The Best Meat for Your Muscles

You’ve just worked hard at the gym and come home ready to cook something up for dinner. You know you need some protein to go along with those vegetables, but what kind? There are many choices but only a handful pack the muscle building compounds your body needs to recover.

So, let’s break down the 3 most practical meats: chicken, turkey, and beef and look at the benefits each provides.

Chicken: I like to go with prepackaged breast cutlets because they are the easiest to prepare and contain little or no added ingredients. One average size 3 ounce breast will set you back only 142 calories. It also contains about 3 grams of fat and 26 grams of muscle buliding protein. Chicken breasts are probably the most prevalent meat you can find (in restaurants or grocery stores) and are always a popular choice among athletes and bodybuilders for their excellent protein to fat ratio.

Turkey: The best selection here is ground turkey breast. You can cook some up on the stove top and add veggies and whatever else you like. Turkey contains high amounts of niacin and B-6 and is an excellent source of selenium. A single 4 ounce serving of ground turkey contains 120 calories and just 1 gram of fat while packing 28 grams of protein.

Beef: While it may be the best tasting of the 3, it has the highest fat content. Even 95% lean ground beef contains 5.6 grams of fat (half of it being saturated) and 155 calories per 4 ounce serving. It’s okay to have beef once in a while but try not to make it a staple of your diet. When you do eat it, make sure it’s lean ground which contains the least amount of saturated fat. Ground beef does contain 24 grams of protein per serving and is an excellent source creatine.