Smartest Fast Food Meals for the Calorie Conscious

Everyone knows that fast food isn’t the best idea for those of us who are watching our weight. But let’s face it—sometimes there just isn’t time to sit down to a meal. If you are faced with having to stop at a drive-thru for one of your meals, here are some of the best choices available for people watching their calories:

McDonald’s Premium Asian salad with grilled chicken clocks in at 300 calories—but you’ll have to add another 90 for the low fat sesame ginger dressing. If you want to cut calories further, try the Asian salad with no chicken, which has only 150 calories. McDonald’s now offers many salad options that are good choices for calorie cutters. Just make sure that you ask for grilled chicken. Getting crispy chicken will pack on an extra 110 calories. When choosing a dressing, go for balsamic vinaigrette (40 calories), Italian (60 calories) or sesame ginger (90 calories.) Stay away from ranch and Caesar salad dressing, which will add almost 200 extra calories to your meal!

For breakfast, try McDonald’s fruit and yogurt parfait, clocking in at 160 calories with granola or 130 without. If a hot breakfast is what you want, stick with the Egg McMuffin (300 calories) or a regular sized biscuit with jam (295 calories, including jam.)

If Burger King is where you’re headed, the grilled chicken garden salad is a good choice with 210 calories Again…careful for that dressing! Your best bet is the fat free ranch, coming in at 60 calories. If a burger is really what you’re wanting, skip the whopper and go straight for the flame broiled hamburger, which has about half of the calories and fat as the classic whopper. Take a pass on the mayo, which can add 80 extra calories and 9 grams of fat to your meal, and instead go for ketchup, weighing in at a slim 10 calories per packet.
Think a veggie burger is a good low-calorie alternative? Think again. The Burger King veggie burger has 340 calories and 8 grams of fat, and that’s with no cheese and no mayo. That’s 50 more calories than the flame-broiled burger. The veggie burger does, however, have less fat and less saturated fat. So which is better? It depends on whether your goal is to limit calories or to limit fat. Just make sure to skip the cheese and the mayo.

The grilled chicken sandwich is another good choice. It has more calories than the previous options, but only 9 grams of fat compared to the flame broiled burger’s 12 grams.

For breakfast at Burger King, your best bet is the ham omelet sandwich with 290 calories and 13 grams of fat, significantly less than many of the other breakfast options.

At Wendy’s, skip the croutons on the chicken Caesar salad and you’ll have a meal with 300 calories, including the dressing. At large bowl of chili is another good choice with 280 calories (provided you skip the crackers and shredded cheese). The junior hamburger is also not a bad choice here, with 220 calories and 8 grams of fat.

Wherever you go, one of the best things you can do for your health is to skip the soda, which can pack on hundreds of extra calories without filling you up. Diet soda is better for your diet, but the best thing you can drink will always be water.

Avoid the temptation to snack on fries with your meal, and instead go for a side salad with a low calorie dressing, sliced apples from McDonald’s, or the mandarin orange cup at Wendy’s.

A daily stop at a fast food chain will make maintaining good nutrition and a healthy body weight difficult, if not impossible. But hey—nobody’s perfect. So when you are pressed for time and need to stop for a quick meal, remember these healthier options and you can feel good about the choices you’ve made.