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Does the time of day when we exercise matter? Could it really make a difference depending on whether we work out in the morning or at night?
According to new research published in the journal Diabetes Care, it does, as the health benefits gained by those who perform daily physical activity in the evening appear to be greater than those who exercise in the morning.
The study, performed by researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia, followed the health trajectory of almost 30,000 people over almost eight years to determine whether it is better to exercise in the morning or at night.
“Using wearable device data to categorize participant’s physical activity by morning, afternoon or evening, the researchers uncovered that those who did the majority of their aerobic moderate to vigorous physical activity – the kind that raises our heartrate and gets us out of breath – between 6pm and midnight had the lowest risk of premature death and death from cardiovascular disease,” the researchers wrote in a press release.
“The frequency with which people undertook moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in the evening, measured in short bouts up to or exceeding three minutes, also appeared to be more important than their total amount of physical activity daily,” the continued.
It is important to note that this study, which involved 29,836 adults aged over 40 years of age living with obesity, did not just track structured exercise.
“We didn’t discriminate on the kind of activity we tracked, it could be anything from power walking to climbing the stairs, but could also include structured exercise such as running, occupational labor or even vigorously cleaning the house,” said Dr. Ahmadi, National Heart Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.
To limit bias, the researchers accounted for differences such as age, sex, smoking, alcohol intake, fruit and vegetable consumption, sedentary time, total MVPA, education, medication use and sleep duration. They also excluded participants with pre-existing cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The researchers say the length of the study follow-up and additional sensitivity analysis bolster the strength of their findings however, due to the observational design, they cannot completely rule out potential reverse causation. This is the possibility that some participants had lower aerobic MVPA levels due to underlying or undiagnosed disease.
“While we need to do further research to establish causal links, this study suggests that the timing of physical activity could be an important part of the recommendations for future obesity and Type 2 diabetes management, and preventive healthcare in general,” said Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub at the Charles Perkins Centre and the study’s senior author.