Scientific Programme
Sports and Exercise Medicine and Health
IS-MH03 - Timing Matters: Leveraging Chronobiology to Improve Health Across the Lifespan
Date: 07.07.2026, Time: 13:30 - 14:45, Session Room: Auditorium C (STCC)
Description
Metabolic health is profoundly influenced by the timing and coordination of entrained behaviours (e.g., meal timing, physical activity, and sleep/wake cycles), with endogenous circadian rhythms. This session explores how temporal alignment of lifestyle factors across the life course can optimise whole-body metabolism and reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. The first presentation discusses how circadian regulation governs skeletal muscle metabolism and the emerging field of chrono-nutrition, highlighting opportunities to enhance metabolic health through synchronised nutrient timing. The second presentation focuses on the critical time-window from preconception to postpartum, presenting new findings from randomised, controlled trials on exercise training and time-restricted eating in pregnancy and whether exercise training can improve breastmilk composition. The final presentation integrates evidence on how the interaction between the timing of meals and exercise influences circadian entrainment and metabolic regulation, proposing strategies to optimise their coordination for improved physiological outcomes. Together, these talks will reveal novel, time-based exercise and nutrition interventions that target metabolism from early development through adulthood, bridging mechanistic insight with translational outcomes for preventing metabolic disease.
Chair(s)
Trine Moholdt
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of circulation and medical imaging
Norway
Physiological Rhythms in Skeletal Muscle
It is advantageous for an organism’s survival and evolutionary success not only to possess the abilty to adapt to changing environmetal pressures but, moreover, to have the innate ability to anticipate and so be prepared for those changes. Thankfully, the human circadian timing system provides precisely this functionality, comprising a network of molecular ‘clocks’ throughout the various bodily tissues that co-ordinate rhythms in our physiology such that our underlying metabolic and behavioural patterns can be aligned with cyclic external stimuli. Accordingly, we find numerous rhythms in human physiology, which can oscillate over varying frequencies and timescales – some which are relatively more endogenously driven (and so are less acutely reactive to external time cues), whereas others more reflect an ongoing interaction whereby the effects of external stimuli are superimposed over underlying rhythms. Critically, the net effect is that the observed rhythms in our physiology are both entrained by envirommental factors and to some extent dictate our pattern of exposure to those entraining factors. This is important because optimal physiological function and therefore general health depend to some extent on the proper alignment within and between our various physiological rhythms and our environment. Whilst the molecular machinery that regulates this human timing system is known to exist across almost all cell types, skeletal muscle may be of particpar interest for several reasons. In relation to metabolic health, the majority of nutrients consumed at each meal are disposed of into skeletal muscle, so this tissue clearly plays a central role in regulating metabolic control and therefore the systemic tolerance of and exposure to various metabolites (e.g. post-prandial glycaemia and lipaemia). In addition, when considering the potential interactions between cyclic external patterns and physiological rhythms, it is notable that skeletal muscle is the organ system responsible for exerting forces on the world around us. It is therefore intuitive that voluntary muscles will both be a primary sensory receptor for registering the times at which we transition between phases of rest versus activity and can strongly dictate our exposure to numerous time cues (e.g. light, nutrients, exercise) by executing our behaviural responses. Most of our current understanding of physiological rhythms is derived from research on animals, or has studied human metabolism indirectly, via changes in circulating blood biomarkers. Relatively few studies have examined metabolic rhythms within specific human tissues and, in particular, very little is known about intra-muscular metabolism – either in terms of the underlying (‘circadian’) rhythms in this tissue or in terms of how that temporal response may be altered by meal patterns of physical activty patterns. This talk will review emerging studies in this area and provide a mechanistic underpinning for the subsequent lectures
Speaker B
Trine Moholdt
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of circulation and medical imaging
Norway
Read CVECSS Rimini 2025: IS-MH03
Before the beginning and beyond: lifestyle interventions during the first 1000 days of life
