Trying to get a view on when people do their exercise. Traditionally I have been a morning person doing my exercise before breakfast but I have felt a bit knackered the last couple of times. Tonight I went out before my evening meal for 5K and felt really good. I had eaten earlier in the day (about 17g) and wonder if I need to change my exercise schedule.
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exercise morning or evening And before or after food
- Thread starter JimmyBlue
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CliffH
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I cycle: any time as long as it's daylight. I don't think when during the day people exercise matters much in terms of diabetes management, as long as people do manage to do some form of exercise - which can include gentle walking, gardening and seated yoga.
rebrascora
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Exercising after meals can help to bring BG levels back down quicker, particularly if they have gone higher than you would like provided they aren't too high. If you are mid teens mmols, it is probably best just to do gently walking. I find if my levels are above 10 I can feel my body has to work harder.
Bubbleblower
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I can’t resist sharing the results of my little field research.
If I “walk to the 5“, that is walking rounds of 600 meters untill my glucose drops to the 5 range;
– Mornings that will take me at least 7 or 8 rounds.
– But if I don’t have breakfast I never get there.
– Evenings it takes me 4 or 5 rounds.
Here is some desk research as well:
Exercise training elicits superior metabolic effects when performed in the afternoon compared to morning in metabolically compromised humans
Morning (Fasting) vs Afternoon Resistance Exercise in Individuals With Type 1 Diabetes: A Randomized Crossover Study
Blood glucose rose during fasting morning exercise (9.5 ± 3.0 to 10.4 ± 3.0 mmol/L), whereas it declined with afternoon exercise (8.2 ± 2.5 to 7.4 ± 2.6 mmol/L; P = 0.031 for time-by-treatment interaction).
Sixty minutes postexercise, blood glucose concentration was significantly higher after fasting morning exercise than after afternoon exercise (10.9 ± 3.2 vs 7.9 ± 2.9 mmol/L; P = 0.019).
Also exercising fasted increases pro-inflammatory cytokines about twice as much.
If I “walk to the 5“, that is walking rounds of 600 meters untill my glucose drops to the 5 range;
– Mornings that will take me at least 7 or 8 rounds.
– But if I don’t have breakfast I never get there.
– Evenings it takes me 4 or 5 rounds.
Here is some desk research as well:
Exercise training elicits superior metabolic effects when performed in the afternoon compared to morning in metabolically compromised humans
Morning (Fasting) vs Afternoon Resistance Exercise in Individuals With Type 1 Diabetes: A Randomized Crossover Study
Blood glucose rose during fasting morning exercise (9.5 ± 3.0 to 10.4 ± 3.0 mmol/L), whereas it declined with afternoon exercise (8.2 ± 2.5 to 7.4 ± 2.6 mmol/L; P = 0.031 for time-by-treatment interaction).
Sixty minutes postexercise, blood glucose concentration was significantly higher after fasting morning exercise than after afternoon exercise (10.9 ± 3.2 vs 7.9 ± 2.9 mmol/L; P = 0.019).
Also exercising fasted increases pro-inflammatory cytokines about twice as much.
Great link about exercise training and metabolic response for T2Ds.
silver minion
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Like you I am on the lean side. I prefer to exercise after food. I have never been able to do any sort of vigorous exercise in the morning before breakfast or I would feel faint and dizzy. Like to start with moderate walk 20 mins or so after eating to warm up muscles then do some vigorous gardening. I enjoy evening walks after dinner before the clocks go back. Maybe later exercising suits your metabolism better.
The question that has not been asked is
What is your reason for exercise?
If it is to avoid spikes after eating, then doing so after meals can help.
If you are doing it to let off steam, then doing so when you are most stressed is beneficial.
There is research on when is the best time to eat in terms of weight loss or energy or strength or ...?
I exercise when I can. Typically, this is after work during the week and in the morning (after a small breakfast) at the weekend.
I don't think the time of day makes much difference to me and probably doesn't for most people unless they are elite athletes or have a very specific goal in mind.
What is your reason for exercise?
If it is to avoid spikes after eating, then doing so after meals can help.
If you are doing it to let off steam, then doing so when you are most stressed is beneficial.
There is research on when is the best time to eat in terms of weight loss or energy or strength or ...?
I exercise when I can. Typically, this is after work during the week and in the morning (after a small breakfast) at the weekend.
I don't think the time of day makes much difference to me and probably doesn't for most people unless they are elite athletes or have a very specific goal in mind.
nonethewiser
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Walk anytime of day, no set routine just like to get out & about.
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For those who take insulin to help manage their diabetes, the amount of Insulin On Board can be worth factoring-in when considering planning exercise times.
Rapid insulin doses can last up to 4-5 hours, which may need to be borne in mind 🙂
Rapid insulin doses can last up to 4-5 hours, which may need to be borne in mind 🙂
Definitely, exercise starting before lunch (once morning bolus has worn off) is by far the easiest for me to deal with. The worst case is unplanned exercise when I have a full bolus dose on board. Somewhere in the middle is planned with a reduced bolus and then the tightrope between not running too high post-meal and too low once exercise-induced insulin sensitivity takes hold.
