Previously I explained why every man should cook, which you can read here. Today I figured I’d explain some tips for eating meals on the go. I still recommend that every man know how to cook, and I believe every man should be eating most of his meals from food cooked at home rather than purchased at a store or in a box. That being said, every man will find himself in a situation every now and then where he needs a quick meal and either hates everything in his house, or simply doesn’t have time to make anything. Here are a few ways to eat decent semi-healthy options from regular places throughout the country.
Chipotle/Qdoba/Burracho’s
Chipotle is king in the quick muscle meals world. Qdoba and Burracho’s can be lumped in because they’re the same concept but they’re not as good. They’re also in the semi-fast food category, which means you get sub restaurant quality food at a slightly slower and healthier pace than regular fast food. The key with these three restaurants are to follow this menu concept. Go with a burrito bowl, rice is acceptable. Add beans, fajita veggies, the meat of your choice, salsa (pico de gallo is the best option) and lettuce. Make sure you skip cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. Your total calorie intake should be 600 calories or less from this bowl while hitting the majority of necessary food groups to give yourself a balanced meal at a cheap price in a timely fashion.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is like the bitch who gave your best friend herpes. She seems appealing but every man who sleeps with her still ends up with herpes. McDonald’s is a last resort option, but you can make it work. The parfait’s are safe if you throw out the granola topping, and side salad’s are fine if you limit the amount of dressing you use to about 1/3rd of the packet they give you.
Everything else on the menu is equal in calories. The best example of this is a Big Mac versus the new Premium McWrap. A Crispy Chicken and Ranch Premium McWrap has 580 calories, 29 grams of fat, 55 grams of carbs, and 26 grams of protein. The “healthier” grilled version has 420 calories, 16 grams of fat, 41 grams of carbs and 30 grams of protein. A Big Mac has 550 calories, 29 grams of fat, 46 grams of carbs, and 25 grams of protein. The Big Mac is also the only one of those three that is sub 1000mg of sodium (barely). There’s three menu items which are extremely similar in nutrition content despite the fact that two are advertised as healthy alternatives. So warning, McDonald’s will not be safe.
Subway
Thanks to Jared, every American now seems to believe that Subway is healthy and will help them lose weight. Wrong, Subway is just healthier than the alternative fast food restaurants, with the primary draw being cheap meals from processed junk. But if you are in an extreme pinch for time, you can make Subway work, and it’s way better than McDonalds. The key with Subway is to ignore half of what you thought you knew. Ignore the wheat bread at Subway and go for Italian. The Italian actually has less calories, and they are actually both made with enriched wheat flour (little known truthful fact). Stick to a six inch sub, load up on vegetables and skip on dressing. You can add to your meal with baked chips and water. I don’t recommend a foot-long for yourself because you’re eating processed garbage so the less you consume the better.
Resort to Salad
When in absolute doubt, resort to salad. Almost every quick restaurant option from BWW’s to McDonald’s does offer salads, so if you really can’t figure something out, that’s the best default option to resort to. It also takes the least amount of effort. You only need to remember two things with salads. Keep the chicken grilled, and keep the dressing on the side. Most restaurants include two-three hundred calories worth of dressing with their salads. Keeping it to the side will let you add significantly less. Keeping the chicken grilled keeps excess fat out of your salad. It might seem girly, but those ten minutes will disappear quickly once you spend an hour at the beach with six pack abs.
The biggest thing to eating on the go is watching what you consume and how much. I find myself in binds for time a lot so I’ve gotten use to making my options work. Some of my friends are convinced that my working out keeps weight in check but the truth is managing those meals on the go is what keeps it in check. I’d love guacamole, cheese, and sour cream on my a burrito bowl at Chipotle, but the fact is those three ingredients combined are almost as much as the rest of the burrito bowl. And remember your best option will always be to make your own meals as you can regularly get fresher ingredients for better nutrients, but if you do find yourself in a bind, you can make it work, you just can stuff your face till your full.
Read Next: The Downfall Of Every Diet
Who gives a shit about calories? A salad isn’t better than a big Mac because it has fewer calories. It’s better because it’s actually real food.
The concept of “diet” at the absolute CORE basis is calories in versus calories out. When you want to get more complex you can add in nutritional factors but at the absolute basis of any diet or weight control it comes down to calories.
Skip the fast food entirely and do the salads at home.
Salads (and pastas) are the biggest ripoffs when you consider how much restaurants charge vs. actual cost.
I think you missed the “On the go” part. I think its obvious that anything made at home is better for you.
It’s almost as if the author mentioned it in the first three sentences.
You need the following: slow cooker, good toaster oven, vacuum sealer, electric grill vitamix bleder, and a dehydrator. Make ground meat jerkey with fruits (follow the same recipe of Epic bars), slow cooked meals (separate the ingredients and freeze them in vacuum sealer, pop one in the slow cooker in the morning and you’ll have a nice meal when you get back home), salads, canned fish, eggs, protein shakes, etc… There’s absolutely no need to eat out.
