1. Trust the chicken There are always exceptions, of course. Fast-food chicken is mostly off the chart in terms of salt, and can be mighty high in fat and calories if it's fried or breaded. Those caveats aside, most chicken is leaner than beef. A six-inch Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Sandwich at Subway has 330 calories and 5 grams of total fat.
The Double Cheeseburger at McDonald's is a smaller sandwich, but has 460 calories and 23 grams of fat. Chicken is usually a safe bet.
2. Skin the bird Most of the fat in fried chicken resides in the skin. The next time you pick up a bucketful of KFC, pull off the skin along with the breading. It will cut the fat load by about half.
3. Pass (on) the fries About 80 percent of customers order fries as a side dish to accompany a burger or chicken sandwich. Yet those fries have about the same number of calories—and often more fat—as the main dish. Worse, a hefty percentage of the fat is of the deadly trans-fat kind. If you can't give up fries entirely, at least eat them rarely—and cut back on fat and calories elsewhere during the day.
4. Lean toward roast beef A roast beef sandwich isn't automatically lean, especially when it's loaded with a creamy dressing. But as a rough and ready rule, the roast beef is generally a leaner sandwich than a hamburger. A Jr. Roast Beef Sandwich at Arby's has 4 grams of fat, while the average burger has about 9 grams.
5. Easy on the cheese You don't lose much flavor when you strip the cheese off a hamburger, but you do lose an impressive amount of fat and calories. Cheese is nearly pure fat. A slice of cheddar, for example, gets 74 percent of its calories from fat. If you've been ordering a burger with cheese a couple times a week, just holding the cheese could save you 30 to 40 calories and 3 to 4 grams of fat each time.
6. Don't get the "special meals" Sure, it's economical to get the Value Meal at Burger King or McDonald's, but your waistline and arteries won't like you for it. The combined calories in a burger, fries, and soft drink can easily top 1,000 to 1,200 calories—and the saturated fat can add up to three-quarters or more of the recommended daily limit. The "bargain meals" aren't really a bargain if you care about your health and your weight. You're better off ordering a la carte.
7. Score with salads You don't have to make it a daily habit, but choosing a salad is one of the most reliable ways to eat regularly at the chains and still control your weight. Most of the chains offer salads that have gone way beyond lettuce. You can have Caesar, mixed greens, or grilled chicken and know that you're consuming only a fraction of the calories that you'd get from the burger and fries. That's assuming, of course, that you don't drench them in dressing, which can push the calorie-and-fat content back into burger range.
8. Do without the toppings It doesn't matter if your idea of a topping is the ranch dressing on salad, the mayo on a burger, or the cream cheese on a bagel. Virtually every topping, with the exception of those labeled low- or reduced-fat, is a fat-and-calorie heavyweight, adding
some 50 to 100 calories (or more) to every meal you eat.
9. Load up on the fixings There are some toppings you should insist on: a mound of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, green pepper, cucumbers, or anything else that will fit between two slices of bread. You can think of produce as the core of a healthy diet—low in calories, high in fiber, and jammed with high-powered nutrients and antioxidants.
Undress Those Salad Calories
One of the most effective weight-loss strategies is to graze more at salad bars in restaurants and supermarkets. You'll find a remarkable selection of healthy greens, whole-grain salads, cold bean dishes, and just about everything else you need for low-calorie, high-antioxidant meals. But those dressings, if you aren't careful, can derail the best diet and send it careening down the fat tracks. In fact, you can get more fat and calories from a drenching of dressing than you'd get from a Quarter Pounder with fries.
Nearly all dressings, with the exception of those labeled fat-free or low- or reduced-fat, pack some serious calories. Moderation!
| Dressing (2 tbsp.) | Fat (grams) | Calories |
| Blue Cheese | 16 | 149 |
| Dijon | 17 | 150 |
| French | 20 | 185 |
| Italian | 14 | 145 |
| Ranch | 16 | 160 |
| Roquefort | 12 | 120 |
| Thousand Island | 18 | 180 |
10. Skip the sodas Sugary sodas contain empty calories and set you up for insulin resistance and diabetes and are also the fast track to weight gain.
Disclaimer: This website is for information purposes only. By providing the information contained herein we are not diagnosing, treating, curing, mitigating, or preventing any type of disease or medical condition. Before beginning any type of natural, integrative or conventional treatment regime, it is advisible to seek the advice of a licensed healthcare professional.