Worth experimenting though to get a feel for how it works, so it doesn't preclude you doing exercise when you want (or when it's available - e.g. evening clubs) rather than when it's easiest from a BG perspective.
Lilsis
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If I'm doing a home workout, I'll do it before I eat breakfast. If I go out in a training hike, (I'm currently trying for an ultra challenge), I generally go out before eating on shorter walk but take something with me to have 7-10 miles in on longer walks
I exercise when I can (before and after meals when I motivate myself to do so).
When losing weight I sometimes had a snack before or during to avoid feeling jaded.
Some research indicates the body handles food in the morning better than the evening - one study found 17% higher glucose levels in the evening than the morning, same person/same meal. Circadian rhythms!
When losing weight I sometimes had a snack before or during to avoid feeling jaded.
Some research indicates the body handles food in the morning better than the evening - one study found 17% higher glucose levels in the evening than the morning, same person/same meal. Circadian rhythms!
I haven't done any research on this but it wouldn't surprise me if another paper suggested the opposite - a different person with different circadian rhythms.
I definitely find that I need more insulin in the morning than I do in the evening - same person same meal.
For me, any exercise is beneficial, especially when I consider my whole body rather than just the diabetes bit, regardless when I take it.
Like you, I do it when I can ... plus the motivation bit.
harbottle
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Yeah, I find I'm a little higher in the morning than the afternoon - after around 8 O'Clock it usually pops up into the sixes but falls by the afternoon. When I looked into it, it seemed this wasn't abnormal as cortisol levels are higher in the morning and they cause insulin resistance which can lead to higher levels. As it doesn't seem to affect hba1c, I don't worry about it.
Just found the article (abstract) again, full text here, published 2015, abstract:
"Glucose tolerance is lower in the evening and at night than in the morning. However, the relative contribution of the circadian system vs. the behavioral cycle (including the sleep/wake and fasting/feeding cycles) is unclear. Furthermore, although shift work is a diabetes risk factor, the separate impact on glucose tolerance of the behavioral cycle, circadian phase, and circadian disruption (i.e., misalignment between the central circadian pacemaker and the behavioral cycle) has not been systematically studied. Here we show--by using two 8-d laboratory protocols--in healthy adults that the circadian system and circadian misalignment have distinct influences on glucose tolerance, both separate from the behavioral cycle. First, postprandial glucose was 17% higher (i.e., lower glucose tolerance) in the biological evening (8:00 PM) than morning (8:00 AM; i.e., a circadian phase effect), independent of the behavioral cycle effect. Second, circadian misalignment itself (12-h behavioral cycle inversion) increased postprandial glucose by 6%. Third, these variations in glucose tolerance appeared to be explained, at least in part, by different mechanisms: during the biological evening by decreased pancreatic β-cell function (27% lower early-phase insulin) and during circadian misalignment presumably by decreased insulin sensitivity (elevated postprandial glucose despite 14% higher late-phase insulin) without change in early-phase insulin. We explored possible contributing factors, including changes in polysomnographic sleep and 24-h hormonal profiles. We demonstrate that the circadian system importantly contributes to the reduced glucose tolerance observed in the evening compared with the morning. Separately, circadian misalignment reduces glucose tolerance, providing a mechanism to help explain the increased diabetes risk in shift workers."
Participants
"Fourteen healthy nonsmoking, drug- and medication-free (except for oral contraceptive agents) adults completed this study [mean age ± SD (range), 28 ± 9 y (20–49 y); BMI, 25.4 ± 2.6 kg/m2 (21–29.5 kg/m2); eight men]. Health status was determined by physical examination, standard laboratory tests, and psychiatric assessment."Since 2015 there has been quite a lot of research into 'early Time Restricted Eating' (eTRE), such as this which has some good graphics comparing 'metabolic levels'.
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@JimmyBlue. Apologies for the diversion.
My comments about times to exercise and eat were partly based on Russell Foster's Life Time (Chapter 13. Finding your Natural Rhythm - Circadian rhythms, diet and health). He is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, University of Oxford. [Good copies at Abe Books for the price of a coffee!]
My comments about times to exercise and eat were partly based on Russell Foster's Life Time (Chapter 13. Finding your Natural Rhythm - Circadian rhythms, diet and health). He is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, University of Oxford. [Good copies at Abe Books for the price of a coffee!]
Thanks @JITR, will have a look at that. I must admit I still prefer to run in the morning but I tend to go the gym in the PM and currently play all my golf in the afternoon. The only consistent thing I have identified is that my BG is higher in the evening before dinner than the rest of the day. Morning and Afternoon I am normally 5.4 - 6.4 but in the evening I am 6.7 to 7.4. Add two mmol to those numbers and I can regularly top out at over 8.5.