“There is no study that definitively talks about a specific time to lose or gain weight,” says cardiologist Nieca Goldberg, M.D., medical director of Atria NYC and clinical associate professor of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. No matter what time you work out, combine a healthy diet with exercise to lose weight, she says.
Afternoon workouts can help lower blood pressure
“For high blood pressure and cardiovascular benefit, it's better to exercise in the late afternoon or evening,” Goldberg says.
When you wake up in the morning, you have higher levels of cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine, Goldberg says. Those hormones can raise blood pressure. Your arteries are less flexible in the morning, too, which can raise blood pressure, she says. Those factors make exercising in the afternoon ideal if you have high blood pressure.
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Afternoon workouts bring peak performance
If you want to have the most energy and be at your strongest, work out in the afternoon or early evening. Exercise performance changes throughout the day, peaking from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., according to areviewof more than 60 scientific studies on exercise and best times of day for peak performance published in the journalNature.
The studies varied in methods for defining peak performance times. The review covered studies that measured short, dynamic exercise bouts (for example, less than a minute) and/or exercise over a period of up to three months or longer. Peak performance was defined in some of the studies by electrical activity of muscles and nerves, muscular contraction against resistance and exercise performance.
A smallstudyalso found that performance for strength and endurance exercises peaked in the afternoon from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
So, hit the gym, the street or your exercise mat a few hours after eating a protein-packed lunch. That’s the most likely time to achieve peak performance.
Afternoon workouts help manage diabetes
“For people who have type 2 diabetes, studies have shown that afternoon exercise may be better,” Goldberg says. Research also shows that people with type 2 diabetes may have better glucose control if they exercise after a meal, she says.
A four-yearstudyin Diabetes Care found that participants with type 2 diabetes lowered blood sugar levels with afternoon workouts. But if you can’t work out in the afternoon, don’t give up on getting in regular exercise.
