"People who exercise consistently throughout the day lose more weight than those who don’t," said the study’s lead author, Charlotte Gould, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "If you have breakfast every morning, lunch every afternoon, and dinner every evening, your body can use the energy you expend at the three meals as energy to lose weight."



To keep consistent, make sure your workout time is the same as when you’d normally eat.



"Some people, on the other hand, eat for pleasure at times other than dinner," said Dr. Donald Hensrud, an obesity researcher at New York University’s Center for reduslim recensioni negative American Progress, who was not involved in the new study.

How to do that:

Dinner time might be the easiest time to work out, since that’s often when we’re busiest. If that’s not a feasible option, find a dedicated time that works for you. But it should be your same time every day.

Snack time after work may also work. If you know you’ll be busy all day tomorrow, schedule your exercise for tonight so it doesn’t interfere with your to-do list.

"Consider having a ‘half day’ when you exercise for just an hour and then have a ‘half day’ when you exercise for two hours," said Kathleen Haight, RDN, an assistant professor of wellness and exercise science at Rush University in Chicago. "Then exercise is part of your routine."

Here’s the other part of the puzzle: To maximize your results, exercise for 20 to 40 minutes.

"Most people think that 30 minutes is too little and 60 minutes is too much, but it’s actually somewhere in between," said Meg Maglione, a health consultant and author of "Body Recomposition." "The longer you exercise, the more calories you burn."

The best way to find this out is to use a Fitbit (an activity tracker). "This would give you a great measure of how consistent you’re being," Maglione said.

If you’re going to skip exercise for a few days, make sure to start again after you get back on track