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Exercise, Chronotype, and Prediabetes

Timed Exercise in Prediabetes With Extreme Chronotype

Status
Recruiting
Phases
Unknown
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT07389005
Enrollment
28
Registered
2026-02-05
Start date
2026-09-01
Completion date
2028-08-01
Last updated
2026-09-11

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Overweight , Obesity, Prediabetes

Keywords

Prediabetes, Overweight, Obesity, Exercise, Chronotype

Brief summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to find out whether exercising at the right time of day, based on a person's natural body clock, leads to greater health benefits in people living with prediabetes. The main question it aims to answer is whether doing a single session of exercise in the morning or in the evening affects how the body handles sugar differently in adults with prediabetes who have an extreme natural body clock. This will be done by comparing three conditions (no-exercise, morning exercise, and evening exercise) within the same participant. Each condition will be tested on a different day, with at least 14 days between the test days. During the no-exercise test days, participants will come to the study centre and will only be allowed to do sedentary activities (e.g. office work, reading, or screen time). During the morning exercise test days, participants will perform an exercise session at 9:00 am that involves short periods of very hard effort followed by short rest periods. Whereas for the evening exercise test days, the same type of exercise will be performed at 5:00 pm.

Detailed description

Chronotype refers to an individual's circadian preferences for being active and fully functional at certain times of the day. Using validated questionnaires, individual's chronotype can be categorized to either a morning (lark), evening (owl), or intermediate (neutral) chronotypes. Individuals with morning chronotype wake up and go to bed early. Therefore, their calorie distribution as well as peak mental and physical performances predominantly occur earlier in the day. This is in contrast with individuals with evening chronotype that wake up and go to bed late, resulting in most of their calorie consumption happens later in the day. They are also more active and alert in the evening. Growing evidence has shown that late afternoon or evening exercise is better than morning exercise for blood glucose control in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) or those at risk of T2D. In men with T2D, two weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) reduced continuous glucose monitor (CGM)-based glucose concentration when performed in the afternoon than in the morning. This finding was further supported by a retrospective study involving men at risk for or T2D that found afternoon exercise led to superior peripheral insulin sensitivity, insulin-mediated suppression of adipose tissue lipolysis, and fasting plasma glucose. Interestingly, in a recently published crossover trial involving men and women, with and without T2D, no difference was observed in 24-hour glucose profile assessed using CGM across all cohorts (including gender and diabetes status) between morning and evening exercise. However, morning exercise increased post-exercise blood glucose levels during the two hours recovery period in both men and women with T2D, which was not observed following the evening exercise. It is important to note that all the above-mentioned studies are either excluding individuals with extreme chronotype or the chronotype of the participants was not clearly reported. This limitation raises an important research question: Do people living with extreme chronotype respond differently to timed exercise? Therefore, in this study, it is hypothesize that people living with prediabetes and extreme chronotype will gain superior metabolic benefits when the timing of exercise is aligned with their chronotype. To test this, a randomized controlled cross-over study is conducted in which participants are subjected to three conditions that are no-exercise, morning exercise, and evening exercise. The main outcome is insulin sensitivity determined by a 2-step hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp.

Interventions

An acute exercise bout of cycling performed in the morning at 9 AM

BEHAVIORALControl

No exercise

Sponsors

German Diabetes Center
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Masking description

Participants will receive a code so that the person in charge with the data quality check and data analyses will be blinded to the interventions

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
19 Years to 75 Years
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Able to provide signed and dated written informed consent prior to any study specific procedures 2. Adult men and women aged between more than 18 and ≤ 75 years 3. Body mass index (BMI) of 25 - 35 kg/m2 4. Stable weight (no weight loss or gain \> 3 kg in the past 3 months) 5. Pre-diabetes defined as an isolated impaired glucose tolerance or a combination of impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose (values are based on the American Diabetes Association (ADA): 1. impaired glucose tolerance (plasma glucose 140 mg/dL to 199 mg/dL, 120 minutes after consumption of 75g of glucose) 2. impaired fasting glucose (fasting plasma glucose 100 mg/dL to 125 mg/dL) 6. Morning (Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire \[MEQ\] score ≥ 59) or evening (MEQ score ≤ 41) chronotype

Exclusion criteria

1. Previously diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 2. Moderate to severe anemia (hemoglobin \< 10 g/L) 3. Uncontrolled hypertension 4. Abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) at rest judged by the study physician 5. Pregnancy or breastfeeding 6. HIV, hepatitis B, or C infection 7. Disorders of blood clotting or wound healing 8. Positive history of venous thrombosis (contraindication for clamp) 9. Hypersensitivity to local anesthetics (contraindication for fat/muscle biopsies) 10. Night shift work in the last 3 months 11. Travel across \> 1 time zone in the last 3 months 12. Participation in another clinical trials that may possibly hamper the study results 13. Engagement in structured exercise activities \> 2 hours a week 14. Any acute condition, exacerbation of chronic condition, or medical history that in the investigator's opinion would interfere with the study 15. Any contraindication for MRI scanning 16. Medication use known to hamper safety during the study procedures 17. Non-German speaking

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Insulin sensitivity12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on insulin sensitivity assessed using insulin sensitivity index (reported as M-value: mg x kg-1 x min-1) during an hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Skeletal muscle metabolites12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration (pmol/mg/s) measured with high resolution respirometry
Skeletal muscle clock genes12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on quantified DNA measured with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)
Adipose tissue metabolites12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on adipose tissue mitochondrial respiration (pmol/mg/s) measured with high resolution respirometry
Adipose tissue clock genes12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on quantified DNA measured with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)
Hepatic glycogen content assessed using 13C Magnetic Resonance SpectroscopyPost-dinner on exercise dayEffect of timed exercise on hepatic glycogen content, expressed in millimoles per liter (mmol/L) of liver tissue
Serum glucose12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on serum glucose levels (mg/dL) determined from venous blood draws
Serum free fatty acids12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on serum free fatty acid levels (mmol/L) determined from venous blood draws
Serum triglycerides12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on serum triglycerides (mg/dL) determined from venous blood draws
Serum cholesterol12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on serum cholesterol (mg/dL) determined from venous blood draws
Serum insulin12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on serum insulin levels (uIU/mL) determined from venous blood draws
Resting energy expenditure assessed using indirect calorimetry12 to 24 hours post-exercise interventionEffect of timed exercise on resting energy expenditure, expressed in kilocalories per day (kcal/day)
Objective sleep quantity and quality assessed using an actighrapy deviceThe nighttime of exercise intervention dayEffect of timed exercise on sleep duration, efficiency, and fragmentation are measured objectively from the actighrapy device

Countries

Germany

Contacts

CONTACTPatrick Schrauwen, PhD
patrick.schrauwen@ddz.de+49 211 3382-689
CONTACTFriedrich C. Jassil, PhD
friedrich.jassil@ddz.de+49 211 3382-685
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORPatrick Schrauwen, PhD

German Diabetes Center

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Sep 12, 2026