Timing is everything, including for exercise. A new study found that overweight men who ate a high-fat diet reaped more health benefits from late-day workouts than morning exercise routines. Both their blood sugar control and cholesterol levels improved with evening exercise, a result not shown among the early birds.

A new Australian study shed light on the intricate working of our circadian rhythms that coordinate with biological functions, such as controlling blood sugar levels and metabolism, according to The New York Times. It found that when you exercise could influence spikes in blood sugar levels and improve metabolic health.

Researchers have been conflicted on the benefits of early morning exercise and seldom factored in diet assessment in their studies. The new study, published in Diabetologia, included fine tuning both the diets of the study participants and the timing of their workouts.

The scientists recruited 24 overweight, sedentary Australian men. After measuring their cholesterol, blood sugar control and other health markers, they assigned identical low-carb, high-fat meal plans to each group for 11 days. The meals contained 65% fat.

The researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology working with the Australian Catholic University assessed the blood tests of the volunteers and found that their cholesterol levels and blood sugar control deteriorated after consuming the high-fat food. Everyone’s level of LDL, the “bad” cholesterol that increases your risk for heart attack and stroke soared, according to Insider.

 After five days of eating the high-fat diet, the men were assigned to one of three groups. One group exercised at 6:30 a.m., the second did an identical workout at 6:30 p.m. and the third group of men, the control group, continued their sedentary lifestyle. After another five days the researchers revaluated their tests and found that all the men who exercised had improved cardiovascular fitness compared to the control group. But those who exercised in the evening had a slight advantage when it came to lowering blood sugar levels as well as the LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

Dr. Trine Moholdt, an exercise physiologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and a lead author of the study, said “the evening exercise reversed or lowered some of the changes” that accompanied the high-fat diet consumed by the participants. She added, “morning exercise did not,” according to the Times.

Moholdt said she suspects that working out in the evening has a greater impact on our fat metabolism but hopes to investigate the impact of exercise timing further. But she added that both groups of exercisers did become more aerobically fit. “Any exercise is better than not exercising,” she said, according to the Times.