If you want to have a strong and nice body you have to cook for yourself.
+1 on the slow cooker/crockpot. A crock pot will provide a single guy with great, low cost, homemade meals for about $20 a week. Most meals take less then 10 minutes to assemble. Just set it in the morning and it is done when you get home from work. Freeze leftovers for future meals. Great for having people over for dinner too. They will think you moonlight as an executive chef.
Most of these options are high in sodium, which will cause you to retain water, increase your blood pressure, damage your heart, and eventually damage your kidneys.
Or else just go into a supermarket and buy a store-baked bagel, some fresh fruit and a small bottle of milk. A bit bland, perhaps, but at least you get real food without spending much.
Supermarket is a decent option but the time frame between selecting your own food, buying the food, and putting it together yourself is triple that of buying food at a restaurant minimum. It’s always better to buy better food and make better meals, this is strictly for time crunching emergencies.
Bagel?
Better yet, just inject yourself with 30 g of refined, processed white starch, with a high glycemic index score to spike your blood glucose (and that’s assuming no spread on the bagel)
oh, and then add on all the fructose from the fruit (acceptable by itself or with meat, but *not* with the bagel’s starch)
I’d say calories don’t matter as much as food quality. If you can get a dish thats 80% paleo or so you’re probably doing alright.
The bowls of Mexican food without tortillas are definitely good, as well as grilled chicken salads.
Another good option is stopping by the supermarket. Whole Foods has a healthy buffet of prepared foods that mostly consist of meat and vegetables. Even if your grocery store doesn’t have prepared food you can just grab some fruit and nuts for a quick meal. Maybe an avocado, carrots or other vegetables you can eat raw.
Exactly. People are too concerned with counting calories instead of eating real food. It is completely illogical.
That’s because the core basis of a diet is calories in versus calories out. You really should be watching both. The whole “better nutrition is better than calories” is technically a lie. Why? Because if you eat better nutrition i.e. veggies, they naturally have lower calories. Therefore you can eat more while technically adding up less. thus “better” foods fit directly into calories in versus calories out.
I consume a lot of calories (5k-6k a day). None of that is junk food and I workout regularly. Even in small amounts, I can feel it when I have had low quality food. Exercising and focusing on quality, not quantity, of calories is the foundation of health. Trying to get over by being inactive and consuming artificially-low calorie foods is no substitute.
Gary Taubes wrote a whole book disputing calories in, calories out: http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259
i am a fan of taubes, and i’ve followed the work he’s done and the paleo and IF crowds for many years now but i’ve come to the following conclusion:
At extreme obesities, the calories in= calories out model holds true. It’s why IF works and why the most common ways to lose weight for super fatties have been to eat less calories [low carb surpresses appetite after the low carb flu period is over], juicing etc
At lower %fats, the maths get fuzzy, and quality of food makes a huge difference. This is where the superiority of low carb and paleo shines.
Look up dangerandplays work. or his twitter feed, he accepts juicers, heck even vegans [eww] into his crowd.
To make a long story short:
If you’re super fat, calories in calories out holds true, it may be easier for you to lose fat by adopting low carb [which means you are consuming less calories, as well as the other benefits] or IF but numbers are strong
When your going down to the slightly overweight levels or looking for those sub10 body fat percentage, what you eat makes all the difference. This is low carb/paleo/keto territory
Don’t forger Trader Joe’s and Harris Teeter, too, if they’re in the area.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahaha “how to order your fast food sandwiches” hahahahahahahahaha.
come on guys.
I like when the trolls get a ton of downvotes. Makes them look even dumber
not trollin dude. regular reader and like it much. just lately feeling like they have been putting tons of filler on this site to keep the views rolling in. “what to do with baking soda” and “what i stuff in my facehole when i wake up late” if you cant tell its filler you are naive.
these guys here arent dumb. so bring on the big ideas.
Well they’ve kind of backed themselves into a corner since they refuse to discuss any red pill concepts except rudimentary “game”. The big ideas are on other sites. This place is becoming “ask men”. That said, I appreciate the quality of the writing when it is on point, and all of these writers are capable of good stuff. However, if I were editor, I’d widen the net for more writers, accept more controversial discussions, and accept fewer submissions per month from each writer. A writer has maybe one brilliant piece a week in him, and the rest is filler.
It’s called Beef Jerky, people. Make your own for when you are on the go.
I eat what I want, just keep it under 3000 calories and go to thy gym…I’m 34 and in way better shape than most Americans in their 20’s. I like that fast food has so many calories…two mcchickens for lunch at 1$ dollar each? yes please…
Remember that a lot of teas like green tea are zero calorie, so they’re good beverages with lunch. Plus, the mild amounts of caffeine in them will help suppress your appetite. You might have to stop off at a Whole Foods or Trader Joe to get a bottle.
just fast when you’re out or have a bag of mixed nuts on hand.
the concept of packing a lunch is not even mentioned in the article lol
skip the guacamole? im trying to gain not lose weight so ill take the guac plus the cheese and sour cream mothafuckas!
