(ETX Daily Up) – Are you more of a morning or evening person? The question may seem trivial, and yet it turns out to be essential for your health. This is what a new study reveals which reveals the ideal time to optimize the many benefits of sport, and promote blood sugar regulation in overweight or obese people. Explanations.
This is not the first time that researchers have tried to determine when exercise is most beneficial for the health of men and women. And we see that the conclusions of scientists vary greatly depending on the benefits sought. A recent study, for example, established an association between practicing physical activity at night – at least at the end of the day – and a lower risk of premature death and cardiovascular disease, while previous work advised sweating as soon as possible. in the morning to better manage your weight in the long term. These considerations lead us to believe that the preferred time to exercise depends on the results that each person intends to optimize.
A team of researchers looked at the role of sport in regulating blood sugar levels, particularly in sedentary overweight or obese adults. Science had already demonstrated the role of moderate and vigorous physical activity on blood sugar management, but there was never a suggested time to practice it. The authors of this work therefore tried to determine it, via the analysis of data from 186 adults aged 46 on average, suffering from overweight or obesity. To carry out their research, they notably simultaneously monitored the participants’ physical activity and blood sugar levels using very specific tools, over a period of 14 days.
Favor sport in the evening
Not only did the researchers establish a classification according to the volume of moderate to vigorous physical activity carried out on a daily basis by the participants, but they also divided the latter into several categories (morning, afternoon and evening) according to the time of day where they managed to accumulate at least 50% of daily physical activity. And the results, published in the journal Obesity, are clear: engaging in more than half of moderate to vigorous physical activity in the evening, i.e. between 6 p.m. and midnight, would be associated with a drop in daytime blood sugar levels. , nocturnal and global. Please note, however, that this comparison is made in relation to inactivity, and not in relation to morning or afternoon sports sessions.
“As we move toward individualized exercise prescriptions for different chronic diseases, this study provides additional information that goes beyond simply telling patients to ‘move more,’ but rather to move the as often as possible and to prioritize physical activity from afternoon to evening when possible for blood sugar regulation,” says Dr. Renee J. Rogers, physical activity and health specialist. weight management at the University of Kansas Medical Center, although she was not involved in this work.
The authors of this research also specify that the results are even more significant in people who suffer from glucose regulation disorders, while no distinction was observed between men and women. “In clinical practice, sports and medical personnel should consider the optimal time of day to improve the effectiveness of the exercise and physical activity programs they prescribe,” concludes Jonatan R. Ruiz, lead author of these jobs.
According to the latest data made public by the World Health Organization (WHO), some 2.5 billion adults were overweight worldwide in 2022, of which 890 million were obese. Children and adolescents are also affected by this public health problem since more than 390 million of them, aged 5 to 19, were overweight the same year, including 160 million were obese.
