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

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.