Working out in the morning vs. the evening?

Hi all!

I am very new to this and was hoping someone could answer a basic question. I typically workout in the evening after I get off work. However, since joining this site a week ago, I have been trying to keep my Burn Meter above my Eat Meter. I don't know how important this is if I still only intake my daily allowances. If this is important, it would seem that early morning workouts would be more beneficial as you would start the day very far ahead of your Eat Meter.

I am just not a morning person and it is hard for me to get up to workout. I am pretty good at working out after work and am able to keep a good energy level most days.

Any thoughts on the importance level of keeping your Eat Meter under your Burn Meter? What about morning vs. evening workouts?

in the end a calorie is a calorie, so as long as you burned more than you ate over the course of the day I think you're fine. I am really not a morning person and workout immediately after work. I will workout in the morning if I won't be able too later though

Original Post by soon2befit:

What about morning vs. evening workouts?

The timing of your workouts isn't going to have any affect on your weightloss.

Hi

 I don't have an answer for you but I can tell you that I do both. I go for a walk/run on the weekends early in the morning and it's great. It wakes me up and I am done for the day. I guess I do start the day with calories burned. When I work out in the evenings I have a good guesss in my head of what I've eaten and appox. how many calories I've consumed. So I will work harder in the evening if I know I've had a "bad" eating day.  So maybe the evenings are better.

I am not a morning person. I wok out in the early afternoon or in the evening. Look at the daily calorie count, not hour by hour.

Very helpful and encouraging. I was not super excited about waking up early to workout.

I was trying to figure out if there was any scientific reason that you would always want your burn meter above your eat meter. Said another way, does your body burn more fat if your body is always "hungry" or at the caloric deficit level vs. (if taken in the extreme) you ate all your calories in the morning and then burned them off (plus more) throughout the day?

I don't think it makes a difference but was just tapping into the collective knowledge of the group.

I hope that isn't as confusing as it sounds.

Thanks all!

I have done both also. I find that if I worked out in the morning it would fit my schedule better, but then I would be STARVING all day and on some days would need a recovery nap.

I think that although working out in the evenings can be daunting- as its at the back of your mind all day long- the soon (but not to soon)-after sleep lets your body recover and be full of energy the next morning.

:) And running along the Thames in teh evening and seeing all the London lights is worth the effort.

Good luck!

I've heard that the best time to work out is whenever you can... I found that I can do mornings more consistently, because sometimes I make plans for the evenings and don't want to compromise my workouts. My gym also gets really really packed between 5:30 and 7:00 in the evenings, and I like not having to wait to use machines. People definitely do not observe that 30 minute time limit during peak hours.

Like pommecannelle though, I do find myself getting pretty ravenous throughout the day, and I just try to control it the best I can. I've been having tea and chewing a lot of gum... and hoping that I will just get used to it and stop being so hungry all the time. I've recently been allowing myself to break up a Clif bar throughout the day, because my stomach seriously starts to growl. At 240 calories they're not a light snack, but on the days I work out I figure it's okay because they do pack in a lot of nutrients and get an A grade on CC.

Morning workouts are a great energy boost! Totally a great way to kick you metabolism into gear for the day and keep you focused, alert, etc. for your daily tasks/work.  Some people complain that working out in evenings instigates poor sleep paterns...but I am with the poster that said workout at whatever time you can and feel you can give it your all!

Actually (thought I'm not a dr or a dietician), I would think the opposite.  If you read about weight loss, the scientists always tells you that when the body thinks it is starving (read: hungry), it goes into "famine mode".  Evolution has taught our bodies to hoard fat in times of famine, which is the reason they tell you not to eat under your calorie target when trying to lose weight, you don't want to convince your metabolism it's starving.  What you want to do is rev that metabolism up.  Usually they advise many small meals or snacks through the day and increased muscle mass (weight training) to do this, but I haven't seen anything about time of day for your calorie deficit.

