No matter how many studies are carried out, the truth is that there is still no concrete data regarding the ideal time to exercise. Making recommendations in this context is not something that will certainly work for each of us. However, some research states that the best time to practice sports is the late afternoon or evening.
According to some experts on the subject, the time of day we choose to exercise has a direct impact on the benefits we will derive from it. Our body changes throughout the day and undergoes hormonal changes throughout the circadian cycle.
We know that our training and sleep schedule have a direct influence on the number of calories we burn throughout the day. But what if we told you that there may be a time of day when our body can naturally burn 10% more calories than expected? In fact, it is not us who say this, but rather the data from a recent study in the British Journal Current Biology .
After all, when does losing calories become easier?
According to research from the same study, this closely correlates with circadian rhythms, which control our body's internal clock, as well as our sleep cycles. According to the same research, all of this influences weight loss. However, let us immediately focus on the central question that brought you here: after all, at what time of day can we lose the most calories? This study states that, at rest, humans burn around 10% more calories in the late afternoon, compared to at night: that is, more or less between 5pm and 7pm. The answer you expected? Probably not.
We are talking about a percentage that is equivalent to around 130 extra calories, burned during the late afternoon, without effort on our part, in the words of one of the study's authors, who assumed that a small number of people spent more than a month in the laboratory without information about time (without any device that could measure it) and are only allowed to eat and sleep following the internal rhythm of their body. This time, their metabolic rate was then measured.
You may be asking yourself: what is the lesson to be learned from all this? It's simple. The important thing is not to plan, without fail, the time you decide to train, but rather to make the most of where you are, simply in your daily routine. That said, perhaps snack time is the perfect time to indulge in one of your guilty pleasures .
Source: Time Magazine.
