Researchers looked at a group of 375 individuals who not only lost a lot of weight — more than 80 pounds on average — but also managed to keep those extra pounds off for more than seven years on average, and were exercising at least twice a week. Consistency may be one secret to their success. Most of the participants — 68 percent — exercised at the same time several days a week, while the rest of the participants varied the times of their workouts over the course of a week. The group who exercised at the same time of day from week to week logged more workouts and devoted more time each week to exercise than people whose workout times varied. “Exercising consistently at the same time of day, regardless of when that time is, could be helpful for forming a physical activity habit and fostering high levels of physical activity,” says Dale Bond, PhD, senior study author and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Miriam Hospital and Brown Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. RELATED: 9 Hard Truths About Weight Loss That Can Help You Slim Down All of the study participants were part of a weight loss registry designed to collect data on the characteristics and behavior patterns of people who successfully lost weight and kept it off. Participants completed surveys on their workout habits when they joined the study that researchers examined to see what role exercise timing might have played in their success. The researchers counted participants as people with “consistent” workout times if they reported that more than one-half of their workouts across a typical week fell into one of four time windows: early morning (4 to 8:59 a.m.), late morning (9 to 11:59 a.m.), afternoon (noon to 4:59 pm), or evening (5 p.m. to 3:59 a.m.). The others were considered “inconsistent” exercisers — in terms of the timing of their workouts — if they worked out at a variety of times throughout the week. The data found:
Those who consistently exercised at the same time logged more workouts. Those who worked out at the same time of day logged 4.8 workouts per week on average, compared with 4.4 among people who varied their workout times.Those who consistently exercised at the same time of day logged more minutes exercising per week. At least one-half of those exercising at the same time of day got 350 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, compared with 285 minutes being the median amount of exercise for those who varied workout times.More of those exercising at the same time of day achieved the minimum 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week recommended to improve health. Among those exercising at the same time of day, 86 percent managed to meet this recommendation, compared with 74 percent of people who varied their workout times.
It’s important to note that even though consistency in time of exercise was associated with more exercise in this study, there weren’t meaningful differences in the total amount of weight the individuals had previously lost, how long people had maintained that weight loss, or current body mass index (BMI) between those exercising at the same time of day and the people who varied their workout times. It’s possible that because consistent exercise timing increased total exercise, those individuals would be better able to keep the weight they had lost off, Dr. Bond says. “But additional experimental studies are needed to more rigorously test those hypotheses.” RELATED: Tricks to Help You Start Working Out and Actually Stick to It
Questions Remain for How Best to Exercise for Those Trying to Lose Weight or to Start Working Out
“This study suggests that making exercise a part of your routine where you set aside a specific time for it, may make you more successful,” says Keith Diaz, PhD, an exercise physiologist and an assistant professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, who was not involved in the new study. “Exercising should become like brushing your teeth,” Dr. Diaz says. “An everyday routine habit that you automatically do at the same times every day without thinking.” But, because the study only looked at exercise habits at one point in time, it’s unclear what type of workout routines might help people lose weight or keep it off for years, added Diaz. It’s also unclear if the finding that consistency of exercise timing being linked to more exercise would be true for other groups of individuals not in this study. RELATED: Why Strength Training Is So Good for Your Health and Fitness RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Aerobic Exercise “We don’t really know if the study results would apply to those trying to lose weight or start up an exercise routine,” Diaz says. “And, we don’t really know if the study results would apply to individuals who weren’t successful at their weight loss efforts, a group far more commonly found.” About 40 percent of American adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And roughly one-half of U.S. adults are trying to lose weight, also according to CDC data. Even modest weight loss — about 5 to 10 percent of total body weight — can produce health benefits like lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugars, according to the CDC. This is true even when people remain overweight. The healthiest and most effective way to lose weight and sustain it is to take it slow and steady, and aim to shed about one to two pounds a week by making changes to eating patterns and exercising, according to the CDC.
When It Comes to Managing Weight, Healthy Habits Help
“I thought it was interesting that there was no difference in BMI between people who did their exercise consistently (doing more exercise totally) and those who didn’t (doing less exercise totally),” says Susan Roberts, PhD, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, who studies the development of weight loss programs and how to prevent weight regain, and coauthored The I Diet. Exercise clearly isn’t the only thing that impacts weight loss; there’s a growing awareness that diet plays a critical role in weight loss outcomes, too, she says. RELATED: Skipping Breakfast Before Exercising May Help You Lose Weight The data also reinforces the notion that when it comes to making healthy choices, consistency and routines help, she says. The people in the study who were consistent about exercise did more of it. RELATED: A Guide to Weight Loss Diets: Which Ones Work and Which Ones to Skip Even though the study didn’t look at eating habits, it’s certainly possible that people who manage to schedule a workout at the same time most days may also excel at meal planning and other healthy habits that help them lose weight and keep the pounds off, Roberts says. “If you create healthy habits for regular breakfasts and snacks, for example, you are less likely to go off the rails and eat unhealthy things at that time, because habits are things you do without much thought so they are easier to maintain,” Roberts says. “The same may be true of exercise,” Roberts added. “If you have a habit of always going to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7 a.m., it may be easier to maintain than having to decide each week when you are going.”
