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Lots of people always ask me when the best time of the day to exercise is and for most people the answer is whenever you can get up the motivation to do it is the best time. When you are first starting out with an exercise regime the most important thing is to actually “do” exercise on a regular basis! Continuous cardiovascular exercise, such as walking, jogging, stair climbing, or cycling, sustained for at least 30 minutes, will burn body fat no matter when you do it.. But saying that there is a “best time” of the day to exercise and this is what I am going to talk about and list the extra benefits of training at this time.
So if your goal is to get the maximum benefits possible from every minute of your weight loss exercise then you should consider getting up early and doing some cardio before you eat your first meal of the day. Even if you are not a morning person you will still get the same benefits out of this type of exercise and you would be surprised how quickly you start to wake up before the alarm clock goes off each morning.
There are three advantages of early morning exercise versus doing the same later in the day.
Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are low. If you eat dinner at 7pm and you eat breakfast at 7am, that's 12 hours without food, during this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar - the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. The amount of fat you actually will burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state!
To explain how this works is actually quite simple. Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body's primary and preferred energy source and when your primary fuel source is in short supply this forces your body to tap into its secondary or reserve energy source; body fat! If you do cardio immediately after eating a meal, you'll still burn fat, but you'll burn less of it because you'll be burning off the carbohydrates you ate first. You always burn a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on when you exercise, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate. If early morning is really not possible for you to do then the second best option is immediately after weight training. Lifting weights is anaerobic (carbohydrate-burning) by nature, and therefore depletes muscle glycogen. That's why a post lifting cardio session has a similar effect as morning cardio on an empty stomach.
Image: eHow.com
You want to burn fat even when you are sitting at your desk working, then by doing cardio in the morning before you eat you will get, what is called the “after-burn” effect! What this means is that you not only burn fat during the session, but you also continue to burn fat at an accelerated rate after the workout. The reason for this is because an intense session of cardiovascular exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the session is complete. I am not saying that you won’t burn fat if you exercise at night, because you will during the session, but you will fail to get the “after-burn” effect, because your metabolism drops completely as soon as you go to sleep. While you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than any other time of the day.
The third reason for the early morning start to your exercise is the feeling of accomplishment and extra energy that stays with you throughout the day. Exercise can become a pleasant and enjoyable experience for a lot of people, but some people find it more challenging, which is why it is a great idea to get it out of the way early. You are also more likely to not blow it off when you have it set for the first thing in the day, I know for me that if I have had a hard day at the office the last thing I want to do it go and run on a treadmill for an hour – beer or wine are usually screaming my name louder! Also, by getting it out of the way in the morning you will have so much more free time to do the other things in your life you enjoy, like catching up with friends and loved ones.
The standard response to the thought of getting up early to exercise is “I can’t do that”, or “there is no chance I will be able to get up that early” I know all the reasons for “not doing” it, because I used them for years! Finally, I worked out the best motivation for me was exercising with people, because then I found it so much easier to get up knowing that I would let people down if I didn’t turn up! The feeling of wellness and achievement by far out way the feeling of I will be too tired, I can’t get up that early…
Image: FitSugar.com
Physiologically, exercise releases endorphins (or what I like to call Happy Drugs) into your body. These “Happy Drugs” are opiate-like hormones hundreds of times more powerful than the strongest morphine, sound good? Endorphins create a natural "high" that makes you feel positively euphoric and have many benefits, which include reduced stress, improvement of your mood, increased circulation and pain relief. This "high" is partly psychological too, because the achievement of getting up early doing this workout gives you a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that will stay with you throughout the day.
So, you say you're not a morning person? I know how that feels more than a lot of people; to say that I am not a morning person is a slight understatement! Sleep is one of my best friends! The thing that helps me is to set myself a goal! These goals could be small, like at the end of this six weeks I want to be able to do 35 push-ups and run 2k’s two minutes faster than I can now! After I reach those goals then I will set myself new ones and the benefits are so huge it is hard to explain! The feeling of euphoria I get when I achieve my goal and while doing that all the changes that happen to my body are amazing!
Scientists say that it takes three weeks to get into a routine, which means that yes the first three weeks will be hard to get yourself out of bed in the morning, but after that you will be so set in your routine that you won’t even remember what you thought was hard about getting up early! Before you know it, early morning cardio will be your new habit; you'll be leaner, your metabolism will be faster and you'll feel fantastic all day long!
Comments
Use this great weather we are having to motivate you into shape...
Today I got up at 6:45AM (it wasn't too painful, cause I had a goal), dressed up and went jogging to the park. I did 50 min of intervals :) After I got home and took shower I realized that I'm very awake despite the fact that it's only 8:30AM.
I really feel the benefit of morning work out. Though I also feel muscle pain in my thighs, but I'm enjoying it :))
And I think the hardest part to the healthy life you champion is really the starting point and consistency.
JiaYou!加油！