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Old 11-05-2008, 11:15 AM   #1  
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Default Eating in Fast Food Places

The last couple of days I've seen a ton of posts about eating in restaurants and especially being in a situation where the only option was some kind of fast food chain. In most of those threads people say they ordered something and then when they got home they were SHOCKED at how many calories they'd eaten. And most of the time they could have done a LOT better by just thinking carefully about what they were ordering and making a few minor changes.

Now my first disclaimer is that if you made one of those posts PLEASE don't think I'm picking on you, cause I'm not. It's just that I've seen enough of these posts recently to think that a .. well a PSA on how to pick the best possible option at a fast food place might be useful.

I've been eating this way for nearly 2 years now and at this point I can go into any fast food place and with a little thought, I can get a meal that doesn't destroy my calorie plan and is even slightly healthy.

So here are my tips and tricks for eating at fast food places.
  • NO FRIES. Ever. I don't care if it's a small, child-size serving. Fries are the tools of Satan when it comes to diet. Potatoes fried in oil? There's no way you can consume fries and come in at a reasonable calorie level.
  • No side orders with creamy dressing. That means side salads with ranch, potato salad, cole slaw, macaroni salad, anything that has a mayonnaise or cream base to it. That's calorie city.
  • No side orders that are starch based. Again, no fries, no potato salad, no macaroni salad, no biscuits, no cornbread.
  • Nothing fried. Even places that are all about fried, like KFC and Chick-fil-a, offer a grilled option for their chicken. If it's breaded and fried, it's going to have lots of calories in it.
  • If you're at a sandwich shop, think about the toppings you're putting on your sandwich: oil, mayo, any filling that's a 'salad' like chicken salad, tuna salad, seafood salad (they're all made with mayo) are no-nos. Guacamole is healthy, but lots of calories and a lot of places mix in mayo to make it more creamy.
So what can you eat?
  • Grilled things. Scour the menu and see if you can find grilled chicken breasts instead of fried.
  • A plain burger with extra tomato and lettuce (no cheese, no bacon, no mayo)
  • Dark meat chicken is always more greasy and has more calories than white meat chicken. If you're at a chicken place, skip the drumsticks and order a breast. If for some reason you absolutely cannot avoid a fried item, then take off the breading and skin and eat the meat only. (At KFC the difference between an extra crispy chicken breast (350 calories) and one in which the skin and breading has been removed (190 calories) is huge.
  • Fruit as a side, if they offer it. Wendy's offers mandarin oranges, McDs offers apple slices, and so on
  • A side salad w/ light or no dressing (most places have side salads nowadays)
  • A wrap of some kind with lots of veggies and lean (non-fried) meat.
  • At a sandwich place always choose the whole grain bread and ask for extra veggies on your sandwich. Skip the cheese unless you absolutely have to have it. Avocado slices are better than guac. And have them put just a little oil and vinegar and/or mustard on a sandwich, rather than dressing, glaze, or mayo.

The thing is that most of the people I see posting about these "shocker" meals - they KNOW what's healthy. They know how to make good choices. But somehow they get into a fast food restaurant and they just go blank - ordering fries and fried foods and salads with creamy dressings and then being surprised when their meal blows their calorie budget for the day.

I truly to do think that a lot of people are hypnotized by fast food places.

But you CAN eat fairly healthily and keep the calories reasonable in a fast food place, if you just take a minute to think about what you're ordering.

.

Last edited by PhotoChick; 11-05-2008 at 11:16 AM.
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Old 11-05-2008, 11:24 AM   #2  
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Thank you for posting this Photochick. If you think about it, what we need to do is approach the fast food as if we were making it ourselves. If I cook a chicken, I know I need to take off the skin to save calories. The same thinking should be in place while dining out.
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Old 11-05-2008, 11:38 AM   #3  
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I guess I don't understand the being 'forced' to eat in fast food place thing. Of course I know people have different situations but I abhor fast food. I will say that I eat at Chipotle a couple times per month and occasionally Panera. Those I can navigate easily with low cal options.

Sometimes I do grab something when I'm in an airport but I can do pretty well navigating there. Veggie sandwiches, no mayo, no cheese are my staple in airports or even a peanut butter sandwich (high calories but I can deal with that). Usually though I take my own snacks as I know I can't rely on the food within an airport.
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Old 11-05-2008, 11:48 AM   #4  
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I really do loose my mind when I enter a food place. I always have such good intentions and KNOW what I SHOULD be doing but it's like there is something in the air that makes me order the chicken strips, buffalo sytle, with ranch. BAD BAD BAD....

I have gotten better though... I just avoid those situations.

Thanks for the post Photochick!
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Old 11-05-2008, 11:51 AM   #5  
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Quote:
Sometimes I do grab something when I'm in an airport
Well I think that's kinda the point. I travel a lot for business and sometimes I'm in a situation where fast food is the only option.

Either I'm in an airport where it's all fast food (and sometimes in smaller airports, the ONLY thing that's open in the concourse after 8 p.m. is McDonalds and Starbucks - all the "real" restaurants are closed).

Sometimes I'm out on a job or running between clients. I don't have time to stop at a real restaurant, I forgot to pack a lunch, or I had a last minute client and didn't have time to pack a lunch, and either I swing through a fast food place or I don't eat for anotehr 4 hours. And quite honestly, not eating for 4 hours would be much worse than eating fast food .. because then I'd binge out of sheer hunger.

