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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

The question is more important than you think [frontiersin.org]:

When should I fit exercise within my daily schedule? For most, the answer depends on our family's schedule and working hours, and perhaps on whether we're 'larks' or 'night owls'. But over the past decade, researchers have found that much more hangs on this question than these constraints. That's because recent findings suggest that the effectiveness of exercise depends on the time of day (Exercise Time Of Day, ETOD).

Now, a randomized controlled trial not only confirms convincingly that ETOD affects the effectiveness of exercise, but also shows that these effects differ between types of exercise, and between women and men. The results are published in Frontiers in Physiology [frontiersin.org].

The authors recruited 30 women and 26 men to participate. All were between 25 and 55 years old, healthy, highly active, nonsmokers, and with normal weight. [...]

Importantly, female and male participants had been independently randomized beforehand to either of two regimes: exclusively training in the morning (60min between 06:30 and 08:30), or in the evening (between 18:00 and 20:00). Those assigned to morning exercise breakfasted after exercise, and ate three further meals at four-hour intervals. Those assigned to evening exercise ate three meals at four-hour intervals before training, plus another afterwards.

The researchers show that all participants improved in overall health and performance over the course of the trial, irrespective of their allocation to morning or evening exercise.

[...] But crucially, they also show that ETOD determines the strength of improvements in physical performance, body composition, cardiometabolic health, and mood.

[...] "Based on our findings, women interested in reducing belly fat and blood pressure, while at the same time increase leg muscle power should consider exercising in the morning. However, women interested in gaining upper body muscle strength, power and endurance, as well as improving overall mood state and food intake, evening exercise is the preferred choice," said Arciero.

"Conversely, evening exercise is ideal for men interested in improving heart and metabolic health, as well as emotional wellbeing."

Journal Reference:
Paul J. Arciero et al., Morning Exercise Reduces Abdominal Fat and Blood Pressure in Women; Evening Exercise Increases Muscular Performance in Women and Lowers Blood Pressure in Men [open], Front. Physiol., 2022. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.893783 [doi.org]

Original Submission