We all know the importance of breakfast for attaining our physique goals, whether that is muscle gain or fat loss.

Members who eat breakfast will always report better cognitive function, improved performance, more muscle gain, faster fat loss and perhaps most importantly, improved dietary adherence.

With fat loss, we often advocate delaying this breakfast a few hours in order to get cardio in and get started with your day, with the idea of shortening your overall eating window – allowing you to condense your meals together and manage hunger.

However, if your goal is muscle building, you can’t afford this luxury. You need to be eating a LOT of food, and regularly. This isn’t the time to be messing around with intermittent fasting.

One of the most common questions we get at RNT from our muscle-building members is:

What’s the BEST muscle-building breakfast?

Perhaps more specifically:

What’s The BEST And FASTEST Muscle-Building Breakfast?

Many of the answers to the first question will often involve cooking up elaborate steaks, or other fancy meat dishes which, while great, simply take up too much time in everyone’s busy mornings. We want breakfasts that are quick but also deliver all the nutrients required to build muscle at the fastest rate possible.

This past week I decided to sit down to list out my favourite muscle building breakfasts. I haven’t mentioned amounts as this will depend on your own macro and calorie goals, but you’ll get the idea!

1. Eggs, Smoked Salmon, Oats

This is my personal staple. I fry up some eggs in a pan, pre-soak the oats in almond milk the night before, and then cut up the necessary smoked salmon for the side. If I wanted to regulate fat intake, I’d reduce the number of whole eggs and use some more egg whites instead.

This is my breakfast now while dieting – when in off season, it’ll be this, but twice the size probably!

2. Eggs on Toast / Bagel + Smoked Salmon

Either scramble or poach some eggs, toast some granary bread or some bagels, add smoked salmon and make a breakfast sandwich. Plenty of easy healthy proteins, fats and carbs at once!

3. Protein Powder, Oats, Nut Butter

The simplest and easiest muscle building breakfast, period. If you get a great protein flavour, this can be delicious too. Either mix the ingredients up the night before, let it soak and eat cold. Or mix it up and heat it for a few minutes on the stove or in the microwave.

4. Protein Pancakes!

Using this recipe, all you need to do to make this fit for muscle building is add oats to the mix!

5. Scrambled Eggs + Oats with Blueberries + Almond Butter

This little twist was turned onto us by Lloyd Stevens. Using a combination of whole eggs / egg whites and oats, mix and cook them together in a pan like you would a protein pancake but scramble it as you go and keep mixing. Once done, top it up with some almond butter, blueberries, and honey if you can afford the carbs.

6. Cheese and Spinach Omelette, Oats or Granola + Blueberries 

This is especially useful for those pushing the calories. Cook up your eggs in an omelette fashion and mix in some of your favourite type of cheese to the mix. On the side, you’re going to have a bowl of oats with granola and berries. And if you still need more calories, some slices of toast to complement the eggs.

7. Greek Yogurt, Protein Powder, Granola + Blueberries

A favourite of many of our female members. Mix up some quality Greek yogurt (Fage or Liberte are good brands) with protein powder and blueberries. For extra carbs, mix in some granola too – this makes it taste REALLY good.

8. Protein + Nut Butter (Early Morning Trainees)

This is for those training super early in the morning, and can’t stomach too much food before workouts. The best way to have this is as a ‘pudding’. All you do is mix just enough water with the protein powder and nut butter that you form a paste-like consistency. If you get a whey protein like Dymatize-100 chocolate brownie flavour and mix it with peanut butter, you’ll literally be eating melted snickers first thing in the morning! If the goal is muscle-building, I’d make sure you’re getting a decent hit of intra-workout carbs here, along with a big feed post workout!

9. Leftover Meats 

If you don’t have the time to cook meat in the morning, but still like to start the day with it, this is the best way to do it. Cook some extra meat and carbs with your dinner and heat up the leftovers for breakfast.

10. Quick Mince Burgers / Rare Steaks

Some of our members still cook meat first thing, but it’s usually something super quick like homemade mince burgers or rare, lean steaks. For the burgers, you just bunch your mince up together and fry it on the pan for a few minutes a side. For the steaks, pick super lean cuts and cook it rare for 1-3 minutes each side. You can then add your necessary carbs on the side.

There it is. Ten simple, easy to prep, muscle-building breakfasts. You’ve got no excuses now!