When you eat sugar, your pancreas releases insulin — the digestive hormone that scuttles sugar into your cells to keep your blood sugar levels stable. Insulin helps prevent dangerously high blood sugar levels.
Insulin sensitivity involves how responsive your cells are to insulin. Your cells have insulin receptors, and with the condition of low insulin sensitivity or insulin resistance, the cells become more resistant, and your body becomes less responsive to insulin. Reducing insulin resistance can help you maintain a healthy weight and improve your blood sugar. Researchers decided to explore how the timing and intensity of workouts affect insulin sensitivity, with interesting results.
The research
In a study published in Diabetoliga1, researchers wanted to know whether the timing and intensity of physical activity affected insulin resistance. They assessed the following factors in 755 men and women from the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity NFO study:
- Sedentary time
- Breaks in sedentary time
- Intensity of physical activity
- Liver fat content
They categorized the participants into four different groups based on the time of day they were the most active:
- Group 1: Morning from 6 AM to noon
- Group 2: Afternoon from noon to 6 PM
- Group 3: Evening from 6 PM to midnight
- Evenly distributed moderate to vigorous physical activity throughout the day
The results
The researchers unveiled that both the total moderate to vigorous physical activity and the timing of physical activity reduced insulin resistance, but it didn’t have the same effect on liver fat content. Interestingly, exercising in the afternoon and evening lowered insulin resistance by up to 25% compared to when the exercise was more evenly distributed throughout the day.
A lower amount of sedentary time, lighter physical activity, and more breaks in the sedentary time didn’t result in a reduction of insulin resistance or liver fat content.
The takeaway
More research is needed to draw more precise conclusions. Still, this study indicates that engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity in the afternoon or evening is the way to go when you want to improve insulin resistance. This study suggests that the timing and intensity of your exercise matters when it comes to insulin resistance. This is excellent news for the sunset runners and those who like to work out later in the day.
