Exercise Timing Matters: Research out of the University of Sydney Links People with Obesity and When they Exercise

A small lifestyle shift could make a world of difference in your health as new research pinpoints the optimal time to exercise to lower risk of cardiovascular disease death and events.

evening exercise
Something so small as choosing to go for a walk in the evening rather than the morning will significantly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one top killer across the globe, killing over 650,000 people in the US each year. Not everyone is at the same risk for cardiovascular disease, however. Those with type 2 diabetes and obese folks are at a much higher risk of developing fatal cardiovascular disease.

All hope is not lost for these folks, aerobic exercise has been proven to lower risk of mortality in this group of adults. However, there is a way to maximize the benefits of moderate to vigorous exercise: timing. Recent research out of the University of Sydney in Australia found evening exercise is best for reducing mortality rates in this predisposed group.

Lowest risk of cardiovascular disease linked to evening exercise

Researchers sampled 29,836 adults with obesity over almost 8 years, monitoring when they achieved aerobic movement of over 3 minutes. Participants were asked to wear a wearable device which tracked heart rate. Any activity that raised their heart rate for 3 minutes counted, such as, climbing stairs, power walking, running, or even vigorously cleaning the house.

They were only tracked using the device for a week, but after were monitored using a health database for 7.9 years to see their trajectory. Of the 1,425 deaths within the study, the evening exercise group saw a hazard ratio of only 0.39. Morning exercisers fared much worse with a ratio of 0.67. The study also found similar results for cardiovascular events.

An important finding for healthcare

This is the first of its kind to find these results on such a wide scale. While researchers anticipate the need for further research to solidify the findings, this is an easy step doctors can recommend to their patients. Switching from exercising in the morning to the evening is an easy change that could be potentially lifesaving.

Healthcare professionals may consider recommending elevated evening exercise as a preventative and management practice for those predisposed to cardiovascular issues. Reducing risk by almost a third is huge for such a small lifestyle shift.

The researchers did not connect the vigor of activity to the timing, but it is likely increased intensity of workouts would further these benefits. Research such as this is incredibly important as cardiovascular disease continues to be the cause of 1 in 5 deaths in the US and cause of millions of deaths a year worldwide.

News reference:

Sabag, A. Et al. “Timing of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity, Mortality, Cardiovascular Disease, and Microvascular Disease in Adults With Obesity.” https://doi.org/10.2337/dc23-2448