Are you trying to lose weight? The best way to shed pounds is by focusing on your diet. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that eating a ton of fast food is only going to make losing weight an unfulfilled wish. The sad fact is that there are times when it’s McDonald’s or nothing. While if you hunt, you can find healthy choices at McDonald’s, there are a few things that should be avoided at all costs if you visit the golden arches.
If you are planning on visiting McDonald’s, they have a nutrition guide that you can use to plan your meal. This is helpful, but it requires you to build your meal piece by piece, rather than allowing you to compare and contrast different menu items.
The only problem is that the food at McDonalds doesn’t adhere to the typical rules that most dieters count on when they are choosing foods. For example, it’s common sense that a fish or chicken sandwich would be better for you than a burger. This is not the case with the fried fish and crispy chicken sandwiches at Micky D’s. It would be nice to be able to view a complete menu of items with basic nutritional information like fat, calories, and carbs.
Here are the 5 top things you should never order at McDonald’s:
- A few years back there was a lot of hype about how unhealthy McDonald’s Shamrock Shake is. Would it surprise you that with 840 calories, a large chocolate shake is even worse for you than the Shamrock Shake? According to the USDA, a sedentary adult woman over thirty should eat about 1800 calories, so drinking one of these would bring you almost halfway to your goal. With 22 grams of fat, and 131 carbs, it had better leave you feeling full, because no matter what diet plan you are following, it doesn’t leave you a lot of nutritional wiggle room for the rest of the day.
- Crispy Chicken Anything. The basic crispy chicken sandwich packs 550 calories 23 g fat, 1,050 mg sodium, and 64 g carbs. Start adding toppings and a side of fries and you could eat all of your daily calories in one sitting. The same basic sandwich with grilled chicken has only 380 calories. Your best bet is to stick with that. Think you’re safe with a crispy chicken salad? It has even more calories than the sandwich.
- An order of 3 hotcakes by themselves is 600 calories all by itself. Start adding eggs and sausage or bacon and you can forget about sticking to your diet plan that day.
- Double Quarter Pounder With Cheese. It’s McDonald’s, so you knew that a burger had to be on this list somewhere. With 770 calories, 45 g fat, 1,290 mg sodium, and 42 g carbs, you really don’t want to double the meat on your cheeseburger.
- Large Fries. A small order of French fries at McDonald’s is only 230 calories, so how much worse can a large order be. At 510 calories, 24 g fat, 350 mg sodium, and 66 g carbs, you will definitely want to stick with the small order of fries at McDonalds.
Now you know a few choices to stay away from at McDonalds if you can’t stay away from McDonalds altogether.
