Exercise Later in the Day Reduces the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Controls Blood Sugar Levels

Obesity rates have tripled worldwide since 1975, per the World Health Organization. The relationship between obesity and insulin resistance is bidirectional in the sense that the latter develops due to the former, which could lead up to type 2 diabetes. Researchers have studied different ways to improve insulin resistance and pointed to exercise as one of the best ways.

Exercise is an important aspect of life as proven in a new study titled "The Effect of Morning vs Evening Exercise Training on Glycaemic Control and Serum Metabolites in Overweight/Obese Men: A Randomised Trial," which is published in Diabetologia the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

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Exercise Later in the Day Reduces the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Controls Blood Sugar Levels

Analyzing Physical Activity of Overweight and Obese Participants

The study is an analysis of the benefits of exercising in the morning versus later in the day. Jeroen van der Velde, Ph.D., the lead study author from Leiden University Medical Center, said that they aim to investigate the link between the timing of physical activity and breaks in sedentary time with liver fat and insulin resistance among middle age people.

Per the report of Medical News Today, the team analyzed data from the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity (NEO) cohort study from 6,671 participants who were men and women aged between 45 and 65 with a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or greater classified as overweight or obese.

They also collected data about fasting and after-meal blood glucose and insulin samples, as well as MRI scans of those who could undergo imaging. More so, the team actively monitor the physical activity of 955 participants for four days.

Through analyzing the physical activity patterns, they divided up daily periods into three segments. Some exercised in the morning between 6 am to 12 pm, others in the afternoon between 12 pm to 6 pm, and others in the evening from 6 pm to 12 am. But the hours between 12 am to 6 am are not included.

For every six-hour period, the team looked at the different levels of activity of each participant and recorded their heart activity as well using heart rate monitors.

Morning Exercise Vs. Afternoon or Evening Exercise

Insulin resistance makes it harder for the body to control blood sugar levels and the team hypothesizes that physical activity could improve it depending on the timing of exercise.

From the 955 closely monitored participants, it became 775 people; and they compared the level of insulin resistance to how much the participant spent time sitting down and how intense their exercise was, Healthline reported.

They found that moderate to vigorous activity in the afternoon is linked to an 18% reduction in insulin resistance and 25% in the evening. Also, moderate to vigorous physical activity reduced liver fat content. However, a similar intensity of exercise in the morning or evenly distributed throughout the day did not produce similar results.

The team said that they are not surprised that afternoon or evening exercise appears to be most beneficial because previous studies on diabetes patients showed similar results in which glucose control was the best when high-intensity exercise was performed in the afternoon rather than in the morning.

But in the study, they examined habitual moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, which includes brisk walking and cycling, that caused a 25% insulin resistance. The team noted that the big difference is not expected.