A friend of mine wrote a post about trying to get back to the gym and how she’s just “no rooster.” I totally agree with her. So well-put! While I feel like a major success when I work out in the mornings, it rarely happens. I’m just not going to get up at 5 a.m. to work out. Ever. Even on the weekends when I work out in the morning, I’ve slept in a reasonable amount of time.
The other day I had an appointment in the morning so I went to the gym first thing. It wasn’t quite as difficult to get out of bed at 6:15 and go to the gym. But I realized that working out in the morning, I don’t burn quite as many calories. The reason? I’m slow. Tired. Lethargic. There’s very little pep-in-my-step first thing in the morning.
I struggled on the elliptical and skipped the weights because I just had zero motivation to that. My calorie burn was decent:
Gym Stats:
Time: 1:19
Calories Burned: 617
Before I went to the gym I had half a serving of plain Cheerios. When I got home I had my normal breakfast (2 scrambled eggs, 1 turkey sausage, beans and salsa). I had a mid-morning snack of coffee. For lunch I had 2 pieces of leftover pizza for 500 calories total.
By the the afternoon I’d nearly 1000 calories of food and still had over 1200 calories leftover for the day. I had an afternoon snack (apple, 90 calories) and was home with 1000 calories leftover for dinner.
The reason I bring this up is because I realized that my mentality CHANGED when I worked out in the morning. Normally when I work out at night I look at food as numbers that I want to keep “in check” until I work out at the end of the day. I always feel like I’m restricting myself when I work out at night. This is definitely the opposite for morning workouts.
When I work out in the morning, I feel like I’m trying to catch up all day long. I feel like I have to eat, eat, eat to catch up on nutrients. Instead of looking at food and thinking restriction, I look at food as fuel. I need fuel for my body–I eat a bigger lunch. I need fuel to repair my muscles from the morning fitness–I eat a bigger dinner.
Is that mental shift unusual? I wonder. I wonder if that shift in mental thinking is more positive and healthy than living a life of restriction and numbers. I’m just musing out loud, really. The reality is that I’m 32 years old and for my entire life I’ve hated mornings. I just wonder if it could be changed.
Please chime in!
And a quick update: I finally went in and got that blood test for my thyroid. I’m glad I did! It was normal. I can go back to normal life without worrying about “What if?”! Until I find something else to be neurotic about, of course. 🙂
QUESTION: Is your mentality toward food/calories/tracking different when you workout in the morning versus the evening?
Roz@weightingfor50
Hi Lisa, I guess I’m a rooster, because morning workouts work best for me. I do early yoga (my class is at 6:00am, so I have to get up at 5:00) twice a week, and my gym is looking at expanding to other 6:00am classes, and I’m excited. 🙂 Rooster Roz, siging off… silly!! Have a great day!!!
Lisa Eirene
You’re lucky! Do you feel better working out in the morning?
Jill
I like to workout in the morning. NOT 5am morning though!! 🙂 One of the benefits of being a full time mom is that I can work out in the morning (8:30 or later)
When I do strength training I am STARVING the next day. When I do aerobics I am not more hungry- but sometimes I feel like I am “entitled” to eat more. BAD way of thinking!!!
I am glad to hear about your thyroid! I have an overactive thyroid- and it is a PAIN to regulate!!!
Lisa Eirene
If I worked from home, or had a different schedule I would definitely change to a morning workout–but it wouldn’t be 6am workouts. It would be more like 8am. 🙂
That’s interesting that you are hungrier after weight lifting. I’ve found the same thing, too. Yet running–which is cardio–made me REALLY hungry and other cardio doesn’t really do that.
sugarmagnolia70
Interesting! I never count calories, so I can’t relate that way, but I much, much, MUCH prefer to work out in the mornings. I’d say 90% of my workouts are first thing, and the other 10% is mid-morning. I rarely workout at night. I don’t have time, being a busy mom. So if I want to squeeze it in, the morning it is. That said, this week I went to my first evening yoga class, after the kids were in bed—and it was nice!
Lisa Eirene
If you do workout at night, do you feel like your body doesn’t cooperate? Like you are lethargic or slow?
Deb
Lisa, if I had my way, I’d go to the gym about 2pm, right in the middle of the day. But my gym partner can only go after 830pm, and she doesn’t drive so I go then. There are two good things that comes out of going so late- I tend to be better on my eating because there’s always the chance I won’t make it to the gym, and because by the time we get back its late, I might have some fruit when I get home, but I don’t eat anything substantial.
