A pre-breakfast workout burns more body fat

If you're trying to lose weight, opt for a morning workout routine: researchers say that you can burn 20 percent more body fat by exercising in the morning on an empty stomach.

Researchers from Northumbria University in the UK recruited 12 active men to perform a bout of treadmill exercise at 10 am, after they had either eaten breakfast or not eaten anything since the evening before.

After the workout, all subjects drank a chocolate milkshake recovery drink. Then later in the day they ate a pasta lunch, where they were asked to eat until they felt "comfortably full."

Morning exercisers didn't consume additional calories to compensate for their earlier activity, and those who worked out in a fasted state burned almost 20 percent more fat compared to those who had eaten breakfast beforehand.

The findings are published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

A separate study announced last year suggests that a brisk morning workout may reduce your appetite throughout the day. Researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU) in the US recruited 35 women in their study, with findings published in the October issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.