As long as you get your workout in, does it really make a difference what time you do it? It may, if you’re trying to shed a few pounds, as a new study finds early morning exercise could help with weight loss.
Researchers from Franklin Pierce University and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University used two years of data from the CDC’s national health and nutrition examination survey, which includes exercise, eating and lifestyle habits of over 52-hundred adults. The data reveals that people who did moderate to vigorous exercise between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. had lower body mass indexes and waist sizes than those who had a midday or evening sweat sesh.
But the research team points out that this could be a result of other factors beyond exercise timing, including participants’ ages, different responses to exercise and lifestyle and eating habits. Lead researcher Tongyu Ma says only a clinical trial - which this study was not - can actually determine if morning exercise really is best, but these results are still encouraging. He says, “My cautious suggestion from this study is that if we choose to exercise in the early morning, before we eat, we can potentially lose more weight compared to exercise at other times of the day.”
Source: NY Post
Scott's Thoughts:
- Working out in the morning does get it out of the way, so you’re less likely to get busy and skip it later!
- I always feel motivated to walk in the morning till I have to actually get up early enough to actually do it.
- Are you one of those people who can just roll out of bed, put on your shoes and hit the gym? How do you do it?