Holding down two jobs, meetings to get too, kids to pick up from school and so on there are so many distractions, pressures and time constraints that if we are not careful can only lead to one thing… no time to plan your meals. As far as muscle building nutrition goes that is the ultimate crime. The main reason is because it leads to eating fast food.

Fast food is exactly what you don’t want to eat to build muscle up. Too much fat and very little nutrient value combined with little in the way of decent energy providing nutrition. So, how is it possible to not go to fast food joints when you have all of these limiting time constraints and how cane we eat properly if we do go there?

Here are a few golden rules for eating at fast food restaurants in order to build muscle up:

Avoid the apparently good value for money drink and fries. A simple portion of medium sized fries will stuff your body full of around 200 calories including around 400 calories with approximately 20 grams of fat and the drink will give you approximately 200 calories with heaps of sugary content!

Always select the grilled option. You can save around 80 calories coming mostly from fat by eating a McDonald’s grilled chicken sandwich as opposed to a premium crispy chicken. A simple selection choice but often not stuck to.

Ensure that you don’t have a dessert unless you really have to. At any fast food restaurnat you are going to be bombarded with so many chices of sugary desserts and if you really must have a sugary item then keep it down to a kiddies portion size.

Make sure that you don’t go over the top with the sauces. Many of these are very high in fatty content with little muscle building nutrition value. You know what I am talking about, those little packets of mayonnaise, tartar sauce and so on. Do yourself a service and give it a miss.

If it is not possible to avoid a fast food restaurant then what can I eat?

If you want to build muscle food that you could eat at McDonalds would be:

For the main meal a Premium Grilled Chicken Sandwich would provide 420 calories, 10 grams of fat, 51g carbs and 32g protein. A Grilled Honey Mustard Snack Wrap would give you around 260 calories, 9g fat, 27g carbs and 18g of protein. The Asian Salad Grilled Chicken would give you 390 calories, 12.5g fat, 38g carbs, 33g protein with the Sesame Ginger Dressing that is low in fat. Probably the best option is the Caesar Salad Grilled Chicken that provides 220 calories, 6g fat, 12g carbs and 30g of protein.

For those of you that reside in Australia the choices change slightly too:
A Beef Burger: 250 calories, 8g fat, 25g carbs, 18g protein or a Herb Fusion Chicken Salad: 100 calories, 2g fat, 3g carbs 20g protein.

Great breakfast choices include a Egg McMuffin which yields you with 300 calories, 12 grams of fat, 30g carbs and 18 grams of protein. Possibly a Sausage Burrito including 300 calories, 16g fat, 26g carbs, 12grams of protein or If you are looking for just a snack then how about the Fruit ‘n Yogurt Parfait which beaks down into 160 calories, 2g fat, 31g carbs, 4g protein.

I hope that gives you some idea of exactly how you can eat relatively healthily even at a fast food joint if you make the correct choices. Of course it would be better to allocate some time for planning decent meals throughout the week but if you can’t do this then the above selections should be a good guide and on some level help you burn the fat feed the muscle.

Tags: build muscle up, burn the fat feed the muscle, muscle building nutrition