Fast Food Options
Lower in Calories & Fats

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

How to break the fast food, weight gain cycle.


Are you doing more drive-by's at your favorite fast food restaurants these days?

If so, you aren't alone.

More than half of us are taking our meals away from home these days which equals a lot more fast food restaurant dining.

Weight Gain Circle Related to Fat Fast Foods

And breaking the fast food-slash-weight gain cycle can be difficult because the darn stuff is so tasty - so convenient and many times, much less expensive than what it would cost us to prepare the same food or foods at home.

And they just never seem to taste as great as some of the fast food restaurant recipes.

Healthier Menu Choices Appearing Over the Horizon

Fact is, this mode of dining has become a way of life for many individuals. And at this point it is highly unlikely that the circle or cycle can be broken. However, we can start to make some healthier choices where fast food dining is involved.

We give high marks to McDonalds for putting the basic nutritional values on most of their menu selections. The consumer can look at the wrapper before they eat and learn how many calories they are consuming as well as the fat grams - and how much of the calories contained therein are related to fat.

There are some terrific foods on almost-all restaurant menus that can fit into the most healthy of weight loss plans. The dieter must devote some time to investigating the caloric content as well as other nutritional data for their favorite foods - but once the research has been completed, they can order without guilt.

Down With Grazing, Up With Wiser Food & Drink Choices

"Meal time" has slowly revolved into 'grazing time' in the New World as we know it.  Most of the time we eat without knowing or even realizing that we just ate.  Rarely do we taste our food.  And unfortunately, most of the time we tend to make poor, fat-filled food choices (i.e. fast food).  

Therefore, the dieter must place their focus on the flavors and textures of the foods that they are eating. The dieter should take time to enjoy their meals, in full. This can assist in making the cycle more positive - and can also assist in losing those unhealthy pounds.

Some of the things to beware of which can greatly increase caloric and dietary fat grams when dining out include: sauces - including house or special sauces (and secret sauces), salad dressings, crackers, croutons, tartar sauce, gravy, butter or margarine, honey, sugar, drinks that contain sugar including malts and shakes, and fried foods.

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Many menu items may present the illusion that they are healthy but they may be among the most unhealthiest choices. For example, most taco salads can absolutely crush a weight loss plan. They are generally served in a huge shell that is as big as a sombrero and loaded with more calories than a Texas rancher has cows.

Beware of Mister Salad - When Nakid, Quite Skinny But When Drowned in Certain Items, He's One Fatty Dude

Another menu selection to beware of is the salad. The basic salad of lettuce, tomatoes, shredded carrot and sliced cucumber is very low in caloric and fat content. But once fried chicken is added along with croutons, bacon bits, full-blown salad dressing and crackers - that salad contains enough calories to blow Peter Rabbit out of that mean old farmer's garden.

Other menu choices which start out as healthy foods get their vitamin and mineral content canceled-out because they get battered, dipped, fried and then dipped again. Flour, egg batter, cornmeal batter, oil, grease and dipping sauces reek with calories and fat grams and you don't need them in your weight loss plan.

Fishing For Fat Loss

Fish. One would assume that it's quite healthy yet once it gets the above treatment, one piece can contain about 400 calories. And when it gets dipped in tartar sauce, those values fly over the moon with the dish, the spoon and Bullah the cow.

These are the very basics of fast food diet tips for anyone attempting to drop unwanted pounds. In short - try to pick the healthiest choices from the menu using the restaurant's nutrition guides when available. We've listed some of our picks below that can assist with weight loss.

 

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