ArticleFrontiers in physiology2025
Morning vs. evening: the role of exercise timing in enhancing fat oxidation in young men.
Article in Frontiers in physiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Afternoon exercise was associated with greater fat loss than morning exercise in overweight/obese adults: an exploratory study of PER3 rs228697 genotype matching.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Hidden Hunger in Pediatric Obesity: Redefining Malnutrition Through Macronutrient Quality and Micronutrient Deficiency.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Circadian Phase Determines Tissue-Specific Adaptations to Long-Term Exercise in Obese Mice.Nutrients · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the acute effects of exercise timing (morning vs. evening) on fat oxidation and energy expenditure in young men, with a focus on interactions between exercise and meal timing. Methods: Eighteen male college students (23.47 ± 2.11 years) completed a randomized crossover trial under five conditions: sedentary control (SC), exercise before breakfast (EBB), exercise after breakfast (EAB), exercise before dinner (EBD), and exercise after dinner (EAD). Indirect calorimetry (COSMED K5) measured substrate utilization during exercise, post-exercise recovery (0-4 h), and the following morning. Total exercise volume (running distance) was standardized, and energy expenditure was normalized to body weight (kcal/kg). Results: During the sedentary control test, participants showed similar trends in total energy expenditure. Dring exercise, the EBB group demonstrated significantly higher fat expenditure compared to EAB (P < 0.05), EBD (P < 0.01), and EAD (P < 0.01). Morning exercise overall exhibited superior fat oxidation (P < 0.01). Post-exercise (0-4 h), EBB sustained elevated fat utilization (P < 0.01 vs. EBD/EAD), while EAD showed enhanced fat oxidation the following morning (P < 0.01 vs. EAB). Conclusion: The findings suggest that exercise timing may influence temporal patterns of fat oxidation, with morning fasting potentially favoring acute lipid utilization, while evening exercise appears to correlate with delayed metabolic adjustments. Although total energy expenditure remained comparable across conditions, the observed shifts in substrate allocation imply a possible circadian-sensitive modulation of energy partitioning. These preliminary observations underscore the need for further investigation to clarify the long-term physiological relevance of such timing-dependent metabolic responses.
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