ACC: Early Morning Best Time to Exercise for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction

THURSDAY, March 19, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise in the early morning, compared with later in the day, appears to be associated with a greater reduction in cardiometabolic risks, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology, held from March 28 to 30 in New Orleans.Prem Patel, from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, examined whether habitual timing of exercise is important for cardiometabolic health in a study involving 22,693 participants from the All of Us cohort with wearable data and linked electronic health records. Participants' exercise was assessed in 15-minute intervals throughout the day; participants were categorized based on the timing of exercise.More than 16 billion minutes were analyzed between 2009 and 2023, with a mean of 724,794 minutes of wearable use per participant. The researchers found that progressively earlier exercise timing was associated with a graded reduction in the odds of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity compared with the low-activity group (early morning group: odds ratios, 0.47, 0.62, and 0.55 for diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, respectively). The odds of coronary artery disease were lowest in association with exercise between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m."Any exercise is going to be better than no exercise, but we tried to identify an additional dimension relating to the timing of exercise," Patel said in a statement. "If you can exercise in the morning, it seems to be linked with better rates of cardiometabolic disease."Press ReleaseMore Information.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

ACC: Early Morning Best Time to Exercise for Cardiometabolic Risk Reduction

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