Working out before bed: same burn?

My routine is exactly like what you’re wanting to shift to. Because of my work schedule I workout between 7-10 in the evening. Afterwards I shower and eat my dinner which is normally close to 1,000 calories and then hangout for a bit before bed. I’ve lost all my 40 lbs of weight doing this and I’m a couple pounds from ultimate goal weight. Some people say the food digestion at night interrupts good sleep but I’ve slept incredibly well plus I don’t like going to bed hungry. I think one big benefit to working out late is your muscles instantly get 8-10 hours of recovery before they have to be used again.

Work out when it best suits your schedule and you are most psyched to do it.

AlyssaPetsDogs wrote: »

I love how good I feel when I work our first thing in the morning and I feel like I keep burning calories throughout the day per my Apple Watch. However, I’m just struggling to get up in the morning. I’m thinking of going back to nights for my weekday workouts (usually right at 6 when I get home but sometimes as late as 9 pm). It doesn’t affect my sleep, but I tend to eat after my workout especially if I go right after work. Am I missing any sort of benefit from working out later than earlier? I eat most of my calories in the evening anyways.

Thanks!

The timing of your workout has nothing to do with your energy expenditure...your effort, mass moved over distance, etc is what determines your energy expenditure, not the time of day.

ETA: I typically have more energy in the afternoon/evening and would likely have a better workout in regards to energy expenditure in the evening...but I do my weekday rides early in the morning. For one, the heat of the day in the afternoon/evening often derails my best laid plans to go ride...also, *kitten* happens during the day so I like to get things done first thing. I'm definitely burning more calories in the AM actually going on my ride vs PM when I'm far more likely to skip it.

I don't really workout or ride for calorie burn though...I do it because it's really good for my overall health and well being and an early morning ride just sets the tone for the day.

MikePTY wrote: »

mtrimble381 wrote: »

I recently met with a nutritionist and she said its always best to work out in the morning before you eat. She said that the food you eat from the prior day (the left over stuff that turns to fat) will burn off when you exercise. I am loosely quoting her as I have no clue how it all works. This was just something we discussed. I prefer to work out at night due to having more time; however, I am going to try to start working out in the mornings to see how it goes. Best of luck

I suggest you no longer see that nutritionist. Your body burns calories 24 hours a day. Your weight loss will be based off of your body's total calorie deficit, regardless of the time you eat or workout.

I do almost all of my workouts in the evening. I attend a martial arts class from 7-830 at night. I still get all the benefits from exercise at that time. The only thing to watch out for with nighttime exercise is being able to sleep afterwards. Personally, exercise pumps my adrenaline and I need to do it at least a handful of hours before sleep. So late night workouts like 10-11 o'clock usually keep me up to 2 in the morning. But if that doesn't affect you, than there is no reason not to work out at night if it is more convienent.

My doctor suggested not eating too much soy because of leaky gut syndrome. Otherwise she's an excellent doctor, who goes above and beyond, even got me a discount I want eligible for once when I was between jobs. I think you have to accept some degree of woo, it seems like everybody in anything related to health has at least one nutty belief. So I try to look at it on balance.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you say, just sharing my thoughts. This is basically nuanced agreement. The time of day stuff is woo. You're always digesting food you ate in the past, morning noon and night.

AlyssaPetsDogs wrote: »

I love how good I feel when I work our first thing in the morning and I feel like I keep burning calories throughout the day per my Apple Watch. However, I’m just struggling to get up in the morning. I’m thinking of going back to nights for my weekday workouts (usually right at 6 when I get home but sometimes as late as 9 pm). It doesn’t affect my sleep, but I tend to eat after my workout especially if I go right after work. Am I missing any sort of benefit from working out later than earlier? I eat most of my calories in the evening anyways.

Thanks!

If you love how you feel in the mornings, is there anything you could do to streamline the process? I have been working out first thing in the morning for a year and I still slipped last week =/

Normal routine: get up, put on workout clothes, start workout video bookmarked on pc. Bookmarks are labeled by week and day so no thought needed.

Last week: Computer died Sunday night, and that entire week I didn't work out. I didn't have the discipline to randomly find a video, as my bookmarks were gone with the dead computer. Just having to put in that extra little thought was enough to trip the seesaw from workout-ready to meh

PS - rebuilt my workout bookmarks on our laptop over the weekend and went back to working out this morning. Back on track!

If your morning exercise makes you bouncy-energetic for some time afterward, and you'd otherwise be groggy/sleep-walking through those hours without the workout, then it's possible that you get a very little bit extra of daily-life calorie burn via your morning workout. (Relax, readers, I'm not inflating the value of EPOC. I'm just a before-noon groggy person, so recognize that things that speed the wake-up can have an effect on AM energy and activity.)

But Kimny's right:

kimny72 wrote: »

OP, the best time to work out is the time you will be most willing and able to consistently do it. Even if there were a slight price to pay exercising in the PM (though it sounds like there's not), Consistently working out at 6PM and burning 300 cals each time is better than intending to workout at 6AM and sometimes burning 325 cals but other times burning 0 because you don't make it

That AM bounciness won't offset the compliance issue she describes.

If you get some extra bounce from exercise, but prefer doing your main workout late, consider trying a 5 or 10 minute wake-up routine of a few calisthenics exercises or a very short brisk walk, to see if that will perk your AM energy level.

If you workout in the morning, endorphins and a sense of accomplishment can make your whole day seem better but it won't effect your calorie burn. I like my happy-brain so I go for a walk in the morning but since exercising helps me sleep I do a real workout in the evening. The moral of this story = Whatever works for you, works.

Have you thought about mixing it up? I spin 2 weekday mornings at 5:30 AM, and then workout afternoons and evenings the rest of the week.

IMO, work out whenever is best for you, morning or evening. If you feel good about working out at YOUR time, it'll be easier to stay consistent.