Grant: Project Grant

Energy balance is under the influence of energy intake and expenditure but, in addition to their independent impact on energy balance, they interact together for an indirect effect on body weight regulation. To optimize this effect, strategic exercise timing appears to be important. Preliminary findings support that the closer exercise is before a meal, the greater the reduction in energy and lipid intake will be. Those findings, seen in normal weight males need to be further explored using more exercise timing scenarios, with more populations of interest, and should study potential mechanisms involved and monitoring of complementary lifestyle behaviours important for energy balance. This project is extremely well balanced, with researchers in the field of exercise, nutrition and medicine, and will measure short-term responses in laboratory and real-life settings. Lifestyle (physical activity, nutrition, sedentariness and sleep) and mechanistic (hormones, brain response to smell and taste) outcomes following three different exercise timing scenarios and one control condition will be studied in strategic populations (individuals without and with obesity; both sexes). Outcomes of this project are essential for the development of more efficient lifestyle interventions for obesity prevention and treatment using strategic exercise timing. Professionals in the medical field and in schools will be able to use the findings to improve lifestyle interventions in youth. The fact that exercise timing requires the same amount of effort but yields better results is important for health and motivation of individuals aiming at regulating their body weight.