Best Time to Burn Calories

Is there a best day to lose weight? Of course! However, when the best day for you, it depends on your lifestyle. If you want to know the best day to streamline the waist and shrink the stomach, you need to look at your daily activities.

However, timing will affect how you feel and perform when you train. If you’re not properly fuelled going into a work-out, it can leave you feeling tired and shaky, and this will compromise the intensity and duration of your exercise. Whether that happens in the middle of a run or a weights work-out, it’s no fun, and it’s certainly going to compromise your weight-loss efforts.

To make sure that you have plenty of fuel in the tank, eat two to four hours before your work-outs. Include easily digested foods that are high in carbohydrates – such as pasta, cereal, yoghurt, and fruit and vegetables. To speed recovery, refuel immediately after your work-outs with more carbohydrate-rich foods, plus a bit of protein from foods such as lean beef, chicken or fish, and skimmed or soya milk.

But morning is the best time to exercise if you want to stick with your exercise habit. Surveys show we are more likely to exercise at all if we do it first thing in the morning, before other distractions eat up our free time or give us an excuse to not exercise.

Morning Exercise - Pros and Cons

Pros:
• The majority of people who exercise consistently do so early in the day. It is easier to form the exercise habit through morning exercise.
• Fewer distractions and schedule interruptions.
• Can make time for exercise by getting up a bit earlier.
• Raises your heart rate and metabolism to burn more calories earlier in the day.
• Gives a feeling of physical energy for hours.
• Improves your mental acuity for hours.
• Cooler temperatures in summer.
• Air pollution is lowest in the morning.
• The body adjusts to your exercise time, so if you are training for a morning sports event, train in the morning.

Cons:
• Body temperature is at its lowest 1-3 hours before awakening, making morning a time of naturally lower energy and blood flow.
• Cold, stiff muscles may be more prone to injury - be sure to warm up well before doing a higher intensity workout, and do gentle stretching.
• If you do not enjoy morning exercise, you won't easily form a habit by choosing a morning workout time.
• Because body temperature and hormones are higher in late afternoon, you probably get the same or better calorie-burning effects later in the day.