McDonald's and KFC: What to Avoid and What to Eat

Eating out, especially eating at fast food restaurants, will definitely not help you to lose weight. However, if it is necessary for you to eat at a fast food restaurant, you should be smart about it and eat the most healthy choice available. Not all the fast food places provide you with the nutritional information of their meals. Fortunately, most of them do, and I will pick top 3 choices of what to eat and what to definitely avoid in those fast food places that provide the nutritional information of their foods.

In this article, I will cover McDonald's and KFC. There will be more articles covering other fast food places as well.

Currently I have written:

• A&W and Arby's

What Not to Eat at McDonald's

1.Big Breakfast® (Large Size Biscuit)

Although this item is only served at breakfast menu, it shocked me. Big Breakfast with a large biscuit has 800 calories. That is half of daily caloric needs for most of you, or even more! Even then, the amount of calories in the meal was not the reason I chose it to be the worst food at McDonald's, even though it is the most caloric meal at McDonald's - if you add hotcakes, it will go up to 1140 calories. The true reason is the amount of fats it contains. The regular Big Breakfast with a large biscuit contains 52 grams of fats, and, if you decide that you feel like eating some extra hotcakes, it will have 60 grams of fats. If this was an experiment, I would say that, after eating that much fat at once, your heart will explode. However, I suppose somebody must have eaten it at some point and not have died. I would certainly not recommend trying it yourself. 60 grams of fat is even more fat than you need daily! Do not mess with McDonald's Big Breakfast.

2. Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon

Angus Chipotle BBQ Bacon can be as scary as the Big Breakfast. It contains 800 calories as well. However, it has way more protein that the Big Breakfast (45 grams); therefore, it contains less fat - 39 grams. Still, it might be the amount you reach for daily, and do you really want to eat it all in one meal? I don't think so. But, if you already ate it, don't worry too much - it has 45 grams of protein, and that's why it's not taking the first place.

3. Angus Mushroom and Swiss

Another meal from Angus category is not much better than the Chipotle BBQ Bacon. It actually has even more fat - 40 grams. However, it has less calories (770 kcal) and the reason for that is that it has less sugar. Angus Mushroom and Swiss only has 8 grams of sugar. I would say that is pretty good for a burger.

What to Eat at McDonald's

1. Premium Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken

The meal has 190 calories, and 5 grams of fat - not too much calories, a little bit too much fat, but we could deal with that. It has hardly any sugars - only 5 grams - and plenty of protein - 27 grams. In my opinion, that's a pretty good meal, whether it was at McDonald's, or made at home. You will get plenty of protein and will not suffer from too much carbs or fat. This meal should fit into your diet no matter whether you are doing low carbs or low fat.

2. Premium Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken

It is not as good as Caesar salad, but it is not terrible either. 230 calories, 5 grams of sugars and 30 grams of protein sounds pretty attractive, doesn't it? I thought so! Even though it has 9 grams of fats, what is quite high, keeping in mind that it is McDonald's, you could still eat it and not hurt your diet too much.

3. Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich

Tired of salads? Yes, there is a sandwich you could eat and not suffer too much! Grilled chicken sandwich contains 28 grams of protein, what would maintain your daily protein needs, and it only has 8 grams of sugar. It has 9 grams of fat, and 350 calories. While it is probably more than your caloric allowance for a meal, if you are sick of salads, you might try grilled chicken sandwich out.

What Not to Eat at KFC:

1. Chicken Pot Pie

The most caloric and the most fat-having item on KFC's menu is not as terrible the McDonald's one - it has 790 calories and 45 grams of fats. Still, it is very high fat and will not do any good for you. You should not mess with such amount of fats at once, unless you want your heart to fail. To make you feel better, I can say that it has 29 grams of protein - better than nothing.

2. Crispy Twister®

Crispy Twister will provide you with 610 calories and 33 grams of fat. Not only that, it has 1.4 grams of sodium. Do not mess with such amounts of sodium! If you are a big fan of Crispy Twisters, KFC has an option that you can order them without sauce - 490 calories and 20 grams of fats. But be careful! The amount of sodium still remains high - 1.3 grams.

3. Large Popcorn Chicken

Well, in the first place, if you are dieting, you should not even be considering eating large portion of anything - KFC has a small popcorn chicken. However, let's suppose that you decide to eat large popcorn chicken. The meal has 570 calories and 37 grams of fats, but I don't think anybody is surprised by the amount of calories and fats in fast foods by now. However, this one is not as bad as the first two meals from the KFC, as this has no sugars in it, and 32 grams of protein. Be aware that it has 1.4 grams of sodium!

What to Eat at KFC:

1. Grilled Chicken Breast

From the name of the meal, it sounds like it is a plain chicken breast, and what could be better than that? However, somehow they manage to make it have 7 grams of fat. Besides that, no carbs, 40 grams of protein - a perfect meal for a diet. But, if you can make it at home, just save your money and make chicken breast at home - it will have no fat and no money will be wasted.

2. KFC Snacker®, Honey BBQ

While McDonald's has some food you could eat on a diet, KFC has hardly any. KFC Snacker®, Honey BBQ is my second choice, but I picked it because it had only 3 grams of fats and 210 calories. It still has a lot of sugars - 12 grams. That's not what you should be eating, when you are on a diet.

3. Honey BBQ Sandwich

Although this is my number 3 pick, I do not recommend eating it. Even though it has only 3.5 grams of fat, and fairly good amount of calories - 300 kcal - it has tons of sugar - 21 grams. If I had to make a final decision on what to eat, I would say "take grilled chicken, or eat home," because KFC hardly has any foods that would go along with your diet.