I have been in several situations where fast food was my ONLY option ... and I've learned to adapt. It's nice that other people never find themselves in that position - lucky them! But for some of us, it is a fact of life that we find ourselves in a fast food restaurant with friends or as part of our business life .. and we need to know how to make the best choices there.

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Old 11-05-2008, 11:56 AM   #6  
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I can sit in them....
but i refuse to eat or drink anything....
except for water!....
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Old 11-05-2008, 11:59 AM   #7  
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Last week it was certainly my only option. I had my little sister in the emergency room after a car accident (she's fine thank God) and I was at the hospital all day. So the cafeteria was really the only place for food. I picked a chicken breast (minus skin), small salad with fat free italian, and a small wheat roll. I really was "stuck" but the thing is I didn't have to be stuck with a poor choice for food.
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Old 11-05-2008, 12:22 PM   #8  
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I haven't even been inside a fast food restaurant since since July 2004 - I don't know how anybody is ever "stuck" eating fast food! (exceptions of course for stuff like airports or hospital cafeterias). My "quick food" restaurants are - Panera, Chipotle, Subway, wrap places, sushi to go and teriyaki places.
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Old 11-05-2008, 12:24 PM   #9  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Glory87 View Post
I haven't even been inside a fast food restaurant since since July 2004 - I don't know how anybody is ever "stuck" eating fast food! (exceptions of course for stuff like airports or hospital cafeterias). My "quick food" restaurants are - Panera, Chipotle, Subway, wrap places, sushi to go and teriyaki places.
Don't forget grocery stores!
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Old 11-05-2008, 01:50 PM   #10  
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I was actually thinking about posting something like this because I have become somewhat of a eating-healthy-at-fast-food-places expert as of late. Thanks for doing the job for me! Great info.


~Utterly Absurd~
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Old 11-05-2008, 02:56 PM   #11  
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Quote:
I haven't even been inside a fast food restaurant since since July 2004 - I don't know how anybody is ever "stuck" eating fast food!
Look, I appreciate that some people don't understand it ... I really appreciate that you guys are never in a situation where your only option is fast food and that you haven't been inside a fast food place in 4 years. I'm happy for you. And I say that sincerely. I wish I could say that my life was 100% like that.

But the fact is that there ARE instances that I *AM* stuck in a situation where the option is hit a drive through or not eat. Or when I'm with friends going somewhere and I'm simply not going to make them drive me to a grocery store and buy food before they can go to Taco Bell. And in those types of situations, making a healthy choice from a not-so-optimal menu is better than going 4-6 hours w/out food and then overeating after.

And continuing to insist that you don't get how that happens is ... well ... kind of condescending.

And, the fact is that there is some fast food that I actually LIKE. Every once in a while I want a steak n shake strawberry yogurt shake. Every now and then I want a Sonic burger. And when I go to a place like that I want to be able to make good choices.

Quote:
Panera, Chipotle, Subway, wrap places,
And with the exception of Panera, which I think is more a deli, I consider those other places to be "fast food". And it feeds right back into my point from my original post that I saw a thread the other day where someone said that they went to Subway and thought they made a healthy choice, but were freaked out when they got home and looked it up and realized they'd eaten over 800 calories in "healthy" food.

Last edited by PhotoChick; 11-05-2008 at 02:58 PM.
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Old 11-05-2008, 03:02 PM   #12  
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My DH and I actually had a conversation today about how to define a fast food joint. I like the definition that if you look up at the menu instead of down at a menu, it is fast food. But I also read a definition (regarding potential legislation a few years ago for a 'fast food tax') that fast food can be defined as if you pay for your food before you get it, it is fast food.

I can think of restaurants that fit both those definitions however that serve freshly made food from quality ingredients. So I would consider Subway fast food, but there is a local sandwich shop that I would put in a different category for really no good reason at all.....I ate there for lunch today and I employed some of Photo's excellent strategies: grilled chicken with veggies (I did choose avocado..mmmm), but then I also chose to eat some of DH's waffle fries (ack!!! I know!)....but that leads me to another strategy.....

If you make choices that are not so great, dust yourself off and move on. You get another chance to make a better decision in a couple of hours.

I just had a few waffle fries......
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Old 11-05-2008, 03:27 PM   #13  
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Photo - I wasn't trying to be condescending. I was saying for me, it doesn't really happen except possibly airports but I listed my general airport options. I also said that I know people have different situations indicating that I know my life is not the life of others.

I also never thought of the grocery store but I have picked up food from Whole Foods before for a quick bite. Although I've actually made plans to eat at Whole Foods there because some of them have an awesome arrangement of food.
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Old 11-05-2008, 03:49 PM   #14  
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I am also one of those people that finds myself forced to eat at places that I know are not "optimal" for my diet, but I feel the same way PhotoChick does, I'd rather do my best to eat healthy at a not-so-healthy place then not eat for another 4-5 hours. That is just going to lead to overeating when I do get home and settle down to eat at 9:30 for the first time since 12! It's just a disaster waiting to happen. I try to find the "best" options on the "worse" menu & go from there. If I go over, which I rarely do now, cause my fast food choices are limited to only a few items I will actually eat anymore, I can make it up over the coarse of the next day or 2.
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Old 11-05-2008, 05:31 PM   #15  
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My staple at a fast food place is a salad and a water. No dressing. I do my best to not even go to them, but occasionally we'll be out as a family and we lose track of time and everyone's hungry. That's not to say I don't indulge every once in a while, but for the last two months or so I've just ran home instead.

I agree with PhotoChick though, there are some people who travel a lot for their jobs and this is a good topic.
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