How to spend the perfect healthy Super Saturday – according to science

Get your routine right and it’ll set you up for the week ahead, discovers Maria Lally. So what is the best time to wake up, eat, exercise and sleep on your day off? The health boffins have the answers…

Make the most of your ‘day off’ with some help from the experts (Getty)

Earlier this week, the kind of research came along that makes those of us with office jobs or school runs grit our teeth: exercising between 7am and 9am may be the secret to successful weight management.

The research, published in The Obesity Society’s (TOS) journal, analysed 5,285 participants who were divided into morning, midday and evening exercisers. Those who exercised between 7am and 9am had lower body mass indexes and smaller waists than those who exercised at midday or in the evening, found researchers from Franklin Pierce University and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

This is all very well for them, but where does it leave those of us who don’t have time to exercise during what can be the busiest hours of the week? Step forward “Super Saturday”, the day when – according to experts – we can reap the health benefits of timing our exercise, eating, and even sleeping habits, to keep us healthy all week.