When is the best time to exercise?

Question

I plan to start an exercise routine starting 2x a week. But I am wondering when is the best time to exercise? Is it in the morning after I wake up? Or evening before I go to bed. Thanks!

Answer 1

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you exercise them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 2

Exercise as one of your first things to do in the morning-- it will pump you up, energize you, for the day. If you exercise majorly before bed, you may have trouble sleeping. Here is my advised schedule:
Wake up & bathroom
Change into exercise clothes
Meditate
Move into gentle stretches
Move into a warm-up routine
Exercise for about 20-30 minutes
Move into a cool down routine
Shower & Hygiene
Dress for the day
Eat breakfast
Do your daily routine: errands, work, meals, etc.
Last meal of the day: a small one at least an hour before bed
Relaxing activities
Lie down
Tense every muscle in your body for a count of ten
Release the muscle tension
Sleep like a baby

Answer 3

Yog(a) is the oldest exercise and it is done in the early morning time. 4 am is compared the best time but up to 6 am it is good. It is known that in the morning time the atmosphere is much more cleaner in compare to other time of the day and while doing exercise you inhale a lot of air and if you are doing exercise in the morning time than it simply means that you are inhaling a lot of fresh air which is good for health.
If you would take my suggestion than I would like to suggest that whatever exercise you do, do it in between 6 to 7 am and don't eat anything before it and after finishing your exercise give you body some rest, just for ten Minuit and take any meal after half an hour.

Answer 4

The only time it's really not a good idea to exercise is right before bed because it can mess with your sleep patterns (and not getting a good night's sleep can be counterproductive to your efforts). Recent studies suggest first thing in the morning may not be the best time to exercise because of cortisol build-up during the night, so the latest news being put out by trainers and the health magazines is suggesting exercise in the mid-to-late afternoon, say right after work, is best.

Answer 5

It depends on your own internal clock and the exercise you plan to do. If you plan to walk or do yoga, morning is not a bad idea if you are a morning person. However, if you are planning something strenuous (running, stair climbing), I would advise you to do it in the afternoon or early evening. Personally, I exercise at various times but prefer 6pm-8pm, after dinner. I find that it helps me calm down for the evening, not to mention burn off that evening meal.

Answer 6

Usually we are fresh in the morning and we will start getting tired as the day passes by. The exercise will make you more energized and feel fresh. So, I would advise you to go to the GYM, right before the lunch and so you will be fresh again and can be more energetic for the rest of the day

Answer 7

in my opinion i would do it in the morning because that way u will be more a wake and u will have energy and u will have more focus on the day and if u do it at night you will be wide a wake but u will burn off all what u ate so it depends on what ur schedule is and when u have time i would alternate and see what one u like the most or just continuing to alternate

Answer 8

I would exercise in the morning if you have time. What's good for an ARMY of ONE should be good enough for anyBODY

Answer 9

Get up, eat breakfast, wait about an hour, exercise, shower, get ready for the day.

Answer 10

If you can, do your cardio work in the morning after you wake up, with almost anything in your stomach so you can burn accumulated fat. But you can do it any time, as long as you do it.
Good luck