A recent study published in the Nature Communications Journal has found that afternoon exercisers were less likely to die prematurely from heart disease than those who work out before 11 am or after 5 pm.
More than 92,000 people were enrolled in the UK Biobank which holds health information for approximately 500,000 UK residents.
The scientists organized participants by their exercise frequency and the time of their workouts. They analyzed participants seven-day activity and also tracked mortality records.
The findings from the study show that the afternoon time frame from 11 am to 5 pm benefited men and the elderly the most.
The study took into account the fact that this time frame is when people are the least likely to suffer a heart attack.
“Most heart attacks hit during the early morning hours from 4 to 10 am; when blood platelets are stickier, and there is increased adrenaline released from the adrenal glands that can trigger rupture of plaques in coronary arteries,” said Dr Randy Goodroe an interventional cardiologist in a 2022 article for Grand Strand Health.
However, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark conducted studies on two sets of mice. One group performed a high-intensity workout in the morning and the other in the evening and found the morning group burned more fat.
“Our results suggest that late morning exercise could be more effective than late evening exercise in terms of boosting the metabolism and the burning of fat, and if this is the case they could prove of value to people who are overweight,” the authors stated.