Health And Fitness: The Scientifically Proven Best Time Of The Day To Work-Out

We have established that staying trim and fit requires more than just dieting or watching what you eat (although that is also very important). You also have to exercise and work all the extra and unneeded calories out of your body. What you probably didn't know is that there is a 'best time' of the day to work out for maximum benefit, and that best time is.....

First thing in the morning before breakfast! That is the best time of the day to exercise. There are research facts to back up this claim. InNew research, recently covered by Gretchen Reynolds in The New York Times, suggests that working out early in the morning — before you've eaten breakfast — helps speed weight loss and boost energy levels by priming the body for an all-day fat burn.

One of the reasons why working out first thing in the morning helps us lose weight — or at least protects us from gaining it — is that it pushes the body to tap into its fat reserves for fuel, as opposed to simply "burning off" our most recent snack or meal.

In a recent study, 28 young, healthy men spent six weeks eating a hefty diet of 30% more calories and 50% more fat than they'd been eating before. But while some of them spent the six weeks stuffing themselves and barely exercising, the others started working out every day. Of those who worked out, half did so first thing in the morning; the other half hit the gym (and did the same workout) after a high-carb breakfast. The fasting exercisers ate the same breakfast; they just did so after working out.

At the end of the volunteers' month-and-a-half eating fest, the ones who hadn't worked out at all had, unsurprisingly, packed on the pounds — about six pounds each. The ones who'd been exercising after breakfast gained weight, too, but only about half as much.

In comparison, the people who'd worked out daily — so long as they hit the gym before breakfast — hadn't gained any weight at all. They'd been able to eat a lot of extra food — just as much as their fellow volunteers — without paying the price in additional pounds.

The study was small, short-term, used a specific eating plan, and involved men about the age of 21 only, so it's hard to extrapolate much from the results. And the fasting exercisers didn't lose weight: They just didn't gain weight. Still, the experiment provided some of the first evidence that "early morning exercise in the fasted state is more potent than an identical amount of exercise in the fed state." 

Another smaller study helps point out why timing could be so important. In it, two groups of men ran on treadmills until they burned 400 calories (about the equivalent of a small meal, or three to four slices of toast). While one group ran on an empty stomach, the other ate a 400-calorie oatmeal breakfast about an hour before their workout.

All of the runners burned fat during their workouts, and remained in a heightened fat-burning state after they'd gotten off their treadmills. But both results were more intense for the runners who'd skipped the oatmeal. In other words, exercising after a long period of not eating could be setting us up for a longer, more intense fat burn.

So next time you think about hitting snooze, remember this: An early-morning workout won't just help you meet your fitness goals, but could even give you more energy than those few extra minutes of shut-eye.