- Researchers report that morning and afternoon exercise seem to correlate with lower diabetes risk.
- They also found that more total exercise was more protective against diabetes
- Experts say it’s unclear why the time you exercise matters, but risk protection factors may involve lifestyle or biological factors.
Exercise is strongly associated with lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes, but your level of protection may vary depending on when and how you work out.
A study published today in the journal Diabetologia concludes that while physical activity undertaken in the morning or afternoon seems to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, the same was not true of exercising in the evening.
The research led by Dr. Caiwei Tian of Harvard University and Dr. Chirag Patel of Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts also found that people who got more total hours of measurable physical activity were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
“The consistency or routine of physical activity was not strongly associated with type 2 diabetes,” the study authors wrote. “In other words, individuals who exercise a smaller amount of time more frequently are at no lesser risk for diabetes than individuals who exercise the same total amount, but with less of a routine.”
The study was based on data from 93,095 UK Biobank participants who had no history of type 2 diabetes and wore an accelerometer for one week to measure their physical activity. The activities included chores, walking, and vigorous exercise.
Diabetes risk assessments were adjusted based on lifestyle factors such as sleep and dietary intake.
Researchers measured activity based on metabolic equivalent of task (MET) hours and reported that for each one-unit increase of MET hour of physical activity, type 2 diabetes risk decreased 10% for morning (6 a.m. to noon) activity and 9% for afternoon (noon to 6 p.m.) activity.
No such correlation was seen for evening (6 p.m. to midnight) activity, however.
“The timing of activity may…
Read the full article here