Posts Tagged ‘burning’

When is the best time of day to do your aerobic exercise?

When is the best time of day to do your aerobic exercise?

I am going to answer a question that I get asked allot…recently one of my good friends asked me the same question so I decided to write up an article about it and hopefully shed some light on this matter.

The answer to “When is the best time to do your aerobic exercise” is…ANYTIME!

The most important thing is that you do some form of cardio.  Any type of continuous cardiovascular exercise, such as walking, jogging, stair climbing, or cycling, sustained for at least 30 minutes, will reduce body fat no matter when you do it!

However, if you want to maximise the benefits from every minute you invest in your workouts, then you should get up early and do your cardio before you eat your first meal.

There are some major advantages to exercising early in the morning on an empty stomach…

When you wake up first thing in the morning, before you eat your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are very low.  If you had your dinner at 7 pm and you wake up 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

So how does this actually work?

Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body’s primary and preferred source of energy, 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.

We NEVER burn 100% fat during ANY activity…it is always going to be a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on WHEN you exercise, and HOW, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate.

When you do your cardiovascular exercises in the morning, not only do you burn the fat during the session, but the fat burning process lasts for hours after the workout session.

Interval Training (HIIT)

This happens especially with speed intervals training (the beloved HIIT Training you MUST have heard about!) workouts as it boost Metabolism naturally.  However be careful not to do speed intervals training for too long or too often as it could be counterproductive to your goal as if your Nutrition is not Optimum (not enough complex carbohydrate to fuel your workout) there is also a greater risk of muscle breakdown (we cannot burn 100% fat remember? Therefore if there isn’t enough glycogen available the body will break down muscle. FACT.)…or as I call it…Muscle Suicide.

So…MIX IT UP…longer low intensity sessions and few short high intensity to give your body the kick it needs!

If you exercise in the evening you still burn the fat during the workout but as soon as you go to sleep at night, your metabolism slows down rapidly – it is significantly lower than during any other time of the day, so you would not benefit from an evening workout as much as the morning.

The other reason why you should do your fat burning exercise in the morning is getting it out of the way early and carries with you that feeling of accomplishment all day long!

Promote that endorphins release in the body as they create a natural “high” Endorphins not only improve your mood and release stress but also relieve pain.

Now wouldn’t that be a great start to the day…

And also let’s face it…when you put off any task you consider unpleasant, it hangs over you all day long, leaving you with a feeling of guilt, stress and incompleteness and you are more likely to “blow off” an evening workout if you are tired from a long day at work! (mental tiredness or physical)

The second best time to do it would be immediately after weight training.  Lifting weights depletes muscle glycogen and has a similar effect as morning cardio on an empty stomach (please note you DO NOT want to go for a hard weights session without some carbohydrate in your system).

I know what you are thinking….” I am not a morning person”  Well I think you should ask yourself “when have you decided that?”…You decide you are not a morning person and guess what?…Now you won’t be as that is what you have been telling yourself!

I can sleep in too like you wouldn’t believe…But I get up anyway because I know the effort is worth the results.

With my goal that I am clearly focused on, I’m committed to my morning cardio and training without fail.

Make a commitment to yourself to do it for just 21 days.  Once those 21 days are up you will already be feeling so much better and before you know it, early morning cardio will your new habit; you’ll be leaner, your metabolism will be faster and you’ll feel fantastic all day long! :0) Sounds awesome to me!

Now are you a morning person?…I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Gym Love
Ilaria Petrucci