And other new research shows that putting exercise into the morning hours has its own benefits.
Why do you care about exercise timing?
There is already growing evidence that the health effects of exercise depend to some extent on the timing of activity.In the past researchpeople at risk for diabetes had better glycemic control with exercise in the evening than in the morning. Other researchpeople lost more body fat when they exercised earlier in the day than later in the day.
However, most of these studies were small, and their results were narrow and inconsistent, making it difficult to draw conclusions about when to exercise.
One new study, however, effectively addresses concerns about the scale of the study. The new study, published this month in Nature Communications, included data on 92,139 men and women who participated in the UK Biobank, a health survey of adults in the United Kingdom, who wore their activity trackers for a week. It’s a summary.
Using tracker readings, the researchers split volunteers according to frequency and timing of migration, checked mortality records up to seven years after people entered the biobank, and compared migration patterns and deaths. We compared.
The strongest and most surprising correlation they found was that men and women who engaged in moderate or vigorous physical activity (equivalent to brisk walking) most often lived longer than those who exercised very little, regardless of time of day. That’s what it means. got up and moved.
But the researchers also revealed a nuanced relationship between daytime exercise and longerevity potential.
People who concentrated their physical activity between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. or spread it out throughout the day were more likely to have heart disease and other conditions than those who exercised primarily before 11:00 a.m. or after 5:00 p.m. were less likely to die early from any cause (other than cancer)
Researchers note that this afternoon’s time slot is statistically exactly the time of day when you’re least likely to have a heart attack.
The benefits of afternoon exercise for longevity were most pronounced in men and older adults. It suggests that [physical activity]’” concludes the researchers.
Morning exercise targets body fat
But for many of us, afternoon exercise is either logically difficult or temperamentally undesirable.
For such people new research Featuring healthy mice on small treadmills offers some hope.
This study builds on another ambitious study. study from last year In it, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and other institutions cataloged nearly every molecule that changed in the body tissues of mice, depending on when the mice ran.
Surprisingly, they found that the changes were particularly pronounced in the animal’s adipose tissue. His Juleen Zierath, professor of clinical integrative physiology at the Karolinska Institutet and one of the senior authors of the study, said: She and her co-authors expected that the muscles and livers of exercise-fueled animals would show the most molecular changes.
Therefore, a new study decided to focus on how the timing of fat and exercise changed. I made them stand on top. Some even ran hours after waking up.
Others plunged several hours into a period in which the animal would normally slow down and rest
Some animals skipped meals before training. Others pre-nibbled kibble liberally.
Researchers repeatedly collected blood and adipose tissue from the animals for several hours after exercise. And they found that even more was happening with animal fat. I was up and running within hours. Their fat released significantly more fatty acids, the building blocks of fat, into the animal’s bloodstream, ready to be used as muscle fuel. It showed greater increases in chemical markers than fat from runners in the evening (in mouse terms) and also increased activity of specific genes related to fat metabolism.
In effect, a single exercise in the early morning conditions the animal’s adipose tissue and is thought to promote fat burning and fat loss over time more than the same exercise in the evening. said Zierath.
How should you determine the best time to exercise?
“The study identified some interesting effects,” said Jeffrey Horowitz, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies exercise and metabolism. He was not involved in the new study.
But it also complicates the question of when to exercise. If your goal is longevity, exercise in the afternoon is preferable, whereas exercise in the morning is better for a toned waistline?
In practice, any difference “will be negligible,” Zierath said.
Ultimately, the biggest gains in longevity research come from frequent activity at any time of the day.
And the increase in fat burning after a morning workout is likely small, Zierath said.
“We’re talking fine-tuning,” she said. But over the course of months, years, or her lifetime, “these small changes can be meaningful.”
So, if you want to burn a little more fat with each workout and slowly reduce your body’s fat stores, you might want to do your exercises before noon. If possible, get up in the afternoon and move around more.
But more importantly, get up and move.
Have a fitness question? e-mail [email protected] I may answer your question in a future column.