Original Post by tloconnor:

Actually (thought I'm not a dr or a dietician), I would think the opposite.  If you read about weight loss, the scientists always tells you that when the body thinks it is starving (read: hungry), it goes into "famine mode".  Evolution has taught our bodies to hoard fat in times of famine, which is the reason they tell you not to eat under your calorie target when trying to lose weight, you don't want to convince your metabolism it's starving.  What you want to do is rev that metabolism up.  Usually they advise many small meals or snacks through the day and increased muscle mass (weight training) to do this, but I haven't seen anything about time of day for your calorie deficit.

 you are correct! And, time of day will not alter your calorie burn.  What you eat and the intensity of your workout will.

Always eat 6 portion controlled meals during the day, making sure you eat a protein rich 'meal' within one hour after working out. 

Here is a great article from the New York Times. Find it at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/health/03re al.html

Without a doubt, exercise at any time of the day beats no exercise at all. But are there physiological advantages to working out in the morning versus evening, or vice versa?

In various studies, scientists have found that subjects tend to do slightly better on measures of physical performance — including endurance, strength output, reaction time and aerobic capacity — between 4 and 7 p.m. The explanations are numerous: the body’s temperature and hormone levels peak in late afternoon, making muscles more flexible and producing the best ratio of testosterone (the muscle-building hormone) to cortisol (the hormone that does the reverse).

But these variations have only small effects. And much as one can adjust to waking up at the same time daily, studies have shown that the body can adapt to the time of day that you train. In several long-term studies, for example, scientists randomly split people into groups and instructed them to train only in the morning or only in the early evening. In the end, the morning exercisers generally did better on tests of physical performance early in the day, while the evening exercisers did better when tested later.

On a practical level, that means that if you plan to run a marathon that starts in the morning, it may be best to schedule your training runs early in the day.

THE BOTTOM LINE

In general, research suggests that the ideal time to exercise is late afternoon, though the advantages are slight.

Working out in the mornings are more helpful than evenings. Here are the facts:

* Since you didn't eat anything for the last 7-8 hours, your body doesn't have any ATP which is main energy source retrieved from glucose, so you will burn either body fat or muscle for the energy you need during the work out.

*  Since you are working out and need energy ASAP, you will burn mostly body fat because burning muscle takes longer than burning fat, and again, your body needs energ ASAP.

* Having some extra protein as soon as you finish working out (at the end of cardio) will prevent any muscle losing which should be your main concern. Don't exaggerate protein in-take, just have a slice of turkey salami or something like that which is rich in protein but not in fat.

* After having a breakfast, your metabolism will stay high for 6-7 hours which will make your body burn more calories during the day even if you don't do anything extra.

If you understand how your body works it is really easy to have desired results with a little effort.

 Yeah, that's prety much a myth perpetuated by Bill Phillips and his Body-for-life, which has been resoundly debunked in metabolism studies by actual qualified scientists.

 It doesn't actually matter one bit what time of day you exercise, or any of that stuff that Phillips claimed had any influence (fasted vs. non-fasted, intervals vs. steady state), the only thing that determines your success in weight loss is your 24-hour energy balance which converges on the same % of energy from fat, carbs and protein no matter what your percentage is at any given moment.

 From a compliance standpoint people who get up early and train have a higher long-term adherence rate than the group who plans on exercising later in the day, which explains all of the variance between the groups in most of the studies I flipped through - the morning endurance exercisers tended to stick with the program more while the evening cardio was more likely to be dropped in favour of more exiting things like watching paint dry or competitive macrame on TV.

 Exercise at any point during your 24-hour cycle doesn't have any different impact on your metabolism or energy balance over time though it might have a slight impact on training results that would make a difference to competing Olympic athletes but not to anyone who isn't competing at that performance level.

 The only thing that matters for weight loss is that at the end of the day your eat meter is under the burn meter.

 The quality of weight loss (the nature of the tissue lost) is controlled by the exercise you do, but the rate is entirely controlled by your energy balance whether or not you exercise and regardless of what time of day you work out.

Original Post by melkor:

 Yeah, that's prety much a myth perpetuated by Bill Phillips and his Body-for-life, which has been resoundly debunked in metabolism studies by actual qualified scientists.