Lisa Eirene
You nailed it–the “being good just in case I don’t make it to the gym”. That’s how I was for a long time. Then I got used to the workout schedule and realized that I was almost always going to make it to the gym!
Christa
I’m older than you, and I’ve never been a morning person, either. But? I’ve been getting up at 5am to work out for almost two years. For me, it’s the only thing that works–I have a husband, kids and a job, and if I didn’t do it in the morning it wouldn’t happen. I’m addicted enough to the benefits of it that I suck it up and almost never blow off a workout. I’m pretty sure, though, that if I was starting from zero now I’d never make it–I got addicted to exercise when I was a SAHM and just wasn’t willing to give it up when I went back to work. So…I guess I’d encourage you that it’s possible to overcome night-owlness with the right motivation, but it sounds to me like evening workouts are working for you at this point in your life. It’s always good to re-examine, but whatever works, works!
Lisa Eirene
That’s inspiring, Christa! Maybe someday I CAN switch to a morning person. I do like having evenings free. And I do feel pretty good the rest of the day. The one good thing about exercising at night is that it keeps me from snacking at night when I’m bored or watching tv!
Thanks for you input. It’s definitely something I think about.
Lori
I never used to be a morning person. I hated exercising in the morning. Then I had to do it in the morning in order to fit it in – and after a while of bitching and moaning about it, I began to enjoy it. I love how refreshed I feel and it feels great to start the day with exercise! I can’t believe I wrote that.
I think it is all about attitude. You have to change the attitude or ‘fake it til you make it’. That does work, dorky as it sounds.I never used to be a morning person. I hated exercising in the morning. Then I had to do it in the morning in order to fit it in – and after a while of bitching and moaning about it, I began to enjoy it. I love how refreshed I feel and it feels great to start the day with exercise! I can’t believe I wrote that.
I think it is all about attitude. You have to change the attitude or ‘fake it til you make it’. That does work, dorky as it sounds.
Lisa Eirene
I think you are onto something about the attitude thing. Faking it til it works, actually does work. That’s pretty much what I did when I was trying to lose the weight. I took it one day at a time. I could possibly change my routine. I’ve thought about doing it in the summers, so that it’s easier to get up early and workout, then I’d have long summer nights free!
Beth
I give so much credit to those 5 a.m. workout people – that is not me. I do like to workout in the morning right after I drop my son off at school. I don’t talk myself out of it usually because I get up and put on my workout clothes and sneakers – that helps a lot! But then it is out of the way and done. However because that schedule doesn’t always work out, I sometimes do a home workout before dinner either a DVD or on the treadmill – I don’t like that as much but it is what it is! I think planning ahead makes a difference too – like looking at your week and knowing which days are going to be workout days (I know you workout every day!)
Lisa Eirene
I agree, Beth. I am in awe of people that workout in the morning. I had a coworker who got up at 5am Monday-Friday to workout before getting to work at 8am. I was always so impressed!
Katie Squires
ughhh I hate early am workouts, if I had to rely on them I am not so sure I would have been as committed to the gym as I am….I usually go at 9:30am…perfect time for me….I’m up at 7 with the kids…I laze about drinking coffee and surfing the net till 8, make a smoothie…get the kids ready and we all hit the gym (my kids go to the gym daycare). Its PERFECT…I get my ease into the day time, yet I still go in the morning so its sets a great tone for the day. A healthy, endorphin filled day, where I am much more apt to keep eating healthy.
The only time I got up really early was in the summer when training for the half marathon and I ONCE got up at 6am to drink my shake and go back to bed, so that when I got up at 7am to run I had fuel in my belly…and I only ran that early because it was horribly hot out if I waited any later. I DID IT ONCE! LOL
Lisa Eirene
Agreed! Getting that endorphin rush in the morning helps me too.
I think where we live makes a difference too, that’s a great point. When I went on vacation to Tucson last year I got up early to go for runs before breakfast because it was in the 90’s by noon!
Melissa
I would prefer to workout in the morning, but I have to be on the road to work by 6:30 am, so there is no way I am getting up any earlier to add a workout in. I get up early enough already! So, I workout after work. On the weekends however, I like to get my workouts out of the way as early as possible – before the couch and Netflix get ahold of me.
Lisa Eirene
Yes, you make an excellent point. On the weekends I prefer to get the workout done first because friends, and Netflix and chores and stuff can distract me to the point that I wouldn’t get to it. You are so right.