Does Working Out Before Bed Make You Burn More While Sleeping?

Working out can boost your metabolism and make your body incinerate extra calories long after you've returned home from the gym. Therefore, if you go to bed shortly after your workout, you will in effect burn more calories while sleeping. You don't need to exercise at night to get the metabolism boost, though; a morning or midday workout will ramp up your calorie burn just as much, provided you exert yourself at the same level.

Exercise at any time of day is beneficial. However, there are benefits to working out midday or slightly later. According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, your body is running more smoothly from the hours of 2 to 6 p.m. than in the morning or late at night. You have greater strength and lung capacity, and your body temperature is a bit warmer. This means that you're more likely to work out harder, thus burning more calories and further increasing your basal (resting) metabolic rate. Working out early in the morning can increase risk of heart attack, and working out later at night can disrupt sleep patterns for some.

At rest, you burn about six calories per day for every pound of muscle in your body. For every pound of fat, you only burn two calories. Therefore, replacing fat with muscle will increase your basal calorie-burning rate, making you burn off more while you sleep regardless of when you work out. You can build more muscle with strength training, like lifting weights. Incorporating these exercises into your workout routine will help you burn more fat 24 hours a day, leading to a leaner physique.

While building muscles leads to round-the-clock calorie burning, aerobic exercise provides a boost for several hours after your workout. Therefore, if you do your cardio a couple of hours before bed, you will burn more calories while you sleep. For the best results, engage in high-intensity exercise like running or aerobics. If you can't maintain a fast pace for long, add a few intervals of intense activity to your normal routine. That push will have an extended effect on your metabolism and can help you lose weight more easily.

Keeping an exercise routine should improve your sleep patterns overall. However, some find it hard to fall asleep right after a vigorous workout. If you're one of these people, you should exercise at least three hours before you turn out the lights. Aerobic activity is the most likely to induce insomnia, so if you need to work out late, it might help to focus more on strength training and skip high-intensity exercise like running.