Exercising in the morning burns more fat, according to a study on mice published in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. If the results are confirmed by studies on humans, they could pave the way for new strategies to combat overweight and obesity.
"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", comments Juleen Zierath of the Karolinska Institute. "The right timing seems to be important to the body’s energy balance and to improving the health benefits of exercise, but more studies are needed to draw any reliable conclusions about the relevance of our findings to humans".
Mice are actually nocturnal animals and have important differences compared to humans, although they share many basic physiological functions and have long been studied as a model to better understand human metabolism. In this study, for example, mice were used to understand how exercise timing can affect fat metabolism. Specifically, the researchers studied the adipose tissue of mice after a session of intense physical activity performed at two different times of the day: at the beginning of their active phase (which for us humans corresponds to the late morning) and at the beginning of the rest phase (our late evening). In both cases, the researchers evaluated different biomarkers of fat metabolism and verified which genes were switched on in adipose tissue after exercise.
The data collected show that physical activity practiced at the beginning of the active phase increases the expression of genes involved in the degradation of fat tissue, in the production of heat (thermogenesis) and in the functioning of the 'energy control units' (mitochondria) of fat cells, elements indicative of an accelerated metabolism. These effects were independent of food intake.
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