With our busy schedules during the day, it can be difficult to stick to exercise even though we know it is essential to our physical and mental health, yet exercising at certain times of the day can achieve our maximum fitness goals.

If you want to get the most benefits while exercising, it is better to be in the morning.

Here's what the science has to say about the best time of day to exercise, and what to expect if you choose to work out at a later time.

If you do morning exercises, you will be powered by your fat reserves (pixabay).

Advantages of morning exercises

“Exercising in the morning, especially before breakfast, is the best way to burn stored fat, making it ideal for losing weight,” says Anthony Hackney, a professor in the department of exercise and sports science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Weight. This is largely due to the fact that the hormonal composition of the body in the morning is designed to support this goal. ”

Hackney added to the American magazine "Time" that in the early morning hours you have a great need for energy. If you practice morning exercises, you will derive your energy from your fat reserves, which will help you lose weight.

Research also indicates that those who exercise in the morning may have less appetite throughout the day, which may also help protect them from weight gain.

There are many advantages to exercising in the morning;

You will finish your exercise before you start your day.

This means that you will start your day with endorphins, and you will feel good knowing that you accomplished something before 9 am that not many others will achieve.

Besides, you don't have to worry about exercising in the later afternoon or evening, and this is a great source of relief.

Studies also support the idea of ​​exercising in the morning hours. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise assessed how women responded to food after exercising first in the morning.

When study participants with healthy weights and obesity walked for 45 minutes, they were less distracted by delicious pictures of food compared to when they failed to exercise.

The researchers also found that on days when participants exercised in the morning, their physical activity increased throughout the day more than on days when they did not exercise in the morning.

Another study, published in 2019 in The Journal of Physiology, revealed that exercising at seven in the morning may alter your body's biological clock, which means that you will feel more alert in the morning and will get tired earlier in the morning. Evening, this will make you get enough rest to wake up early the next day and do the same.

Other research also suggests that it is easier to stick to healthy habits in the morning.

Sweating in the morning may also improve mental health and productivity throughout the day, since exercise is very helpful in reducing stress.

The added benefits of going to the gym in the morning include an increased metabolism, which means you will continue to burn calories throughout the day while you eat them instead of at night while you sleep.

Morning workouts are ideal for burning fat and losing weight (Getty Images)

Do exercises in the evening

If you are not really a morning person, and you do not prefer to exercise in the morning, do not force yourself to do so. You can do the exercises at noon or in the evening.

This isn't a bad second option, Hackney says, especially if you're trying to perform a very long or strict routine.

Morning exercises are ideal for burning fat and losing weight, but afternoon exercises may boost your performance, because you will have eaten a meal or two by the time you start exercising, and this gives you enough energy to exercise at high intensity.

Exercising in the afternoon or evening has its proven advantages. One study found that performing afternoon exercise improves muscle function and increases strength, as well as increases endurance.

And exercising between two and six in the evening, when your body temperature is at its highest, may mean that you will exercise at a time when your body is most ready, making it the most effective time of the day to exercise.

Also, exercising in the afternoon and evening has another advantage, as your reaction is faster, which is important for vigorous exercises such as a brisk exercise on a treadmill, and the afternoon time is the time when the heart rate and blood pressure are at their lowest levels. Reduces the chances of injury while doing exercises.

What is really the best?

Early workouts get the most benefit according to biology and psychology, but there is no bad time to exercise in general, and the most important thing is to find the time to do so, when it's right for you.

If you're going to do it in the morning, do it, and if you're going to do it in the evening, do it.

Exercising is important, no matter what time of day you do it, and what really matters is that you find a time of day that works for you and your schedule, then stick to it.