Midnight is When I Workout

I tend to burn more fat at night...

A question that always comes up when I am answering emails is what time of the day to workout. I am sure you have heard it said before that you will lose more weight when you work out in the early morning. Is that true?

The answer really depends on a few factors.

1. What is your lifestyle like?
a. Are you a person that performs better in the morning, afternoon or evening?
b. What time do you wake up and go to bed?
c. What time do you eat your meals?

I tend to work out better in the late afternoon or early evening. Partly because I am not a morning person. This means that I will be able to work out harder and more efficiently than I would in the morning. I also eat at very odd hours being that my work schedule is erratic at times (clients as early as 6:30 a.m. and as late as 8p.m.). So you can imagine how tuff it is to get up at 5 a.m to do a full body workout.

That is why I'd rather sleep in and once I am well and awake do my work out. Usually the type of workout that I do which has always yielded the most fat loss is a full body circuit. Below is an example workout that I put myself through 2 nights ago at 9 p.m. The total workout was only about 17 minutes.

Joint Mobility (I prefer this as a warm-up over traditional AND boring stretching)

Once I warm up my joints I will warm up my lower back and hips by doing some simple hip raises (10 reps) and then I follow that with pelvic tilts (10 reps)

Now it's about 9:07 and time to work out.

Here is what my circuit looked like

Bodyweight squats- 12 reps
Kettlebell push press- 12 reps each side
Kettlebell renegade rows- 12 reps each side
Plank- 30 seconds
Kettlebell swings- 12 reps each side
Super plank- 30 seconds
Basketball squats with kettlebells- 30 seconds
Pushups- 12

Do that entire circuit with no more than 30 seconds in-between exercises. Once completed you can rest and drink water for about 2-3 minutes. Then if you have it in you (which I am sure you do), repeat the entire circuit one more time.

So the question still remains, when do YOU burn the most fat? I already told you I burn more fat at night as I work out later in the day.

I'd be curious to find out when you like to work out and why.

Sincerely yours in health & wellness,

Matt Shuebrook