Question:

During overnight fasting, what occurs?

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Short fast keeps glucose up by making more of it.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
  • Glucose decreases
  • FFA increases
  • Increased gluconeogenesis
  • Increased beta-hydroxybutyrate
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The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: During an overnight (about 12 hour) fast, the body shifts to maintaining blood glucose using hepatic glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis clearly rises to help supply glucose, so option 3 is correct.

Step 2: Blood glucose is kept within the normal range during an overnight fast precisely because of these mechanisms, so it does not fall significantly. This makes option 1 wrong.

Step 3: Free fatty acids and ketone bodies such as beta-hydroxybutyrate become markedly elevated only later, after about 2 to 3 days of fasting, in the prolonged starvation phase, not during a simple overnight fast. So options 2 and 4 are not the best answers for this short fast.

Step 4: Therefore the change most characteristic of an overnight fast is increased gluconeogenesis.
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