear analysis is applied and the main finding is that the model contains three essential modes of motion over the time scale of growth. The doubling time is successfully predicted from an unstable growth motion and the metabolite composition of the three modes of motion suggests that only a three pool metabolic model is necessary. The three pools correspond to important groups of macromolecules; protein, nucleic acids and cell wall constituents.