If I exercise in the morning, should I eat breakfast before or after exercise?
This depends on what you want to get out of your exercise routine. There are not many data on morning and evening exercise, but we are also looking at the effects of exercise on an empty stomach and when fed.
Some studies that have been completed suggest that exercising in the morning before breakfast actually burns more fat during exercise and lasts about 24 hours. Longer-term studies are needed to confirm the clinical significance of fasting versus feeding exercise at different times of the day.
What role does good sleep play in weight loss?
One of my research areas is examining the importance of sleep and weight management. I think sleep is an often forgotten pillar of health, along with diet and physical activity. Because as a society, we’re so focused on what we can do in our 24 hours that we forget the importance of sleep and how awake daytime sleep actually supports us. I think.
This is especially true for weight management. Not only does sleep directly affect your metabolism, but it also influences your dietary choices and physical activity behaviour. If you don’t sleep well, you are more likely to make the wrong food choices. Likewise, if you don’t sleep well, you will find it difficult to exercise because you are tired.
Healthy sleep behaviors such as getting 7 or more hours of sleep, going to bed and waking up at regular times, and minimizing outdoor light in the evening all have direct and indirect effects on weight management. I think it could have both positive effects. About dietary choices and physical activity behavior.
Calorie counting is essential for weight loss – why or why not?
When we survey people who participate in our weight loss program, they say calorie counting is one of the most important components of weight loss. However, they also report that they are unlikely or unwilling to continue because it is very difficult to do long term.
This is one of the problems with calorie counting. That’s where new eating strategies like intermittent fasting and timed eating come into play. Intermittent fasting and timed eating are strategies for losing or cutting calories without the hassle of counting calories. If you’re doing an alternate day fast, this is a popular strategy of either fasting completely one day, or perhaps only taking in 500 calories and eating as much as you want the next day. come and go. There is data suggesting that it basically helps reduce caloric intake.
The same is true for timed meals. Instead of counting calories, he limits his eating window to eight or ten hours a day. By doing so, you can reduce your calorie intake. Because there are so many calories available in that 8-10 hour window. Ultimately, I believe that if you want to lose weight, your goal should be to reduce your calorie intake. is the strategy of
When it comes to Thanksgiving, if you eat a large meal for lunch or dinner, either fast the day before Thanksgiving or limit your food intake so that on Thanksgiving Day you say, “Hey, I’m just going to eat.” You can say…today. Alternatively, you can limit your intake early on Thanksgiving Day, knowing that you will have a larger meal for lunch or dinner.
Will I lose weight if I stop eating early in the evening?
Another very interesting area of research at the moment is these time frames and the timing of meals during the day. For example, timed eating restricts your eating window to 8-10 hours, which can be earlier in the day or later in the day. As you can imagine, if someone wakes up at 8am and only eats until 4pm, that’s timed eating. And late timed meals are from noon to 8pm.
A large body of observational research suggests that slow eating is associated with worse metabolic health. Consuming more calories in the evening may undermine weight loss efforts. Therefore, some of these studies are just beginning to be published, although there is a hypothesis that earlier dieting may be beneficial for weight management.
What are the pros and cons of exercising in the afternoon?
I’m biased, but I don’t like highlighting the cons of exercise because the benefits far outweigh the cons. If you choose something you don’t enjoy and can’t do in the long run, it won’t work for you in the long run. Even if it’s the most beneficial time, I don’t think morning exercise is suitable if you don’t intend to do it for a long period of time.
When it comes to health benefits, I think we’re still trying to figure out what time is best. If exercising at different times of the day can enhance or optimize certain health benefits. there is. But again, I want to stress that any time of the day can help.
Losing and maintaining weight is hard. How do you help people lose weight and keep it off long-term?
Honestly, this is a paradigm shift for people in weight loss programs. everyone wants to know. How long do I have to do it? And I’m done. But it’s not. It is a lifestyle change or a long term change. you’re never done So the question is, what can I do now to lose weight and what can I continue to do? If you don’t continue with lifestyle changes, the weight will come back. Your physiology is working against you, and it’s an uphill battle.
It’s hard to lose weight. It’s hard to maintain. However, we seek to promote and support weight loss efforts through long-term sustainable lifestyle strategies.
Can you tell us about the clinical trials you are working on at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center?
It is currently undergoing clinical trials at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center led by Victoria Catenacci, MD. It is designed to answer the question: What is the best time of day to exercise for weight loss? We randomly assign overweight or obese people to exercise in the fitness center in the morning or evening. , they do this for 13 months. It examines how morning and evening exercise affect body composition, and how they affect energy expenditure, energy intake, meal timing, and sleep. We hope that it will help us make better recommendations for exercise at different times of the day.
