If you’re a fan of diet books, you’ve probably read conflicting information on what the best time of day for exercise actually is. Should you go for your jog in the morning when you haven’t eaten so your body is forced to burn fat instead of glucose? Should you go in the afternoon to work off that lunch you just ate? Is it true that you shouldn’t exercise during the evening hours?
The truth is, you should do your cardio workouts during whatever time of day you want. If it’s easier to go first thing in the morning, then do it. If you’re more of a night owl, go ahead and exercise after dinner. The most important thing about exercise is that you do it.
That said, there are a few things to keep in mind when exercising at any given time of day.
- If you like working out in the morning, it is true that your body will be forced to burn fat instead of recently ingested calories. While this may sound like a major bonus, you have to be careful. Since it’s usually been a good 8+ hours since you’ve eaten by the time you wake up in the morning, you have to beware of low blood sugar. If you overdo it before having a bite to eat, you could cause more harm than good. If you do decide to exercise before breakfast, have a small snack and some water before you head out. A banana, a handful of almonds, or a small cup of yogurt are all good options.
- Mid-afternoon cardio workouts don’t give you a free pass to overindulge at lunch. There is always some temptation to overeat if you think that you’ll “just burn it off at the gym” right after. It’s a bad idea for more than one reason. First, you may wind up feeling sick if you engage in a strenuous workout after eating a large meal. Secondly, your exercises probably aren’t burning off as many calories as you think. Many people have a tendency to over estimate how many calories they are burning, and to underestimate how many they are eating. During an hour or cardio exercise, you can probably expect to burn off around 180-300 calories on average.
- Contrary to what you might have heard, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to workout at night. The only caution is to make sure you do it at least a couple of hours before bed, since the adrenaline rush of a good workout might make going to sleep harder. Give yourself two or three hours after your workout to unwind and recuperate before you hit the sack.
