Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Health & Fitness

High protein fast food for a busy day: These picks won’t kill your fitness goals

You can eat healthy on the go with these high protein fast food options

By
Sankt-Petersburg/Russia - July 21 2019: McDonald’s worker holding bag of fast food. Hand with a paper bag through the window of mcdonalds car drive thru service.
gargantiopa / Adobe Stock

Whether it’s your home life or work life, food choices tend to be the last thing on our minds during ultra-busy weeks. Despite our best efforts to eat at home as much as possible, we all find ourselves looking for something fast and prepared from time to time. While fast food certainly shouldn’t be an everyday event, many fast food chains offer healthy, high protein options that are great for when you’re in a pinch. Knowing what to order when at a fast food chain can help you keep on track with your fitness goals without much thought at all. Consider these delicious 5 options for high protein fast food on your next busy day.

Drive-thru high protein fast food

The inside of a Starbucks store
Anthony Fomin / Unsplash

If you’re short on time, consider these drive-through options that contain healthy amounts of protein to fuel your muscles and keep you full.

Recommended Videos

McDonald’s

McDonald’s menu can be a bit challenging to find something healthy on — yet not impossible. McDonald’s has (unfortunately) removed the grilled chicken breast from their menu in 2020, but you can still opt for a breaded chicken sandwich for a healthy amount of protein. The McCrispy chicken sandwich contains 470 calories and 26 grams of protein. A cheeseburger also contains some protein but contains high amounts of fat and not as much protein as the McCrispy sandwich.

Related

Starbucks

Many Starbucks locations offer a drive-through, making it easy to grab high protein fast food quickly. Starbucks offers a greater variety of high-protein options than McDonald’s, so it might be a better option if you want to have some choices. One of the most popular high protein options at Starbucks is the Sous Vide Egg Bites, which come in multiple varieties, including egg white and red pepper, bacon, and gruyere. Every variety of Starbucks’ egg bite offerings contains between 12 and 19 grams of protein per serving. Even better, they are available all day long — not just during breakfast hours.

Other high protein fast food options at Starbucks include the egg and cheese protein box and smoked turkey protein box. You can find these protein boxes in the grab-n-go premade section by the registers or purchase them via the drive-thru. These options give you a little bit of everything and contain 20-35 grams of protein (depending on which box you choose).

Chick-Fil-A

Chick-Fil-A is a great option for chicken-lovers to grab a high protein meal with ease. On the menu, you’ll find the grilled nuggets (available in 5,8,12, or 30-piece sizes. A standard 8-piece grilled nugget entree contains only 200 calories and 38 grams of protein. Not only are these nuggets high in protein, but they’re also low in carbs and perfect for anyone following a low-carb or ketogenic diet. You can also opt for the grilled chicken sandwich instead of nuggets.

The cool wrap is another choice for lunch or dinner, which contains sliced grilled chicken breast inside a wrap with lettuce, cheese, and avocado lime ranch dressing. This wrap contains 350 calories and a whopping 45 grams of protein!

Fast casual high protein fast food

Panera Bread Menu Board
QualityHD / Shutterstock

Have time to head inside a fast-casual restaurant? These options offer delicious options for high protein fast food lunches or dinners.

Panera

Panera has recently revamped its menu, offering 21 new and enhanced menu items at affordable prices. Many of these options contain plenty of protein and fresh ingredients, making it a smart option to stay on track with your macronutrient goals. The delicious Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt — made with smoked, pulled chicken, aged white cheddar, fresh sliced avocado, and fresh cilantro — contains 45 grams of protein.

The Ciabatta Cheesesteak and the Chicken Bacon Rancher also contain similar amounts of protein (for a whole sandwich). If you’re looking to get the most protein out of your meal, avoid the high-carb treats like the bakery items and consider adding a Greek yogurt parfait as a side.

Chipotle

Chipotle is known as one of the best spots to grab high-protein meals when dining out. Here, you can customize your meals to contain the perfect amount of protein grams for your nutritional needs. We recommend ordering double protein (chicken is a great option) to get even more protein out of your meal. For example, a burrito bowl with double chicken contains (on average) 85 grams of protein, depending on which toppings you include. A double-steak burrito bowl contains about 67 grams of protein. Adding cheese and sour cream to your bowl will help slightly enhance the protein count.

