Some find exercising first thing in the morning the best way to start the day, whilst others prefer to head to the gym after work to de-stress.
But what is the best time of day to exercise? Dr Michael Mosley has revealed all as he debunked five exercise myths.
The TV presenter explained common fitness theories including “if I work out, I can eat lots more” and “the more you exercise, the better.”
Dr Mosley also responded to the myth “best time to exercise is first thing in the morning” in a post on his Fast 800 website and explained why it depends on your goal.
Lots of rain on its way so you can test the theory described in my latest Daily Mail article. Also, the benefits of walking backwards https://t.co/4LC1UXrpm2
— Michael Mosley (@DrMichaelMosley) September 17, 2023
This is the best time of day to exercise according to Dr Michael Mosley
The 66-year-old said: “This is a tough one, because while there are advantages to exercising first thing, there are also advantages to exercising later.
“There is some evidence, for example, that exercising before breakfast (i.e. in the fasted state) leads to more fat burning, but if you are interested in performance, then late afternoon or early evening may be a better time to work out.”
He went on to say: “Why? Well, your body temperature is lowest first thing in the morning.
“It then steadily rises by about 1 degree Celsius till it reaches a peak around midday. It stays quite high till about 7pm, when it starts to fall.
“Being slightly more revved up with warmer muscles can contribute to an improvement in performance.
“It may also reduce the risk of injury. On this basis exercising any time between midday and 7pm is good. Much later and it may disturb your sleep.”
When it comes to what works best for Dr Mosley’s personal workout routine, he added: “I do a mix. I do strength exercises like push ups and squats first thing, when I roll out of bed.
“I get my aerobic exercise by running up and down seven flights of stairs at my office during the day and by doing short 20 second bursts on my bike as a toil up the long steep hill back to my house in the evenings.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel