What Happens if You Lift at Night vs Day

Discover exactly what happens when you lift at nighttime versus the daytime.
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Do you do daytime or nighttime workouts? Will you be stronger, have more energy, and be able to work out harder first thing in the morning or at the end of the day? Which one is better,r and does it even matter? Well, the answer is yes, The time of the day that you workout can make a big difference in your progress with burning fat, getting stronger, and building muscle. Some people swear by early morning workouts, claiming they boost metabolism, set a positive tone for the day, and create consistency. Others argue that evening workouts allow for better performance, higher energy levels, and muscle recovery advantages. So, who’s right? And more importantly, what’s best for YOU? That's exactly what we'll look into in this video by comparing key areas like performance, fat loss, muscle growth, hormone levels, sleep quality, and overall consistency.

First, let's look at fat loss. Many people that are trying to lose fat believe that morning workouts, especially on an empty stomach, such as fasted cardio, burn more fat. The reasoning behind this is that when you wake up, your glycogen stores are lower because your body depletes liver glycogen overnight to maintain stable blood sugar levels while you sleep. Glycogen is your body's preferred fuel source, and it comes mostly from consuming carbohydrates, but when your body does not have as much glycogen available, it turns to fat oxidation. So fasting overnight while you sleep, combined with elevated morning cortisol levels, forces your body to rely more on fat for fuel. And yes, some studies support this idea. For example, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that people who performed fasted cardio in the morning burned more fat during exercise compared to those who ate before working out. (1) But there’s a catch: just because you burn more fat during the workout doesn’t mean you’ll burn more fat overall. You see, your body constantly adjusts its energy balance throughout the day. That's why a systematic review and meta-analysis found that while fasted exercise increases fat oxidation during the workout, the body compensates later in the day by using more carbohydrates for energy. This means that, in the long run, total fat loss is not significantly different between fasted and fed workouts. To simplify all of this, while you may burn more fat in the morning session itself, your body balances things out later, making the total fat loss over 24 hours about the same.

On the other hand, evening workouts may offer a definitive boost to a very important performance metric for both fat loss and muscle growth, and that's strength. That means if you're trying to build muscle, workouts in the late afternoon and evening can have a slight edge because strength and muscle performance are naturally higher later on in the day. One of the reasons for this is that as the day goes on, your core body temperature rises, peaking in the late afternoon or early evening hours. This has a direct impact on strength, flexibility, and endurance. Warmer muscles will perform better, which is where the whole idea of a warm-up comes from. Having a higher body temperature also increases blood flow & oxygen delivery. Although there's no conclusive exact time, we do have a study that compared morning versus evening workouts and found that strength, power, and endurance are often at their best between roughly 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Another factor that influences your strength positively later on in the day is that your body has had more time to fuel up and store more glycogen as well as other nutrients from your meals, however, that won't be the case if you work out first thing in the morning, especially on an empty stomach.  Glycogen is the primary fuel source for anaerobic activities like heavy weight lifting so it can directly translate to an increase in strength.

After a full day of eating your blood sugar levels tend to be more stable when compared to morning workouts, where lower blood sugar levels can potentially lead to early fatigue for some people, especially if you're not used to training in a fasted state. You'll also experience a more favorable testosterone-to-cortisol ratio during evening workouts rather than morning workouts. Think of testosterone as the hormone that helps you build muscle, while cortisol is the hormone that breaks muscle down. So, yes, its true that your testosterone levels are the highest first thing in the morning, but your cortisol levels are also very high. As the day progresses, your testosterone levels will drop slightly, but cortisol drops more significantly, making your testosterone-to-cortisol ratio higher and creating a more friendly anabolic environment for muscle growth. This is why the same meta-analysis from earlier found that even..