Those who exercise in the morning are slimmer, even if they move less during the day

How does it affecttime in which physical activity is practiced on weight management? A new study just made publicwhich will be published in the October issue of the scientific journal Obesityclaims that it is better to do sports early in the morning.

The best time is between 7 and 9

Not the first time the topic has been debated: the team of researchers who conducted this analysis, from Franklin Pierce University in the USA, identified the time window between 7:00 and 9:00 AM such as the time of day that sees a greater association between sports practice and a lower Body Mass Index (BMI, one of the parameters used to understand whether a person is normal weight, overweight or obese, ed). The study, the authors claim, was done using the accelerometer (a more complex instrument than the pedometer, which evaluates physical performance in space, ed) to classify the time of day of movements, while previous assessments had focused on the frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity. Using data from the 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 cycles National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), scientists studied 5,285 participants and they divided them into three groups depending on the time chosen to practice physical activity: morning, midday and evening.

The early risers are thinner

Participants who met physical activity guidelines in the morning group (150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity, ed) they had
a body mass index and a waist circumference lower than those of the other groups. They generally had a healthier diet and lower daily energy intake. Important note: early morning athletes during the day were then more sedentary compared to the subjects of the other groups, but despite the longer duration of time spent without movement, they were still more slender compared to people in the midday-evening groups. Characteristics of the early-rising group included: an average age that was 10 to 13 years older than the others, a higher percentage of women, non-Hispanic whites, with a college education or higher, and who did not smoke or drink alcohol. .

The chronotype

A reported limitation of this study is that people who exercise in the morning could generally be different from those who exercise at other times, even in ways further than those just mentioned.
One of the important variables, for example, the chronotype: getting up early, regardless of work or personal commitments, is a characteristic of larks, which are biologically different from their night owl counterparts, the owls. While larks are naturally predisposed to train in the morning, owls prefer physical activity in the late afternoon or early evening.

The best thing for everyone, as far as possible, would be to follow their biological clock.
Who wants maintain a healthy weight or lose weightHowever, you could still opt for morning training, possibly on an empty stomach and for at least 30 minutes, as in this way the body will use fat reserves as a source of energy.