Study Shows Fixed Workout Times Might Be Harmful

If you work a full-time job, it can be difficult to find time in the day to get in a workout, which makes scheduling some gym time that much more important if you actually want to break a sweat. But if you want to avoid the trappings of a non-active lifestyle, you might want to switch up those workout times. 

Analysis of several exercise studies published in the Current Nutrition journal found that when people have hard workouts, they often cut back on other physical activities in their daily lives to almost offset the activity they did in the gym. Researchers also discovered that people think they deserve more leniency with their diets on days when they get a workout in, in turn throwing them off the wagon for weight loss goals or heart health. 

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In the end, the researchers found that 67 percent of all studies showed a “compensatory decrease” in non-exercise physical activity among subjects after they started a structured exercise training program. 

“A compensatory decrease in other physical activities of daily life upon starting exercise training is a relatively common compensatory response—and probably more common than an increase in energy intake—that may be instrumental in attenuating the energy deficit caused by exercise, and thus preventing weight loss,” the study’s authors wrote. 

When embarking on a fitness journey, it’s obviously about much more than what you do in the gym. If anything, slacking off in other areas of your life like your diet and staying active outside the gym are just as important as the weights you lift.