Another interesting contribution from my son, Casey….

We have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Some of us take this to heart and eat a filling breakfast of bacon, eggs and rice, while some of us simply go with a nice, hot cup of coffee.  However, the basis behind this is that breakfast allows our bodies’ metabolism to get a jump start and burn some calories, essentially giving us energy throughout the morning.

Essentially, when your body is digesting food, it means your metabolism is working.  To really get the most from this boost, eating frequent, small meals have been shown to keep your metabolism working consistently; this along with complex carbohydrates such as whole grains and any other high fiber foods, because these nutrients take much longer to break down and digest.  Implementing complex carbohydrates into a sound diet plan and eating frequently will help maintain your boosted metabolism throughout the day.  Another overlooked approach to boosting energy and metabolism in the morning is a quick morning workout.

After working out, our metabolism increases for a period of time and will stay elevated.  Especially after a workout that includes some resistance, our body enters an anabolic state in which it uses macronutrients to rebuild broken down muscle.  This growth period is very important for anyone trying to increase their lean muscle mass or muscle mass in general.  Our body may also crave food during this period because it needs fuel to start this process, as the whole process actually uses up quite a bit of calories.

The more intense the workout, such as combining quick burst of resistance work with cardio exercises, the more benefit you get later.  Your body will use a lot more calories rebuilding muscle and restoring ATP stores (the main energy component used by all cells in our body) if the workout is more intense.  If you really wanted to optimize the amount of time your body spends building back and burning calories, you could try a morning workout when you wake up and another workout in the late afternoon; especially since the late afternoon is when our lungs and muscles are at their peak condition and because this is when our energy levels tend to drop down.

It should be noted that you can get this metabolism boost by exercising at any time of day.  However, getting in a morning workout (along with a good breakfast) will help set the rhythm of maintaining healthy habits throughout the day.  This is probably the most beneficial aspect of morning workouts. (Just as a footnote, if you are not a morning person or if working in morning training causes undue stress, push it back to a time that works better for you—but at least get your meal in. Elevated stress can negatively affect your metabolism so find what works in the long term.)

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