Fast foods are such a fact of life, it wouldn't be reasonable to give up the quick-sandwiches and drive through windows. So, we try to be healthy by making the better selection when we have little choice other than these establishments.
But, many of the sandwiches (and sides) try to sound healthy and mislead us to choose them over a hamburger--which may, in fact, have even fewer calories.
Some examples of these are the "Market Fresh" sandwiches at Arby's--the roast beef and swiss has nearly 800 calories! What a surprise that was to me, it looked like just bread, meat, and cheese, how does it get to rack up all those calories? Do they butter the bread? Smear on mayonnaise? Pile on a half-pound of meat? Who knows! But, now I know I can get fewer calories with a regular roast beef sandwich AND an order of 2 potato cakes!
The baked potato with broccoli at Wendy's has over 500 calories! You'd think you were having a healthy lunch, until you realize there is cheese, butter, sour cream and other additions that are piling on calories from fat.
And, if you eat a salad at taco bell, be aware that the yummy edible bowl it comes in has over 400 calories!
I would recommend pulling up the nutrition information from the websites of restaurants you frequent, and checking to see how many calories are really in the foods you like. You might find you can eat something you like even better, and save yourself hundreds of calories at the same time!
Small chili and an order of mandarin oranges from Wendys comes in at around 300 calories.
ReplyOOhhh, thanks Lisa, that is a great meal to know about! Too bad they almost "hide" the fact that they provide real fruit at some of the restaurants!
ReplyNP - I really try my best to eat healthy, unprocessed food that I prepare at home, but every once in a while, life gets in the way. I have a couple of standbys I always go for if there is no practical alternative to eating out, other than going hungry.
The Wendy's one is my favorite, but I have something from almost every "fast" food place. (When we do overtime, often we'll order in or someone will do a quick run to the fast food place).
I know these aren't the healthiest options, but here's what I go for at each of the fast food chains. They are selected based on my personal tastes with a mandate to stay under 500 calories. The number in brackets is the number of calories from the web site (when applicable). If there is a ?, I'm making an educated guess
McDonalds - Happy Meal with chicken nuggets and apple pieces and milk (390)
Wendys - small chili and mandarin oranges (270)
Subway - chicken breast wrap, no cheese, with lettuce, extra pickles, peppers, mustard, salt, pepper, and easy italian dressing. I rip off the "extra" wrap shell from the top and don't eat the extra on the bottom (not a fan of bread anyway (450??)
Swiss Chalet - 1/4 chicken (white) with mixed veggies (360)
Those are the restaurants around my work place that we tend to order from.
ReplyI am embarrassed to admit that for a while I fell for Subway's "healthy alternative" marketing scam. Turns out the footlong cold cut combo I thought was the healthy alternative to Burger King has over 1000 calories! Shove it, Jared!
ReplyIt's a foot-long sandwich. How is it not apparent that it would have a lot of calories?
ReplyIt's lunch meat and veggies.
ReplyIt's still twelve inches of bread. Low carb diets aside, that is still a lot of bread that will be contributing a lot of calories.
ReplyYes, you are correct, however not only does Subway aggressively promote it as healthy fast food, it just feels like it should be healthier than your typical grease burger. Ask anyone in line at Subway if they would be eating there if they knew their "healthy" sub had more calories than a Big Mac and large fries. Probably not many of them, most are not there because they think Subway tastes better than a Big Mac and fries, they are there because they think it's a healthy alternative.
I think a lot of people don't realize how bad bread and cheese are, I mean they are their own food groups how bad can they be!! I know that before I started taking diet seriously and doing some research I had no idea bread was such a big no no.
ReplyBread can be bad (not always), cheese can be bad (it depends on your level of training), but the worst part of Subway and pretty much any another other sandwich place that uses deli-meats are the preservatives and salt content. Look up the sodium content in a foot-long and you'll see what I mean.
