So I recently came across the website fatcalories.com where they analyze the calories, fat, and fat calories in various fast food menu items and thought I’d put together a Fast Food Hall of Shame.
I’ve been trying to eat better myself (more salads, fruits, vegetables and sushi these days and less fast food). In general I rarely eat fast food. I really like Taco Bell and In N Out though and Tommy’s Hamburgers down in L.A. is probably my favorite restaurant of all time. The good thing about Tommy’s for me though is that it is down in L.A. and I am up here in Northern California, so we only find ourselves a few times a year.
I remember eating a lot of fast food as a kid. I used to love St. Patrick’s day because it always meant that McDonald’s would sell Shamrock Shakes. Some of my earliest memories were of sitting in my mom’s car at the Jack in the Box drive through saying “cheeseburger, fries and a coke.” My parents used to always take us to fast food after church. For a long time it was Del Taco. Then it was Carl’s Junior.
Anyways, even though I don’t eat fast food much anymore, when I do I try to be as healthy as I can. To help me in that quest, here are a list of 25 things definitely NOT to order.
Note, most of the nutritional data in this post either came from the fast food company’s websites themselves or from fatcalories.com.
So on with the list
1. Arby’s Pecan Sticky Bun 4 Pack. Ok, who gets a four pack of sticky buns and eats them by them self. Fair enough. Still, 2,751 calories? 90 grams of fat! Holy Cannoli Batman.
2. Subway Double Meat Meatball Marinara Sub, 12 incher. 1,720 calories, 84 grams of fat Ok, so this probably wasn’t the sandwich that “Jared” was chowing down on when he lost all that weight. It’s more like, so, would you like meat with your meat today? Maybe it’s not fair dinging a double meat sandwich since most people don’t order double meat, but, still, this is the highest caloric item at subway and is worse for you than any burger you could get anyplace else.
3. Carl’s Junior Double Six Dollar Burger. 1,520 calories 111 grams of fat. Ok, this was the single highest caloric, highest fat burger I could find at any fast food restaurant. Fat grams in triple digits! Whew! I’m not sure if this is the burger or not that Paris Hilton was slobbering all over back in the day, but I can assure you folks, this is *not* the one she is eating on a regular basis.
4. Blimpie’s Ultimate Club Sub (12in) Panini Grilled. 1,440 calories, 84 grams of fat. 12 inches of pure fatness.
5. Harde’s 2/3 LB Monster Thickburger, 1,410 calories, 107 grams of fat. With a name like this, you know it’s gotta be bad for you.
6. Chipolte Burrito with carnitas, rice, black beans, sour cream, cheese, and guacamole, 1,362 calories, 63 grams of fat. A heart attack wrapped in a tortilla. And you know you’re going to be ordering chips there when you go too. Customize your own Chipolte meal over at Chipoltelovers.com.
7. Dairy Queen Large Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard, 1,320 calories, 52 grams of fat. Yep, chocolate chip cookie dough and ice cream. Who would have guessed it?
8. Dominos Ultimate Deep Dish Extravaganza Feast 14 inch Pizza. Nutritional information on pizza is a little misleading. When I first read that this menu item only had 468 calories and 26 grams of fat it didn’t seem so bad. Until you realize that this is *per slice*. Eat all 8 slices of this 14 incher and you end up with 3,744 calories and 208 grams of fat! Yikes!
9. McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strip 10 pack, 1,270 calories, 66 grams of fat. So much for chicken being the healthy alternative to burgers.
10. Arby’s Sausage Gravy Bisquit, 961 Calories, 64 grams of fat. This was one of the highest caloric breakfast sandwiches I could find.
11. Burger King Triple Whopper with Cheese, 1,230 calories, 82 grams of fat. Healthy eating tip. Avoid ordering fast food items with the word “triple” in the title.
12. Wendy’s Classic Triple with Everything. As the name would suggest, “with everything” comes with a price. 1,210 calories and 77 grams of fat. Not as bad as its “triple” cousin over at Burger King, but almost.
13. KFC Family Size Popcorn Chicken, 1,210 Calories, 68 grams of fat. It’s chicken… that looks like popcorn… except that it has three times as much fat in it.
14. McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast (Large Size Biscuit) w/o Syrup & Margarine. 1,140 Calories. Yep, you read that right, *without* syrup and margarine, the Deluxe Breakfast with a large size bisquit clocks in as the highest caloric breakfast item you can order at McDonald’s. And who eats pancakes without syrup? So tack on a few more calories for that syrup and butter.
15. Shakes. Yep, go figure, shakes aren’t healthy for you. McDonald’s worst is the 32 ounce Chocolate Triple Thick shake which clocks in at 1,160 calories. The single highest caloric item on McDonald’s entire food menu. Over across the street at Burger King their 42 ounce chocolate shake has 1,260 calories in it and 38 grams of fat. Also the highest caloric item on the entire Burger King Menu.
16. Jack in the Box Bacon ‘n’ Cheese Cibatta Burger. Don’t let this fancy sounding burger mislead you. The Jack in the Box Bacon ‘n’ Cheese Cibatta burger has a whopping 1,120 calories and 76 grams of fat. No wonder that Jack guy has such a big fat head.
17. Taco Bell Fiesta Taco Salad, 860 calories and 46 grams a fat. Ok, so it’s not as bad as the subway double meat meatballer, but still order two or three of these puppies in one order and get ready for the fat farm. Highest caloric thing you can order at Taco Bell.
18. McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. This is the highest caloric sandwich item that you can order at McDonald’s. The McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with cheese has even more calories than a Big Mac and clocks in at 740 calories.
19. Starbucks Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino® Blended Crème – whip, (16 ounce) 570 calories, 15 grams of fat. This was the highest caloric coffee drink I could find at Starbucks. Creme, creme and more creme.
20. Tommy’s Cheeseburger. 490 calories, 22 grams of fat. Ok, Tommy’s gets dinged points for having the worst nutritional information available online. Rather than give you the calories and fat content for their double and triple burgers they only give it to you for one single menu item on their menu, the *single* cheeseburger (smart thinking guys). A single cheeseburger at Tommy’s has 490 calories and 22g of fat. I absolutely guarantee you that the double cheeseburger that I order there has a bit more than that. Interestingly enough, Tommy’s website was the only website w
ith a FAQ answering the question, “Can you send me a Tommy’s burger in the mail?”