How to Increase the Health Benefits of Exercise? According to an English study it is very simple: just train before breakfast!
Sportspeople often train in the morning, but some of them have breakfast. Well, according to research conducted by the University of Bath and Birmingham and published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism , this is a mistake. The results obtained from this study suggest that exercise before breakfast has “profound” and “positive” effects on health .
In fact, playing sports as soon as you get up and before eating anything improves the way your body responds to insulin and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
British scientists have basically found that meal times in relation to exercise can change the effectiveness of training in terms of health. Put simply, by better coordinating mealtime and exercise times, people can better control their blood sugar levels.
To make this claim, the British scientists conducted a 6-week study involving 30 men classified as obese or overweight. The results of two different groups (those who ate breakfast before or after exercise) were compared with a control group (which made no lifestyle changes).
At the end of the experiment it was noted that the people who had exercised before breakfast, for the same training sessions and corresponding food intake, burned twice the amount of fat compared to the group who exercised after breakfast.
This phenomenon is mainly due to the reduction in insulin levels during exercise done immediately after an overnight fast, which means that people can use more fat and fat tissue within their muscles for fuel.
This advantage, however, did not differ in weight loss over six weeks. As Dr Javier Gonzalez of the University of Bath ‘s Department of Health explained :
“Importantly, while this had no effect on weight loss, it greatly improved their overall health . The group that exercised before breakfast increased their ability to respond to insulin, which is even more remarkable given that both exercise groups lost a similar amount of weight and both gained a similar amount of fitness. . The only difference was the timing of food intake “
Co-author, Dr Gareth Wallis of the University of Birmingham added:
“This work suggests that exercising immediately after an overnight fast can increase the health benefits of physical activity for individuals, without changing the intensity, duration or perception of their exertion. Now we need to explore the long-term effects of this type of exercise and whether women will benefit in the same way as men. “
At the moment, in fact, the thing has been verified only on men but future studies will try to understand if the same results also occur for women.
Obviously, even if we cannot or cannot do sports before breakfast, it is still good to practice physical activity at other times of the day. However, the benefits of moderate and constant training are many.