A freshly made so-called grease burger at a joint like In and Out that uses good quality beef in their burgers is a better option than Subway. Just avoid the french fries and milk shakes! :)
ReplySubway may promote their items as "healthy," but unless you believe everything advertisers try to sell you, it should be obvious no one needs a twelve inch sandwich. Probably not even a six inch sandwich, unless you are an avid exerciser.
I haven't been in to Subway in a while, but the last thing I remember was that their little promotional napkins specified things about the six inch subs rather than the twelve.
Thanks to lack of government regulation, corporations are allowed to push whatever sort of emotional attachment/ambiance they want, but it's our own fault if we refuse to think critically about it.
ReplyI'm sorry but most people just walk in and order whatever they feel like, then wail about how they got tricked into thinking whatever they felt like ordering must be healthy... because. Subway has ALWAYS advertised that the sandwiches that Jared promoted were a handful of healthy selections in 6-inch sizes which came in under a specific calorie/fat amount. If you didn't realize it it was because someone didn't hold you down, put a gun to your head and screamed at you till you read the signs--which are all over. Just assuming everything in the store is instantly healthy in whatever size and combo you feel like is like believing in Santa Claus.
ReplyThe calories subway advertises are for the 6 inch subs. If I remember correctly, the cold cut isn't one of their healthiest choices. The sandwiches Jared chose were the ones with the lowest calories on the menu. I believe he had a 6 inch turkey for lunch and a 12 inch veggie for dinner. His total calorie intake couldn't have been more than 1200.
ReplyStick to the fomula of grilled chicken breast and salad with little or no dressing...At McDonalds they have a delicious grilled chicken breast on top of fresh greens and if you dont add those crunchy noodles and just a touch of their light dressing you are coming in at just under 300 calories. Not bad. The best thing to do is check your favorite restaurants online. They usually all have a nutrition label for all their foods so you can plan what to get within your calorie budget.
ReplyThink ingredients, not calories. I am much more concerned with what's *in* the food, than how many calories it has. I stopped eating all fast food years ago for a simple reason: it's not healthy. Just because a fast food is low is calories doesn't make it any healthier. Simply ask yourself: is this processed? does it contain refined ingredients? preservatives? artificial colors and flavors?
ReplyJB Healthy, I think you have the right idea.
Reply"Fast foods are such a fact of life, it wouldn't be reasonable to give up the quick-sandwiches and drive through windows."
You lost me at the beginning. Fast foods do not have to be a fact of life and it's completely reasonable to give up fast food.
ReplyA loaded baked potato is always going to have a significant number of calories, this should be pretty obvious. If you still want a baked potato, ask that those things be left off or be put on the side. It's that simple. And why does it matter that the calories are coming from fat? Too much fat will not make you fat unless that extra fat adds unneeded calories.
Most sandwiches any fast food place serves is going to be huge, so just don't eat it all if you don't want all the calories. Ask how it's prepared, rather than just "wondering".
You will never be so hungry that unless you are literally in a place with no choice other than fast food restaurants for several days at a time, you won't survive just being hungry. Even if it's the only choice you have for a couple days, you will be fine without food if you really want to just have a healthy choice. Maybe it means you don't get lunch while on the road or you don't get it until 3 pm. But fast food is not just a part of life.
Replychick fil-a makes a DELICIOUS salad, fruit & chop I think it's called. nice green lettuce, strawberries, apples, grapes, mandarin oranges, carrots, a little bit of cheese, and some cabbage. SO GOOD! even chick fil-a's side salad has a piece of broccoli and a good tomato.
burger king has a veggie burger that's pretty good, a little big, but I just ditch the top part of the bun and eat it open faced.
you can eat a mcdonald egg mcmuffin w/o cheese and it's pretty healthy. i have to avoid mcdonalds, though, because i love the fattening stuff too much!!
taco bell has the fresca (i think that's how it's spelled?) menu, and it's made with fresh salsa instead of sour cream and cheese. kind of bland to me, but some people like salsa.
as for subway, there are lots of choices there. I think their specific plan called for certain sandwiches in the 6 inch size. they have the calories listed right on the menu...
Replyoh, and that chick fil a salad with the fruit also has some grilled chicken strips. Yum!!!
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