Bodybuilding star Lee Priest is weighing the pros and cons of steroid use versus eating McDonald’s throughout his career. He tackled this issue in a recent YouTube video shared on February 13, 2025.
Lee Priest was an outlier in the IFBB Pro League. He never fretted over the minor things. He was known for gaining substantial weight in the off-seasons yet always managed to chisel down a stage-ready physique when it was time to perform. Priest ate plenty of junk food but compensated for it with a long duration of intense cardio.
He hasn’t forgotten the formula he used to reach the top of the sport. Having defeated Ronnie Coleman seven times, there’s no refuting his effectiveness in bodybuilding. Now, he’s reflecting on the damage that his unconventional eating habits had on him as well as the health impacts of his ‘small’ steroid use.
Lee Priest Says He’s ‘Done More Damage’ With McDonald’s Than ‘What I Injected Into My Body’
In a recent YouTube video, Priest claimed steroids did not affect his health because he kept his dosages low.
“It didn’t [steroids didn’t affect my health] because I used I didn’t abuse. Even like I say, as small amounts that I used, to me, okay, I might have taken 400 milligrams of test, to me, I think that’s okay but who knows? 400 might be too much but to me, 400 seemed better than taking 2,000 which some people take or 1,000.”
Although he heard about others in the sport taking larger doses, Priest never increased his intake since lower amounts worked adequately.
“If I heard people were taking these large amounts I would always go smaller. Like I said, if I used a smaller amount and got results from it, I didn’t have that sort of thinking okay I gained this on 200 milligrams if I go 600 that will be three times better won’t it? I never had that mentality that some people do,” he explained.
He believes eating at McDonald’s in the off-season likely caused more damage to his health than steroid use.
“I’d die more from off-season McDonald’s than [steroids],” he shared. “I’d probably done more damage with the chemicals in McDonald’s than what I injected into my body.”
Priest was weighing almost 300 pounds in the off-season, eating McDonald’s and doing zero cardio. He said this was more detrimental to his health than using drugs throughout contest preps.
“Me sitting around at 285 pounds doing no cardio, doing stuff like that compared to okay, contest time, I’m using a bit of steroids but I’m eating healthy. I’m doing cardio two to three hours a day. The off-season with no drugs just eating bad food would have been worse for me.”
“If an obese person dies, oh he died from the heart from the food. But if you’re a bodybuilder, it’s always the drugs. It’s not the food that killed me which it probably would be more.”
With the growing obesity problem in the US, Priest might be onto something. While steroids can cause harm, he maintains that eating McDonald’s and skipping cardio in the off-season likely did more damage to his health.
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