Imagine your in a situation (work, plane, train, automobile) where you just didn’t prepare any healthy foods. Maybe you are in a situation where the only choice to eat something is junk food.

I’m sure this doesn’t happen to you that often right?

But when it does, should you eat junk foods to keep your metabolism up or would it be more beneficial to not eat at all?

Let me tell you a little story about a guy who got into a few situations where the food choices were not ideal. His goal was to build muscle and burn off fat. This guy worked out pretty hard, was trying to eat right but occasionally life got in the way and he made poor nutrition choices. Not all the time mind you just when there was nothing else to eat and he was between a rock and a hard place.

He choose to eat the junk food.

Guess what happened to him?

He’s fine!

That guy was me (duh) and I’ve been in plenty of situations where I didn’t plan or the food around me at the time wasn’t ideal.

Key Concept … if you can follow your nutrition plan 90% of the time you will be perfectly fine.

That means you can get away with eating junk every so often and not make a dent in your progress.

By now, you’re probably wondering if there’s any difference if a person is trying to lose fat or bulk up and if that makes any difference in the answer.

If you are trying to lose fat, then having a protein is ideal as you won’t store as much of the "junk" food as fat. Let’s say you have no choices for whatever reason, then get your hands on the best protein you can and stick with that. I would suggest eating the least un-healthy parts of any available food.

The most important part of any meal is keeping your body’s nitrogen balance in the positive. That means protein!

If you are trying to bulk and gain weight, you can give yourself a little more room to make mistakes. While it’s still true that you wouldn’t want to put on any excess fat, bulking does require a surplus of calories so the rules loosen up a bit.

In either case, don’t eat more calories than you normally would for that meal.

If you find yourself at a fast food restaurant, check out any available nutritional facts and make the best choices possible (salads, grilled chicken, etc.).

If you find only vending machines in your location, look for the lowest fat and sugar snacks.

If all you have is a choice of a candy bar, then hold your breath until the next meal.

Here’s what else…

"There’s no ideal preparation place at work."

Many people fall into that category and there’s a wonderful and cheap solution to the preparation conundrum.

It’s called Tupperware and a small lunchbox cooler.

Guess what you can put into something like that?

* cottage cheese * sandwiches * vegetables * fruits

All it takes it a little prep time at home for the work environment where there’s no ideal preparation situation.

So it all adds up to this…

If you occasionally find yourself hungry and in a situation where the food choices are not ideal, then go ahead and eat that burger or pizza. You can still toss off any of the items on it that are just sugary or horrible to eat and still make the best of a bad situation.

If you find yourself daily in these situations then you need to plan more at home before getting into them as eating junk will be part of your routine and that will affect your goals.

I’ve never known anybody who made some junk food choices ever so often to lose their abs or put on 15 lbs of fat overnight.

While you want to be strict most of the time (90% rule) you do have room to play when life throws you a curve ball.

Marc David for AtoZfitness