Yup, preparing meals at home is a bit difficult for those of us who live in hotels and commute to different cities. Panera has a hidden menu with excellent salad and breakfast options with no carbs. The dressing is just a packet of olive oil and a lemon.
Many grocery stores have salad bars, sushi, and rotisserie chickens. Whole foods has some decent options for prepared food. If you’re trying to do paleo, you can grab some canned sardines and cut veggies. You can microwave a sweet potato.
Sometimes you can find decent quick options at BBQ places, like some fire roasted meat (no sauce) and a salad.
For paleo at Chipotle/Qdoba, skip the rice but pay extra for the guac. Its heart healthy plant fats and very filling. Fat is very filling so you’ll get a lot of mileage on plant fats like avocado and olives when you are hungry and can’t have a proper meal. It won’t make you fat.
From a gas station, your best bet is probably nuts and seeds, jerky, maybe pork rinds, unless they happen to have some fresh veggies or fruit.
1. McD’s and Subway were life-savers when I was traveling around Europe a few years ago. Call me Philistine, but I chose to go there because I wasn’t sure what I’d get in the typical Italian, German, etc. restaurants and that wouldn’t cost a fortune with smaller portions. I didn’t mind getting the higher caloric junk because I was out walking most of the day and stuck to around two big meals, with the most important being the breakfasts they served in some of the hostels.
McD’s was really a life-saver when I wanted regular coffee for breakfast when in Istanbul. Turks usually drink tea in small glasses and you have to do a hunt for Turkish coffee — which, IMO, is not the kind of beverage you want to drink too often.
2. Trying to eat “healthy” at these places can be done, and is an exercise in creativity. My rule of thumb is similar to what you describe above. I skip the dressings on salads (and do so with all salads since I find common dressings disgusting), and try to get either oil and vinegar, or lemon juice. I load up on veggies with Subway and usually get roast beef or chicken not drowned in sauce. Sometimes, I’ll get a soda to go with it, but cut the soda with at least half water so that I’m not ingesting more calories than I need.
Sometimes, though, you just want Burger King. 🙂
You travelled in Europe and purposely stayed away from European cuisine? Why not do a Contiki tour next time, or better yet, stay at home? As for Turkish coffee, it’s rich, dark flavour is 100x better then a mcdonalds milkshake passed off as a coffee.
Food is food when you really need it. And, I was talking about eating in a pinch and not regularly. I ate plenty of the local cuisine in my travels.
I agree on Turkish coffee, but it can be too much for me. German and Italian coffee is just the right amount for me.
Food is food when you really need it. And, I was talking about eating in a pinch and not regularly. I ate plenty of the local cuisine in my travels.
I agree on Turkish coffee, but it can be too much for me. German and Italian coffee is just the right amount for me.
Enjoy your GMOed out frakenfoods from McD and Burger King. I’d choose a natural meal from a real ethnic place any day of the week.
Ah fuck who am I kidding? I go to the local KFC in my country in Southeast Asia and get fried eggs for 30 cents an egg. Other than that, I don’t eat meat or eat at corporate chains. I’m a vegan weight lifter. And very quickly turning into a real life John Rambo. Deadlifts are the secret.
Quick correction “A Big Mac has 550 calories, 29 grams of fat, 46 grams of carbs, and 25 grams of carbs.”
25 grams of carbs or protein?
46 grams of carbs, 25 grams of proteins. My bad. Fixed!
Protein Bar (in DC and Chicago) is a new quick service restaurant chain that has incredibly healthy food. Highly recommended.
This is good shit. Let’s have some more articles about working out and food and cuisine. The whole topic of antifeminism has been beaten to death it’s been talked about so much. Let’s have a little variety please.
Big Mac: why would be 550 kcal too much? 3-4 times a day still in weight loss range.
The Big Mac’s calories directly aren’t too bad, it has to deal with the fact that you’re washing it down with a Medium Coke and consuming with it a medium fry. I used it as an example because it’s almost identical in nutritional value as the wraps that they advertise as healthy. A true healthy wrap would be significantly less calories than a Big Mac.
Drink diet soda, unsweetened tea, or water. Skip the fries. Call it good. McD fries are equal or more than the calories in the sandwich.
How about a can of beef stew? You can eat it straight from the can, it’s cheaper, and it’s real food.
You are assuming that every guy reading this wants to lose weight. I just got off of an 11 month battle with Crohn’s Disease in which my weight went from 170 down to as low as 153. I am 6’4”. Why does everyone in the world assume everyone else wants to get skinnier.
For skinny hardgainers, McDonald’s Angus Burger with chips (1000+ calories per serving) is a good way to put on the pounds. Have 3 of these daily and you are looking at 3000+ calories per day. The rule is eat and SLEEP, like a bear.