 It doesn't actually matter one bit what time of day you exercise, or any of that stuff that Phillips claimed had any influence (fasted vs. non-fasted, intervals vs. steady state), the only thing that determines your success in weight loss is your 24-hour energy balance which converges on the same % of energy from fat, carbs and protein no matter what your percentage is at any given moment.

 From a compliance standpoint people who get up early and train have a higher long-term adherence rate than the group who plans on exercising later in the day, which explains all of the variance between the groups in most of the studies I flipped through - the morning endurance exercisers tended to stick with the program more while the evening cardio was more likely to be dropped in favour of more exiting things like watching paint dry or competitive macrame on TV.

 Exercise at any point during your 24-hour cycle doesn't have any different impact on your metabolism or energy balance over time though it might have a slight impact on training results that would make a difference to competing Olympic athletes but not to anyone who isn't competing at that performance level.

 The only thing that matters for weight loss is that at the end of the day your eat meter is under the burn meter.

 The quality of weight loss (the nature of the tissue lost) is controlled by the exercise you do, but the rate is entirely controlled by your energy balance whether or not you exercise and regardless of what time of day you work out.

 I agree completely.  Although you did forget that not only are evening workouts dropped because of watching ''paint dry''or ''macrame on TV''... you failed to mention the inticing Happy Hour excuse that often comes with the added bonus of some type of meat fried and slathered in wing sauce! :P

as everyone said here a calorie burnt in the morning is just as the calorie burnt in the evening .... But when you work out in the morning it increases your metabolism for the day.... ((plus I read somewhere that due to this in the long run it results in 3 times the results of an evening workout .... but I read this long ago ... and am not sure if its true or not )) 

Anyway as I am not a morning person I workout in the evening .... though I'm planning to change that 

Good luck 

i used to have sleep problems from marathon training at night - went to see my doctor he said it's b/c the body produces stress hormones when you workout (there are quite a few articles online about this).  stress hormones don't decrease until 4-6 hours after you workout.....so that's why if you go to bed right after a high intensity workotu you can be wired.... i had to start running in the am

Hi all.

I saw a really interesting documentary on British TV recently about your internal body clock and why things happen when they do. Forgive me if i'm quoting anything incorrectly I must stress i'm doing this from memory i'll try and find the programe title.  But it was all based on statistics things like more people have heart attacks between 10-12am then any other time of the day more people crash their cars between 3-5pm things like that and its all to do with your internal body clock if all the clocks were taken away you would get into a routine of waking up at roughtly the same time everyday. 

ANYWAY.. back to the point they got 2 sets of idental twins and got one to work out in the morning and the other to workout in the evening.  I think they tested them before to get all their starting readings, and the one that worked out in the evening got better results.  I know i'm sounding all a bit woolly with my facts but its was to do with his blood sugar levels and energy levels at that time of day when he started the workout. 

tell you what i'll find out the program title and see if there was an artical accompaning the programme.

At the end of the day though any exercise is better than nothing, if your a morning person and that works for you -great- if your not then the evening is also -great-.

Best of luck with your workouts though.

Hi

I read about this recently and wanted to share ... am not sure if its absolutely accurate but here goes   http://www.nowloss.com/Weight_Loss_78.htm  

some of us are mornings some of us are evenings

i always preferred eves to burn off any residual stress from my day

i have tried exercising in the mornings but unless it involves sex it just seems idk painful or something lol

workout when it feels right for you - when you can put more into it and squeeze more out of it - you will stick with it longer that way too

try not to obsess to much with this or that - soooooo easy to do when you start counting calories - just keep showing up and counting and exercising - good luck!

I agree that it is best to workout when it feels right to you.

Now me personally, I prefer to get it done early in the day. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that weight lifting and HIIT cardio speed up your metabolism. If you do them earlier in the day, your metabolism takes care of more calories for the rest of the day. Secondly, if I exercise too late at night, I often have trouble sleeping. I used to hate working out early, but now I have gotten to like better. I like that feeling of knowing that I have the exercise out of the way and I am free to enjoy the rest of my day.