Overall, the results between the morning and evening mouse training groups indicated that the rodents relied on fat rather than blood sugar for early training. The opposite was true for the mice that trained in the evening.
If these patterns were true in humans, it might indicate that early exercise promotes fat loss, while evening exercise is better for glycemic control.
The result is referred to by the study director as the “atlas of exercise metabolism”, i.e. a comprehensive map of signaling molecules that are present in different tissues following exercise at different times of the day.
New therapy options
“If we better understand how exercise affects the body at different times of the day, this might benefit people at increased risk of diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes,” says Juleen R. Zierath from the Karolinska Institute.
The researchers were able to identify countless changes in fat burning and in the metabolism of the mice. Over time, these have a significant impact on the risk of disease and the well-being of the animals, as they affect sleep, memory and physical performance, for example.
Since mice were used in the study, the results cannot of course be transferred one-to-one to us humans. However, the results might enable further studies that research the right point in time for physical exertion for therapies and the prevention of diseases, explains scientist Dominik Lutter from Helmholtz Munich. The researchers are already working on a similar experiment with humans, Zierath told the New York Times.
