A Meal Schedule To Get Fit

The food we eat affects our fitness and our appearance. There is no question about that. The type and amount of food you eat is important, when you eat and how often you eat is also important. If you want to succeed in improving your health and fitness, you should keep reading.

What time you eat has a major effect on your results. Let's start from the very beginning. When you first wake up, your body has been without food for many hours. Your blood sugar level first thing in the morning 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 very difficult to work out hard and focus on getting fit when you're weak from lack of food, and your body is breaking down your muscles for energy. You really should eat something nutritious as soon as possible after waking up. This gives your body the energy it needs to start the day, and spares your muscles.

Now you understand why it's so important to eat when first thing in the morning. In short, eating healthy foods as soon as you get up in the morning will help you get off to a great start for your day. This is one part of the equation for getting fit quickly.

The quest to keep your blood sugar level in the right zone also determines how often you should eat. Within 3 to 4 hours after a meal, your body digests whatever you ate and your blood sugar level will start heading down again. So you really should eat something every 3 hours or so (except when you are sleeping at night).

If you think about this for a minute, you're going to need more meals than most people do each day. To gain the benefits of keeping your blood sugar stable, you need to eat 5 or 6 times a day, instead of three times like most people. Even if you get up at 6:00 AM, and space your meals 3 to 3 and a half hours apart, your blood sugar should should stay pretty much right where you want it all day.

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 have somewhat smaller meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and supplement them 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 before bedtime.

Eat this way for a few weeks and see the results for yourself. It will take you one step closer to getting as fit as you desire.