NIGHT OR DAY EXERCISE?

So should you hit the gym first thing on waking, or at the end of the day? New research shows the time of day you exercise does make a difference to the benefits you receive. Morning workouts boost all-day concentration and trigger fat-burning, especially if you workout before breakfast. Evening exercise (before 8pm) increases your afterburn – the number of hours you burn kilojoules once your slog is over.

Plus, an evening workout cuts levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin – goodbye late-night snack attack! So which time should you pick? It’s a no-brainer. “The time that you are most likely to feel motivated so you stick to the exercise,” says sports and exercise scientist Martha Lourey-Bird.