Hitting your protein goals is easy

sweatshirt
Asier Romero / Shutterstock

Don’t let those busy days hold you back from eating enough protein to achieve your fitness goals. These 5 easy fast food chains are perfect for grabbing high-protein meals when you don’t have time to cook. Soon, you’ll find your favorite high protein fast food to make busy weeks a bit simplier.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Emily Caldwell
Emily Caldwell
Contributor
Emily is a full time freelance writer with a special focus on health, fitness, lifestyle, food, and nutrition topics. She…
Improve your skin and eyes with these delicious foods high in vitamin A
Stay healthy with foods that give you a good dose of vitamin A
Foods high in vitamin A.

Most of us know that vitamin A is good for us, helping our eyes function at their very best. But there are plenty of other benefits as well, from dealing with inflammation and promoting healthy skin cells, keeping cancer at bay, and giving an assist to the immune system. Not enough? Well, vitamin A is good for your bones, too.

Think of vitamin A as a two-pronged essential nutrient. There's preformed vitamin A found in things like fish and carotenoids, which tend to show up in produce and plant-based foods. What's the best way to get your daily intake (an estimated 900 mcg for the average man)? A well-balanced diet, of course. But there are some foods high in vitamin A that are worth targeting the next time you're at the farmer's market or grocery store to keep your eyes, skin, immune system, and hormones functioning optimally.

Read more
5 fantastic mood boosting foods to incorporate into your diet
How to increase serotonin: The best mood boosting foods
Avocado cut in half

Our bodies naturally produce a chemical called serotonin, which plays a critical role in our mood and sleep. Sometimes referred to as your body's "feel good" chemical, not getting enough serotonin can leave you susceptible to depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders. On the other hand, adequate serotonin levels help promote a happier, calmer mood. To help maintain healthy serotonin levels, it's important to eat foods that are high in tryptophan, an amino acid involved in the creation of serotonin. These 5 foods that boost serotonin into your diet are not only delicious but can also give you the serotonin boost you need for a great mood.

Berries
Berries are a delicious, low-sugar fruit that offers dozens of benefits (beyond their amazing taste). All types of berries (blackberries, raspberries, etc) are packed with essential vitamins and nutrients to support your brain. Just one cup of raspberries or blackberries contains about 35% of the daily recommended value of Vitamin C. Vitamin C plays an important role in the production of serotonin. Berries can be enjoyed on their own as a snack or added to fruit smoothies or yogurt. Studies examining the mood-boosting effects of berries also found that the flavonoids in berries contributed to an overall improved mood.

Read more
Try these 11 foods high in vitamin D for healthy bones
Thinking about vitamin D levels and bone health? These foods will help you in those departments
Two fried eggs and salmon served on a blue oval plate.

Remember all those glasses of milk you chugged when you were growing up, convinced it would keep your bones strong? Well, there's truth to that, but vitamin D plays a major role too. On top of keeping your skeleton in good working order, it creates key hormones that help out with keeping inflammation in check and your immune system thriving.
Our bodies make vitamin D, especially when we're hanging out in the sun (the beaches of Hawaii, anyone?). For us mainlanders stuck in the throes of late fall and early winter, funding sunshine can be tough this time of year. Folks everywhere from Portland to New York City can go weeks without seeing the big glowing star in the sky. Fear not, there are other ways to keep your vitamin D levels where they ought to be.
Speaking of upping your intake, the current recommended daily value of vitamin D for most adults is 800 IU or 20μg. That said, your needs may be higher or lower, particularly if you don’t get much direct sun exposure. The tricky part is that very few foods are naturally high in vitamin D, so if you're looking to boost your levels significantly, you may want to consider a vitamin D supplement or a form of light therapy. That said, the foods high in vitamin D listed below are nutritious additions to your diet and can help ensure you're getting adequate amounts of vitamin D throughout the day.

Fatty fish
Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, and sardines are among the best dietary sources of vitamin D you can find. A 6-ounce filet of salmon, for instance, provides nearly 150% of the daily value, with 28.4μg. Canned salmon is also a great option, as it provides about 91% of the daily value in a 3-ounce serving and requires no cooking time at all.
Canned salmon is also quite high in calcium, along with anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, and protein. Other fatty fish, including smoked whitefish, swordfish, rainbow trout, canned sardines, halibut, and tilapia, each provide over 30% of the daily value of vitamin D, with trout, swordfish, and whitefish providing nearly 75%.

Read more