iocat's Journal: healthy fast food

When evaluating the health quality of fast food, it's best to just look at calories, not anything else. Calories are all that matter in weight loss, anyway (don't believe me? check out the hacker's diet for details.

Anyway, eliminate Burger King immediately. The Whopper is like 600C w/o mayonaise. If you're trying to keep under 2000 C a day, this is worthless, since the Whopper isn't even filling.

At McDonald's, a Big Mac is 590 C, which is a lot, but can be the basis of a 1000 calorie lunch, when paired with small fries -- the kids' size ones -- and a diet coke. But the smart money is on a Quarter Pounder with no cheese, at only 410 calories, and a fairly satisfying burger, especially with the onions. Don't fall into the siren song of getting two cheeseburgers -- at 330 calories each, they're worse than a Big Mac! The real Calories in fast food burgers are in the buns...

Wendy's is going to be your low-cal fast food savior. A Single, no mayo, no cheese, is only 380 C -- that's only 100 C more than a McDonald's hamburger! Make it a Double, which is a pretty satisfying burger, and you've only added 200C, still a tiny bit less than a Big Mac. Skip fries and replace them with 5 chicken nuggets (only 99c and 225 Calories) and you're either at 605 with a Single, or 805 with a Double. Finally, throw on a side salad with 1/2 pack of French dressing (35 and 45 C, respectively) to round out the edges and you have a pretty filling fast food meal thats under 700 or 900 Calories (again depending on whether you went with a Single or a Double). The salad is even sort of healthy, in a fiber way (it's long on lettuce, short on everything else), and the dressing is pretty good.

Wendy's rewlz!

[eglamkowski]

I've always choosen Wendys over all others when the choice presents itself. It tastes the best. And now its the healthiest too? kewl.

Or skip the fast food

[ces]

and buy some fresh fruit and vegatables.

Subway is also a good choice.

Re:Or skip the fast food

[iocat]

Skip fast food? At lunch? At a software company? I wouldn't have any friends... The actual healthy eating is reserved for dinner.

Re:Or skip the fast food

[ces]

I do understand.

You could try going to "real" restaurants instead of McDonald's, Wendy's, etc. At my last job I don't think we went to lunch at an actual fast food chain other than Subway (once or twice) in 3 years.

Sorry for my rant but I won't generally eat at places like McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, KFC, etc. unless there really isn't any other choice.

Re:Or skip the fast food

[eglamkowski]

Unfortunately, eating a "real" restaurants still requires the consumer to be careful. Restaurants love to give oversized portions, or filler food (chips at mexican places, for example). Easy to get into trouble at these places too unless you are quite disciplined about it.

Re:Or skip the fast food

[ces]

True, but if you are going to load up on calories and fat anyway I'd rather do it with decent food and some atmosphere.

I doubt the bar we used to get burgers at every Wedensday was any healthier than McDonald's but the burgers were better and it was a much more pleasant environment to eat in.