Which is better.... Working out first thing in the morning o

Let personal preference and life circumstances dictate when you work out.

As far as trying to manipulate whether or not you're burning the muffin you ate at 6pm or what have you, I would urge you to stop thinking in those terms.

Control your total daily intake of calories and increase your calorie expenditure via exercise. Beyond that, don't bother with micromanaging the stuff that isn't important in the big picture.

I work out whenever my body feels like working out...sometimes it's in the morning after I take the kids to school and sometimes it's shortly before bed. As long as you can stick with consistently working out, the time of day is inconsequential.

personally, i work out in the morning. if i wait until i get home to do it, i won't. after working all day, having to cook dinner, do dishes, care for my daughter, etc...i just don't have the time. plus i shower in the mornings, so i work out first then shower. that means i have to get up 1/2 hour earlier in the morning, but i've gotten used to it and i'd rather just get it over and done with at the beginning of the day.

as to whether its "best" or more "beneficial" to work out in the evening or morning...i have no clue!

whatever keeps you working out on a regular basis

It's all about what you prefer. I like doing it first thing in the morning to get it out of the way; that way I'm less likely to make excuses and put it off

I read somewhere that splitting ur workouts half in the morning half at night, is okay. It's easier on your body and evens ur matabolism throughout the day plus u still burn the same amount of calories. That's what I read anyhow.

There is no best time of day if you're talking physically. It's whatever works best for you.

A lot of people like mornings because there are less distractions and less chance of you getting tied up doing something else. I am NOT a morning person, so evenings work much better for me. As long as you do it some time throughout the day, you're golden.

If you wait too late, though, you may have a little more trouble sleeping just because it takes your body a little bit of time to settle back down. I've always heard to stop at least an hour before going to bed.

Glucose and insuline levels in the morning are low, so take advantage of this. I do my cardio training early in the morning, eat then do some strength training at lunch time. There's nothing like that morning PT session via Army training.

I have repeatedly tried to get up earlier to work out, it's just not a good idea if you are NOT a morning person. If you ARE a morning person, take advantage of that and work out in the morning. Working out in general is best but I've heard morning is better.

Bull****.

I was never a "morning person" until I made myself dedicated to getting up between 5:30-6:30am every morning. Now, I love being up early and getting things done. I enjoy going to bed by 9:30-10:30.


Personally, I think working out is better during the mornings. I always feel much better all day.

If you can get up in the AM to do the workout it's a great energy booster. I used to get up at 6 am and work out before going to work and I'd be full of energy throughout the entire day. Since I stopped working out for a couple of years I'm not able to get up early anymore. Not much of an early bird. If you can do it try it. Like a lot of people have said it's really a preference.

Indeed, I think whenever you are most likely to do it is when you should work out! So if waking up early to work out makes it feel too much like a chore, do it later in the day. However, working out within an hour or so of bedtime can be detrimental to your sleep, so if you find evening work outs make it harder to fall asleep at your normal time, then maybe midday or afternoon is better. It's all preference and what works best for you. Any difference in how effective a workout is at a certain time of day verses another time of day is probably so slight it wouldn't make a difference. Working out is working out, no matter when you do it!

Let personal preference and life circumstances dictate when you work out.

I concur with this. For several years, I was a dedicated afternoon-to-evening workout person. Occasionally I would work out during my lunch hour, but no earlier unless I was running in a 5k race because those tend to start very early. I would *not* characterize myself as a morning person.

However, this plan stopped working out this past fall when I started an evening grad school program on top of my full time job. Next thing I knew, I had pretty much given up on my workout routine because my evenings were so jam packed. I would go to my bellydance class about once a week and on the occasional Friday evening I would reluctantly drag myself to the gym after work, but I was listless and miserable. I gained about 7lbs back during all this, and I finally realized that the circumstances of my life had changed, and my workout regimen HAD to change with it.

That's when I started doing shorter, more intense workouts in the morning. And I actually don't get up any earlier to do it. I spend less time futzing around reading e-mail or catching up on Facebook, and instead do the workout and a quick shower. The result is that I do get to the office later, but I'm fortunate enough to have a flexible working schedule, and on the days that I don't have school, I can stay later if I need to.

As a result, I've come down several inches in a relatively short span of time, and I feel much more energized throughout the day. Sometimes I even fit in a 20 minute walk in the afternoon to get an additional calorie boost.

That's what works for me and my lifestyle right now. I lost 60 lbs doing it in the evenings before, and now I'm losing weight doing it in the morning. So, moral of the story is... personal preference and life circumstances are the way to go. Whatever gets you movin' regularly.