Can I Eat Fast Food and Still Be Fit

Can I Eat Fast Food and Still Be Fit

If you’ve ever heard of the dietary protocol popularized in the bodybuilding world called IIFYM, otherwise known as If It Fits Your Macros, you likely understand how one can still be fit whilst essentially eating whatever they want.

Moreover, even the fittest on earth cheat every now and then; it’s called balance! 

With that said, while it might not be the best idea to do so, especially on a frequent basis, the short answer to the question “can I eat fast food and still be fit?” Is YES. However, like most things, the answer isn’t quite that simple.

In what follows, we’ll be diving deep into whether or not one can truly be fit while still eating fast food. In doing so, we’ll seek to define what true health is, where the balance lies, and why asking such a question isn’t the most appropriate one to be asking if your primary aim is to reach peak fitness. 

So, without further ado, let’s get into it, shall we?! 

The Negative Impact of Fast Food 

It shouldn’t be a shock to hear that consuming fast food can have a detrimental impact on the health of your mind and body, becoming quite dangerous if consumed on a regular basis for a sustained period of time. 

Not only does it inherently increase the risk of obesity, that which comes with its own host of health consequences, but it’s also correlated with an increased risk of chronic stress, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression & mental illness, and other health repercussions. 

The scariest part of all, however, is the fact that these consequences are unapparent until they are. In other words, a lot of the negative impacts of fast food aren’t visible until it’s frankly too late…

Finally, without getting into the details of physiological and nutritional science, consuming junk food and/or fast food on a regular basis has a dramatic impact on your energy levels. For those looking to optimize their performance in the gym, this is far from complimentary.

So, you might be asking how fast food can have such a negative impact on one’s health and well-being; after all, it’s just food, right?! Wrong…

Contrary to real whole foods, fast food and junk food are highly processed and contain copious amounts of trans fat (the undesirable type of fat), sugar, sodium, and other harmful chemicals like phthalates & BPA that have a strong correlation to cardiovascular disease among other complications. 

In short, for those seeking peak health and fitness, fast food is the first thing that you want to avoid. With that said, there is a more nuanced answer to the question of whether or not you can eat fast food while still pursuing a healthy lifestyle… 

What you’ll soon come to learn is that fast food can be incorporated into a generally healthy lifestyle if implemented strategically and intelligently. While it might sound quite contradictory at first glance, funny enough, fast food and a healthy lifestyle can actually live within the same sentence. In short, it comes down to two basic premises: balance, and caloric intake.

The first basic premise is quite rudimentary. The second, however, requires some further exploration…

How to Stay Fit While Eating Fast Food 

Before we proceed, it’s important to be clear. You can’t stay fit while eating exclusively fast food. Anyone who tells you that you can has zero right or authority in suggesting so. 

Instead, this section assumes that you understand the basics of health and nutrition… 

With that being said, there are several tools, tactics, and strategies that can be employed that will ultimately allow you to eat fast food (in moderation) while still staying fit and on track with all of your health and fitness goals.

While this way of dieting isn’t necessarily recommended for those seeking peak health, it can ultimately be achieved for those simply seeking to stay moderately fit while still enjoying life in moderation. 

Count Your Calories

If you want to build muscle and/or reduce body fat, counting calories is a great strategy to employ, whether you plan on eating fast food or not. If you do plan on incorporating fast food into your diet, however, counting calories can become even more valuable, helping you to avoid completely going off the rales with your nutritional decisions.In other words, it helps you maintain a balance within your diet, providing you with a road map of sorts as to what you’re allowed to consume and what you’re not. Because consuming fast food is only suitable if you consume it in extreme moderation, it’s important to find nutritional strategies that allow you to do so intelligently; counting your calories is simply one of those strategies…

Avoid Binge Eating 

In a diet like IIFYM as mentioned in the preface, participants prescribe to the idea that cheat meals are appropriate as long as it stays within their macros and caloric requirements. 

While this is technically true on paper, it’s one of the worst strategies you can employ. In short, cheat meals are simply a friendly way of describing the habit of binge eating; a detrimental habit that can have residual impacts on your health. 

Not to mention it simply erases all the progress you’ve made prior…

Instead, while it’s certainly appropriate to find ways to eat what you want within your caloric limitations, it’s not okay to binge eat. Find the balance, eat in moderation, and continue to prioritize healthy whole foods for the bulk of your diet. 

Remain Consistently Active 

Of course, this is a given for those seeking to stay fit, however, it deserves a worthy mention nonetheless. Why? Well, for two reasons…

First, when we exercise, we burn calories that we otherwise wouldn’t burn if we didn’t exercise. This, in turn, allows you some room to consume additional calories. In other words, if you didn’t exercise but persisted to consume fast food, all of those excess calories would evidently turn to fat.

Second, while your intentions might be to continue exercising while consuming fast food, you might not be privy to how much fast food can impact your energy levels and desires. Not only can it make you lazy but it can also make you bloated; two uncomplimentary factors in getting your butt to the gym! 

With that said, if you plan on incorporating moderate amounts of fast food into your diet, be sure to remain committed to staying active; at the very least, it will help you maintain your current level of fitness.

Find A Balance

At the end of the day, it’s all about finding a balance. While in an ideal world it’d be best to avoid fast food altogether, it’s understandable that the majority of us aren’t trying to become elite athletes and instead prioritize the enjoyment of life in tandem with trying to remain generally healthy and fit.

By following the above tips, and by understanding that consuming fast food only works if you consume it in extreme moderation and in tandem with an otherwise healthy diet and active lifestyle, you can ultimately find the right balance to enjoy the best of both worlds.

In Summary

Whether your goal is to gain muscle or lose fat, results are made in the kitchen. With that said, in order to ensure any level of sustainability, it’s important to find a balance, ultimately allowing yourself to intelligently indulge on occasion. 

By consuming a large portion of your caloric intake from healthy whole foods and giving your all in the gym on a consistent basis, there’s no reason why you can’t afford yourself some fast food every now and then.

To summarize, while you can certainly eat fast food and still be fit and healthy, the detriment is in the dose. With that said, in order to remain healthy, fit, and functional, both mentally and physically, it’s more than encouraged to sustain a balanced diet comprising real whole foods, limiting your junk food to sustainable and occasional amounts. 

Good luck!