Morning vs. evening workouts: a recent study found that the timing of your exercise might make a difference.
Medical Trivia
In an article published April 2024, researchers investigated whether the timing of performing moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) affected the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality.
The subjects were 29,835 obese adults with a mean age of 62.2 years, with obesity or obesity and type 2 diabetes, and followed for an average time of 7.9 years. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) greater or equal to 30 kg/m2.
They compared groups who routinely performed MVPA either in the morning, afternoon or evening, to a control group that did not do very much MVPA.
It was reported that the evening exercisers had the greatest mortality benefit of a 71% risk reduction over the non-exercisers. The afternoon group had a 40% mortality risk decrease and the morning exercisers a 33% mortality risk decrease compared to the control group.
Cardiovascular disease risk decrease was also greatest in the evening group (36% risk decrease) versus the other two groups (16% and 17% risk decreases for morning an afternoon groups respectively) compared to the non-exercisers.[1]
Comments:
This study suggests that evening MVPA decreases mortality and cardiovascular disease risk in obese patients more than MVPA done at other times. This is one of a number of studies that has found differences in subjects that exercise at different times of the day. Several studies have found greater decreases in blood glucose levels with evening MVPA compared to afternoon or morning.[2,3] Other studies have found that morning exercise is better for weight loss, or that morning exercisers were less obese than evening exercisers.[4,5] A mouse study found that the time during the circadian cycle that the mice exercised determined the magnitude and type of metabolic response to exercise.[6]
One theory to explain the increased glucose lowering effects of evening activity and the weight lowering effects of morning activity is that possibly more fats are used for energy sources in the morning and more sugars are used in the evening.[7]
While not fully understood there appears to be some differences, from a metabolic point of view, when MVPA is performed at different times of the day. However, as this study also demonstrated, doing MVPA at any time is better than not exercising.
For a more complete discussion of the proven health benefits of exercise click on this link: https://www.fibonaccimd.com/post/the-proven-benefits-of-exercise-cme
References
[1] Angelo Sabag a et al. Timing of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity, Mortality, Cardiovascular Disease, and Microvascular Disease in Adults With Obesity. Diabetes Care 19 April 2024; 47 (5): 890–897. Retrieved from: https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/47/5/890/154403/Timing-of-Moderate-to-Vigorous-Physical-Activity
[2] Clavero-Jimeno A, Dote-Montero M, Migueles JH, et al. Impact of lifestyle moderate-to-vigorous physical activity timing on glycemic control in sedentary adults with overweight/obesity and metabolic impairments. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2024; 1-9. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.24063
[3] Moholdt, T., Parr, E.B., Devlin, B.L. et al. The effect of morning vs evening exercise training on glycaemic control and serum metabolites in overweight/obese men: a randomised trial. Diabetologia 64, 2061–2076 (2021). Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-021-05477-5
[4] Willis, E.A., Creasy, S.A., Honas, J.J. et al. The effects of exercise session timing on weight loss and components of energy balance: midwest exercise trial 2. Int J Obes 44, 114–124 (2020). Retrieved from: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-019-0409-x
[5] Ma T, Bennett T, Lee C-D, Wicklow M. The diurnal pattern of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and obesity: a cross-sectional analysis. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2023; 31(10): 2638-2647. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/oby.23851
[6] Sato S, Dyar KA, Treebak JT et al. Atlas of exercise metabolism reveals time-dependent signatures of metabolic homeostasis. Cell Metabolism. Volume 34, Issue 2, 2022, Pages 329-345.e8. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413121006355
[7] Reynolds G. Is It Better to Exercise in the Morning or Evening? Working out at different times of the day might have unique benefits for health, an ambitious new study in mice suggests. The New York Times. Jan. 19, 2022. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/well/exercise-timing.html
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