Best time to do jogging/running to lose weight and why

What is the best time to do jogging or running to promote more weight loss?

Answer;

Weight loss is not an easy task, you have to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 lb of weight. But if you are taking 3000 calories per day and you are burning only 2500, it means there is a net excess of 500 calories, and these 500 calories will be stored as fat or glycogen. 

On the other hand, if you are taking 2000 calories and are burning 2200 calories per day, then it means, you are burning 200 calories using your body stores, which are present in the form of fats or glycogen. 

According to me, and my personal experience plus professional knowledge, the best time to exercise is early morning when you wake up. The reason is, at this time, you haven't had taken anything since last 9-10 hours, therefore, at this time the working out or jogging will take energy from your body stores instead of the food that you take because your stomach has been empty and since last 5-6 hours. Also in the morning, the level of insulin in the body is low, due to the fasting state, insulin is an anabolic hormone, which promotes weight gain. In the absence of insulin in the morning, our body goes into a catabolic state very easily and starts to use body stores to produce energy for jogging or workout. 

If you feel very low, or want to take something before jogging, then take a high protein shake instead of a high-carbohydrate snack. If you take a high carb shake/snack, then the readily available energy from the carb shake will be used, insulin level will increase in response to high blood sugar and your body's metabolism will become more complex and difficult for weight loss. It's better to avoid high-carb snack before exercise if your aim is to lose weight. A high protein shake is acceptable because it will take some time to digest and it will be first broken down to amino acids, and there is a strong probability that these amino acids will be used to repair muscle damage instead of conversion to fats. 

In my personal experience, i have noticed more fat loss when i used to jog in the morning. Jogging in the evening wasn't seem to be effective that much. 

Share your views in the comment and if you have any question, feel free to ask using the link present inside the right sidebar. 

Best Regards

Dr. Adil Ramzan
MBBS, MD Internal Medicine