Dieting + Fast Food

It's been increasingly hard for me to be able to prep food and diet well since I am rarely home anymore. I've been actually eating a lot of fast food and it's been taking a hit on my lifting and fitness. Are there any fast food or quick on-the-go options that I can eat without actually prepping food from home on the daily?

 

If you're not working out, but simply trying to maintain a steady diet, all you have to do is maintain a certain caloric intake, depending on your body. Programs like MyFitnessPal help you with how many calories you need. Then you can just google the nutritional value of the food you're ordering to make sure you don't overeat every day. Also, always avoid soft drinks and just have water in your car before you leave. If you are lifting and working out, I'd recommend adding protein shakes and high-carb foods like rice cakes (google it) to maintain protein and carb intakes. Also invest in some fish oil supplements for the Omega3 gains.

 

What I do is I precook rice, chicken, and beans on the weekend or usually Mondays. It roughly takes around 1hr - 1hr 30 but I eat it for at least three - four days. I measure everything out on a food scale, so it isn't that bad. Also what pure says, you should always count cals/macros till you know how to do it without fitnesspal.

 

Look into MyFitnessPal for sure. I use that app and it's easy to fit your macros in a day. Obviously its not that common for healthy options, but they are out there. Look around. A known restaurant chain that I go to for easy meals that are actually healthy is Ghenghis Grill.

 

I mean, I have been using MyFitnessPal for quite awhile now. My main concern was getting a healthy and alternative option to home cooked meals when eating out.

 

chipotle lol

 

If your main concern is healthy fast food, I'd focus on making decisions such as chicken>burgers, ask for no butter on buns, cut down overall bread -> food ratio, and stick to healthier fast food such as chipotle, subway, panera, panda express, that kind of thing.

 

Heyhey,

It's always harder to maintain the physique with constant traveling. If you cant prep, then whenever you go to eat outside or something like that, try to always pick the healthiest choices out there. If eating fast food, its so easy to go in calorie surplus since everything is packed with so many sugars and fats, that's why many ppl out there gain fat so fast also, they overeat without even knowing it, cause its easy with such foods.

Your best bet is to prep as much as possible still, if goals are important for you, then you'll figure it out how to do it, get at least some whey or high protein snacks to get daily protein in or get some cleanest stuff out there from some grocery shop. Protein shakes & bars are your best bet, but you can't only eat them, you need some meat and food also. You can always get some premade veggies & potatoes/rice + some decent meat if you're willing to search a bit around the grocery shop.

There must be always something out there that is ready to eat and ain't so bad, or visit some restoran from time to time and pick healthiest thing u can, again there must be something, like clean chicken, veggies & rice etc.
The thing with the fast food is that, some of them can have decent macronutrients, so you can fit them in easily, when you pick the right stuff, but you really lack micronutrients e.g vitamins, minerals etc, which you would get much more from clean and healthy food.

But if you really wanna go with fast food, then make sure to look at the food labels before buying them, if not possible then go to some fast food homepage and you should see each food calories & content there. Just make sure you don't overdo it e.g instead of buying some full meal (soda+burger+fries), try to take burger with just chicken/beef and some veggies + water and maybe throw some protein shake in after meal with water to get the recommended daily amount and feel more full rather than eating all the fast food. Some of the chickens are overfilled with oil, overly fried etc which adds a lot of fat again try to pick the one that has good protein/fat ratio, again try to pick the cleanest and best stuff out there.

Edit: Search up "hodgetwins" on the youtube, one of the best fitness channels out there. Every kcal is calculated, everything, and its not hard at all if you once learn it. They eat a lot of fast food, but the thing is, they know when to stop with it.
Eating fast food and losing weight, its mostly all about calories in -> calories out.
Always look at the food label before buying if you go with fast food, so you know how many kcals & protein, carbs and fats you eat with every bite and how much you need daily. It gets much easier later on when you have learned it and you know what to prefer to eat and what not to, and even if you eat junk, you know when to stop.

Goodluck!

 

Honestly man just count macro's if you don't have time to make/prep food.

Overall macro intake has been proven to be the highest contributor to weight gain/loss, the next up being macro ratios meaning amount of each macro making up total calorie intake.

 

Fast food doesn't have to be bad food. You can get a chicken sandwich without mayonnaise, salads, or sides at most places. KFC and Chipotle are good examples.

 

I usually have Chipotle bowls without sour cream or cheese to get a healthy caloric intake when I don't have time to cook a meal. It's relatively healthy at only 600 calories if you take the bowl without sour cream or cheese and is delicious.

 

I rarely cook at home anymore, same situation as you, just no time for meal prep. I got for things like waba grill, subway (cold cut meats only) and chipotle. The salt in all these things and in all fast food is really high but these are probably your best bet

 

Eat lots of protein and don't eat carbs. If you go to subway, get their chopped salad. It's everything that their sandwich has but without the bread. It tastes really good and it's a good heathy alternative. If you go to a classic fast food place like Burger King or McDonalds, get a grilled chicken sandwich or two but ask for it without the buns. The chicken tastes pretty good and it's very low calorie.

 

That's my issue when I eat a lot of Chipotle, however, if you drink a lot of water, the salt problem can be countered pretty easily.

 

Fast food won't ruin your routine or potential gains if you weave it into your macros. I eat KFC or Chipotle once a week or once every other week, probably. Just know what you're getting. I'm eating like ~1,000 calories at these places but getting 50+ grams of protein because I stick to chicken items and not sides high in calories and low in protein.

Are you overeating or not eating foods conducive to your macros (things like fries, mashed potatoes, etc.)? That should be your primary concern. Don't be fooled by idiots who will tell you fast food hinders gains. It doesn't. IIFYM.

 

Yeah it fits my macros for the most part. I was just concerned about the health effects mostly and the shit ton of sodium they have.

 

I feel you. Health wise it definitely isn't a great choice - sodium isn't typically a concern for healthy young people, though (blood pressure is usually fine at our age.) Fat and trans fat is pretty high in these types of food as well but that's why it's smarter to only indulge occasionally.

My best suggestion is that if you're concerned about health, you should definitely start meal prepping. It doesn't even take that long to make your food for the week. Set aside an hour or two one time a week to cook, maybe even less if you're efficient. It'll help in the long run if you're concerned.

But again, honestly, if you're a healthy young male and keeping your fitness in check I don't see eating out even 2-3x a week affecting your health drastically. If it affects your strength in the gym re-evaluate but I can't see how it will if you're consuming enough protein and adhering to your macros. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to talk about any of this more in depth. Good luck, man!

 

Couple tips for when eating out. If you know your going to be going out to eat try and fast or save a lot of carbs/fats for that. Try being aware of the macros of what you order, possibly pick it out beforehand. A lot of places have nutrition online/myfitnesspal already. Maybe order an entre and eat half and take half home.(sounds beta) ha. also if your having trouble w/ time try cooking chicken in a slow cooker takes 8 hours on low could legit put it on before bed and have chicken for the week thats easy to put in wraps etc.

 

Places like chipotle and Panera Bread are great.

My go to for healthy fast food is a burrito bowl at chipotle. Black beans, brown rice, chicken/sofritas, corn, all the veggies, guac, and salsa. Sour cream adds nice taste. Just get a little bit, it won't kill ya. Then, ofc, a water for your drink.

You can also request corn tortillas with the bowl for free.

Sign up for their rewards program and you get free chpotle bowls/burritos.