ArticleDiabetologia2023
Timing of physical activity in relation to liver fat content and insulin resistance.
Article in Diabetologia, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of altered sleep timing on glycaemic outcomes: Systematic review of human intervention studies.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of timed exercise interventions on patient-reported outcome measures: A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Metabolic Adaptations to Morning Versus Afternoon Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2023Pooled it
- Morning exercise and pre-breakfast metformin interact to reduce glycaemia in people with type 2 diabetes: a randomized crossover trial.The Journal of physiology · 2024Trial
- Glycaemic Response to Acute Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise Performed in the Morning or Afternoon in Healthy Subjects: A Crossover Trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2024Trial
- Efficacy of morning versus afternoon aerobic exercise training on reducing metabolic syndrome components: A randomized controlled trial.The Journal of physiology · 2024Trial
- Association of Timing of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity With Changes in Glycemic Control Over 4 Years in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes From the Look AHEAD Trial.Diabetes care · 2023Trial
- The impact of physical activity and exercise timing on metabolic health among individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes.Diabetologia · 2026Review
- Optimizing timing of exercise to improve metabolic outcomes in obesity and type 2 diabetes.Npj biological timing and sleep · 2026Review
- Associations between physical activity and dietary live microbe intake with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: findings from the NHANES, 2007-2018.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Beyond MVPA minutes: physical activity phenotypes are associated with metabolic profiles in children with obesity.European journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- Article
- Muscle movement and metabolism: exercise and skeletal muscle as mediators of health-a report from the 26th Annual Harvard Nutrition Obesity Symposium, 2025.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2026Article
- Reallocating morning physical activity to later-day activity and its association with type 2 diabetes incidence: The Maastricht Study.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Associations of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity Timing With Type 2 Diabetes Incidence in UK Biobank and Prevalent Glycemic Measures in NHANES.Diabetes care · 2026Article
- Exercise benefits in metabolism on cardiovascular disease.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Review
- Obesity and Exercise: New Insights and Perspectives.Endocrine reviews · 2025Review
- Joint association of different insulin resistance-related indices and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with risk of cardiometabolic disease and multimorbidity: insights from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study.Lipids in health and disease · 2025Article
- Diurnal timing and volume of physical activity in relation to metabolic syndrome in US adults: a population-based cohort study.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Article
- Rest Activity Rhythms and Their Association with Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Walking Energetics in Older Adults: Study of Muscle, Mobility, and Aging.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
aims/hypothesisWe hypothesised that the insulin-sensitising effect of physical activity depends on the timing of the activity. Here, we examined cross-sectional associations of breaks in sedentary time and timing of physical activity with liver fat content and insulin resistance in a Dutch cohort.
methodsIn 775 participants of the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity (NEO) study, we assessed sedentary time, breaks in sedentary time and different intensities of physical activity using activity sensors, and liver fat content by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (n=256). Participants were categorised as being most active in the morning (06:00-12:00 hours), afternoon (12:00-18:00 hours) or evening (18:00-00:00 hours) or as engaging in moderate-to-vigorous-physical activity (MVPA) evenly distributed throughout the day. Most active in a certain time block was defined as spending the majority (%) of total daily MVPA in that block. We examined associations between sedentary time, breaks and timing of MVPA with liver fat content and HOMA-IR using linear regression analyses, adjusted for demographic and lifestyle factors including total body fat. Associations of timing of MVPA were additionally adjusted for total MVPA.
resultsThe participants (42% men) had a mean (SD) age of 56 (4) years and a mean (SD) BMI of 26.2 (4.1) kg/m CONCLUSIONS/
interpretationThe number of daily breaks in sedentary time was not associated with lower liver fat content or reduced insulin resistance. Moderate-to-vigorous activity in the afternoon or evening was associated with a reduction of up to 25% in insulin resistance. Further studies should assess whether timing of physical activity is also important for the occurrence of type 2 diabetes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.