Where does your body get energy when you haven’t eaten in a while?

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Where does your body get energy when you haven’t eaten in a while?

In: Biology

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Nobody here has mentioned glycogen which is the first fuel source to be accessed when your blood sugar is depleted. Low blood sugar results in release of glucagon from pancreatic alpha cells (glucagon is kinda the opposite hormone to insulin).

Glucagon promotes the breakdown of glycogen (basically an easily accessible storage form of glucose) to glucose. Glycogen is stored mostly in the liver and a little in skeletal muscle for easy energy.

Glucagon also promotes gluconeogenesis (making new glucose from fat and protein components) and lipolysis (breakdown of stored fat to provide components for gluconeogenesis).

Edit: clarity

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