What we eat affects our health and our looks. No one disputes that. But not only is the type and quantity of food you eat is key, when you eat and how often you eat is crucial too. If you want to know one of the real secrets of improving your health and fitness, you'll want to keep reading.

What time you eat has a huge impact on your health & fitness. Let's start from the very beginning. When you first wake up, your body hasn't had any food for many hours. Your blood sugar level is low, and your body is running on reserves. Once those reserves are used up, your body will turn to its next available source of fuel, your muscles! It's real tough to get in shape when you're weak from lack of food, and your body is breaking down your muscles for energy. You need to eat something nutritious as soon as possible after waking up in the morning. This gives your body the energy it needs to start the day, and preserves your muscles.

So now you know how important it is to eat as soon as possible after you get up. This gets your blood sugar into the right zone (assuming you are eating healthy stuff) for you to function well and preserves your hard-earned muscles. You'll feel better, function better, work out harder, and preserve your muscles while shedding fat.

The goal of keeping your blood sugar level stable also tells us how often you should eat. Within a few hours after a meal, your body will have digested that food and your blood sugar level will start heading down again. So you really shouldn't go much more than 3 hours between meals (except when you are sleeping at night).

To eat every few hours implies that you're going to be eating more than the standard three meals a day. For most people, that means five or six small meals a day, rather than three larger ones. By going to this kind of schedule, starting first thing in the morning, means you don't have to go more than three to three and a half hours between meals. Eat right each time and your blood sugar levels remain pretty level at all times.

When you eat more meals you need to eat smaller meals. One common way to do this without drastically reworking the way you eat is to take smaller meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with two nutritious snacks of around 100 calories. Those snacks are then eaten during the biggest gaps between meals, typically between each of the main meals or one between lunch and dinner and the other in the evening.

Try this approach and see how it works for you. Chances are you'll be one step further along on the path to get fit at last.

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