McDonalds Calories, Including
The McDonald's Nutrition Label
Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites
Nutrition Facts on Food Wrappers
McDonalds appears to be lighting the way in the area of keeping their customers informed by placing the nutritional values of menu selections on the food wrappers.
This makes it so convenient to just look at the wrapper and know what you're eating before you put it inside of your body.
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This is just one reason why we enjoy dining at McDonalds - and of course, there are a lot of good choices for a dieter at McDonalds: healthy salads, scrambled eggs for breakfast and even a reduced fat vanilla cone.
On the other side of the coin, there are a lot of selections that can also blow a diet to Kingdom Come, but knowing what a food item contains BEFORE we consume it is a big step in winning the battle against overweight and obesity.
Best Selections Based on Calorie Values
Let's take a look at some of their most calorie-friendly menu selections:
One small hamburger contains 260 calories and it's quite delicious. Request that lettuce, onion and tomato be added and you'll up the nutritional values without adding a plethora of calories to the hamburger.
As a dieting tip, look to the smaller choices on the menu when trying to lose weight.
For example, the Big Mac contains 560 calories and quite a lot of dietary fat. For about one half the amount of calories, we can enjoy the small hamburger and have room for something else.
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If we prefer cheese on our burger, that will increase the hamburger calories to 310. If you want a larger burger, how about the Quarter Pounder? It's nominal at 420 calories. You can add cheese for a total of 510 calories. But at this stage, we're starting to climb into the Big Mac arena.
Their Big n' Tasty resides in the middle of the Mac and the Pounder for 470 calories. If you want cheese, then it brings the total to 520 calories.
Chicken Selections for Dieters
What about chicken sandwiches? They had a delicious one on their Value Menu for only 360 calories and it is very filling.
It's very hard to find a menu item for this price that exhibits this type of quality.
The chicken is very lean, although battered - and there is no fatty stuff that you have to worry about avoiding while you enjoy the sandwich.
The chicken patty is very nice in size and the sauce on the sandwich is quite tasty. Again, there will be room left over to add something else to eat. That is the nice thing about keeping the main star of the meal minimal in calories.
If you're wanting a Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich you can enjoy one for 420 calories, which again - is quite nominal. If you want the Crispy Style, then add about 80 calories for a total of 500 for the sandwich.
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The Grilled Club Style sandwich creeps up the ladder about at 590 calories versus 680 for the Crispy Club Style. Again, that battered patty will create an increase. At 680 - that's a wee-bit too steep to be part of a weight loss plan unless the dieter is planning on having a bowl of soup or a small salad for the next meal.
Fish - McDonalds does it quite well, although we're not totally in love with their Fish McBites. The Fillet O Fish is quite steep in price to begin with as it's a very tiny sandwich. Wendy's fish sandwich is much more generous for about the same price and it's a fillet of cod with panko breading.
The Fillet O Fish contains about 400 calories; you can request less tartar sauce and skip the cheese for fewer fat grams and calories.
As to the Fish McBites,we'll pass on those. They aren't of the same quality as the fish patty that is inside of the Fillet O Fish; each tiny nugget is battered - and again, the cost is too high. Get the sandwich or you'll be hungry shortly afterwards.
What about the McChicken? It's 370 calories but you might want to go with the Chicken McNuggets instead. They are sold in 4, 6, 10 and 20 to a pack sizes and each nugget contains about 50 calories. If you dip your nuggets into sauce, here is the cost:
BBQ Sauce 45 calories
Honey Sauce - 50 calories
Hot Mustard Sauce - 50 calories
Sweet n Sour - 50 calories
What about those fries? Again, no one does them better than McDonalds in our humble opinion - especially when they are fresh and crisp.
Here is the count: 230 for the small, 350 for the medium and 520 for the large.
While fries are mined with dietary fat content, the small fry along with a small hamburger for 260 calories make good choices based on caloric content.
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