The first 1000 days of life - from conception through the first two years - represent a critical period for shaping long-term cardiovascular and metabolic health. Despite recommendations for maintaining a healthy diet and engaging in regular physical activity during pregnancy, many individuals face barriers to achieving these behaviours. Lifestyle interventions initiated before conception and maintained throughout pregnancy and postpartum may offer an effective strategy to improve maternal and offspring health outcomes, with potential to reduce future risk of many chronic metabolic diseases. This presentation will highlight new evidence from the BEFORE THE BEGINNING randomised controlled trial on the effects of exercise training and time-restricted eating initiated prior to pregnancy and continued throughout gestation, among individuals at increased risk of gestational diabetes. Findings will be discussed in relation to maternal cardiometabolic adaptations, pregnancy outcomes and early-life programming of offspring health. The presentation will also address the ongoing debate regarding the safety and intensity of maternal exercise, exploring whether high-intensity training is appropriate during pregnancy and its potential implications for fetal well-being. Postpartum, physical activity remains strongly recommended; however, many new mothers do not achieve sufficient activity levels. Common misconceptions, such as the belief that vigorous exercise negatively affects breast milk composition or taste, may discourage participation. This talk will present emerging findings from the Exercised Breastmilk (ExMilk) study, investigating both acute and chronic effects of maternal exercise on breast milk composition among individuals with overweight or obesity. Evidence suggesting that exercise may positively influence breast milk bioactive factors, with possible health benefits for the infant, will also be discussed. Given that a large proportion of individuals of reproductive age fail to meet physical activity recommendations, alongside rising rates of obesity in this population, this topic is of high clinical and public health relevance. The presentation will be particularly relevant for reproductive-aged individuals, clinicians, and researchers in the fields of maternal and infant health, exercise physiology, and preventive medicine, aiming to bridge the gap between lifestyle research and practical implementation for healthier future generations.
Speaker C
John Hawley
Mary Mackillop Institute for Health Research, Exercise & Nutrition Research Program
Australia
Read CVECSS Rimini 2025: IS-MH03
Timing Matters: Using Chronobiology to Maximize Exercise & Nutrition Practices
The consumption of a healthy diet, combined with regular physical activity throughout the life-course can delay and/or prevent a range of non-cummunicable disease states. However, current national (local) and international (i.e., the World Health Organisation) guidelines lack specific recommendations regarding the optimal timing of meals and physical activity throughout the day to amplify the benefits of healthy eating and regular exercise. Daily eating and exercise patterns are governed by a variety of personal, social and environmental factors. Eating behaviour is influenced by food availability, hunger and satiety, social norms, and work/family obligations. Exercise habits are dictated by intrinsic motivation, external infrastructure, cultural norms, time availability and the priority each individual places on exercising above other activities/pastimes. At the biological level, both eating and exercise schedules are predominantly dictated by inherent timing mechanisms. At the behavioural level, when meals and exercise occur at a regular, anticipated times (‘meal and exercise entrainment’), the circadian clock initiates nutrient- and contraction-sensing pathways to act synergistically to maintain whole-body and cellular homeostasis. However, when eating and/or exercise occur at random times throughout the day, these same pathways provide feedback to the circadian clocks to ‘phase shift’ so that on subsequent days these behavious are anticipated at a new, arbitrary time. Over the long-term, such misallignment disrupts endogenous circadian clocks and predispose to several metabolic disturbances. Recently there has been a growing appreciation that the duration over which food is consumed during a day (the ‘eating window’), and the timing of daily exercise have profound effects on numerous physiological and metabolic processes. This talk will discuss how the appropriate timing of meals and exercise can function to optimise metabolism to coordinate with acrophases of metabolic rhythms thereby positively impacting metabolic health. This topic is of relevance to a range of health providers (e.g., dieticians, exercise physiologists, clinicians) and has direct significance for public health policy.