Should I eat McDonalds?

korsicash

All in moderation. And I can't talk because I had mcdonalds this week but for the most part it makes me poo so I don't worry too much about it...Sorry for the tmi...

gibsonbrooke

If you're trying to change your lifestyle, and your lifestyle is busy, then sometimes you're going to have to make choices such as McDonald's. Eating on the run is a perfectly normal thing in our society (that's why Mickey D's is so conveniently EVERYWHERE). It's not a terrible thing to eat at McDonald's. They DO have some healthy, tasty choices. Although you may have to cut calories somewhere else in your day, or go for a 30 min walk, you will not gain 2 pounds from ONE meal at McDonald's. The thing to worry about, is will it spark cravings, causing you to want it ALL THE TIME? If you're wanting to change to a whole foods/real foods/organic diet, I would suggest no McDonald's.. But if you're just looking to change your lifestyle in order to maintain your new body, then McDonald's won't kill you ONCE IN A WHILE..Also, McDonald's has ALL their nutritional info (including calories) online. The other day, I had the premium GRILLED chicken club sandwich (i took the bacon off and wiped off the mayo) and it was really good, only 350 calories. Add some apples and a diet coke... Mmmmm! And, all their salads are under 500 calories. They also have a calculator to create a meal and see the calories. Good luck!

lefrye13

sure! just try to keep it within your calories. i love their salads and oatmeal. i eat fast food all the time, but i keep it within my calorie limit.

a few options:

kfc - grilled chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes
mcd's - salads, oatmeal, hamburger with only ketchup
wendy's - jr. cheeseburger deluxe, small chili
taco bell - tacos with no cheese or fresco style
chickfila - grilled chicken sandwich, chicken noodle soup, salad

there are actually plenty of fast food choices that aren't super high in calories...now, are they healthy?? probably not, but every once in a while, some people (like me) just have to get that fast food fix.

EpiGaiaRepens

I eat there almost daily. Being a single guy it is a challenge for me to always eat at home. Typically I have a Large Light Lemonade and an Ice Cream Cone as a daily snack. For breakfast sometimes I get their fruit and yogurt parfait or their new Oatmeal with Fruit. Once a week I treat myself to a Daily Double if I have been really good that day and fries without salt. If it is in your calories and it doesn't impact the other things you are monitoring such as salt and fat then it should work. It has worked for me so far. I am down 24 pounds as of today! : )

Ok. Dude. This might be TMI but I REALLY want to encourage you to find other ways to eat. Buy a table top bbq and some ground beef and make your own at home. It's a million times healthier. The reason I say this is because my brother ate there daily as well....and he passed away at 24 from a heart attack. His veins were completely clogged. I wish my brother had found other ways to get food, too. Please.

secretlobster

No

AlyRoseNYC

McDonalds isnt beef

Actually it is, granted, not the best, but it is

It's an optical illusion hidden in a mirage.

heidio3

Yes...as long as you have the calories to do it-go for it. I have learned that if you don't satisfy the cravings then they will continue to haunt you. I love the Southwest Grilled Chicken Salad and it fits into my cals at under 400 cals and is totally satisfying!

2012asv

Depends on what you're eating. I had to eat Mc Donald's last week in the morning so I ordered an oatmeal. But I assume you're referencing burgers and such. I would say try to avoid it only because that kind of food usually makes you want more. But if you can just have it once and not crave it all the time go for it (in moderation). I "treated" myself to french fries last week, and then worked out as usual. This is a lifestyle change, not a punishment.

lauralizzy829

If you want it, eat it. If it's other's snarky comments that are deciding your food choices, not good.

gypsybree

I'm really craving it! Hahaha

If I do choose to have it, it won't be until tomorrow for lunch (planning ahead!). I'll just have a small chips and a McChicken burger with no mayonnaise, and I can easily fit it into my calorie intake (1,250).

I'm torn between my "within calorie goal = okay" mentality (as I want to live like this forever, a lifestyle change) and that little voice in my head that's like "NO. People on MFP will hate you because you're trying to lose weight and eating junk! BAD" Hahaha

I suppose this also applies to other areas of my diet... should I work in some chocolate/treats every day into my daily intake? I think that as long as its within my target calories its okay, but that just can't be right! I can't possibly lose eating junk....can I?

To eat McDonalds or to not? That is the question...

I eat it. I love big macs, I take off the top bun and meat and flip over the middle bun with a small fries, even with a medium coke (with ice) it counts in about the same as a whopper and just a little over the actual/original big mac by itself.

I also eat kid meals.

Really, I don't care who hates me and actually I got in an argument over this this past weekend. I used to eat McDonalds two times a day at least. If I have it once or three times a WEEK then I've made a drastic lifestyle change already and people just need to leave me alone about it.

As far as chocolate, I heard on the radio yesterday that 3 ounces of chocolate a day reduces blood pressure and cholesterol.

SistaHope

Hey Hon! Hang in there! Just a few thoughts for you;
1) Several years ago, I picked up happy meals for my kids. I put them on top of the fridge, and forgot about them!! 1 MONTH later, I cleaned the top of the fridge and there they were~and let me tell you, besides a "slight" molding on the bread, and a little shrivling of the fries, there was NO CHANGE!!! This is when I said, No thank you to Micky Dees~there's so much junk on that stuff that it doesn't even bio-degrade when I leave it sitting alone??! No way in HAYLE am I putting that in my kid's bodies, or mine.
2) Your body still has a "memory". It's remembering what it got from the fries, the grease, the fat. You're "craving" it because it knows that it can actually get some kind of nutrition from those things~such as they are. So, it tells you to eat it and it will tell you to eat a lot of it because, frankly, there's not much nutrition there~and since your body is needing a certain amount it's gonna get it somehow. If you've decided that fast food is not the direction you want to be going in, then you'll need to re-train your body. Don't let the body tell you what to do. You tell IT. And if you fuel it with good stuff (the stuff that the body's Maker made) then your brain will begin to "recalculate". And you'll actually start "craving" grapes, apples, cheese, nuts, veggies, etc. It takes time, don't forget that this is what you've set out to do. You could do something like: eat McDonalds ONLY on Fridays, etc......but frankly, I don't encourage you to use something bad for you as a reward. You'll just be conditioning yourself poorly, and setting yourself up for failure for when you've met your goal. The idea is to be free of the bondage of your body controlling you, and anything promoting that will not be the wrong thing to do.
3) My kids are grown now, and in February the oldest son left for Afghanistan. Guess what? Can he get convenience food? Can he zip into a drive thru? Or does he just go hungry if his meals aren't planned out? So, my husband and I decided that, in this way, we would identify with our son. It's easy to forget them, really~but they don't forget us. And they cannot simply do these things. It's kind of a fast of sorts, a little bit spiritual actually. And it helps me to remember to pray for him, and the rest of our troops who are there to protect "our way of life", so I'm wanting to make sure my "way of life" is worth protecting.

With this kind of focus, it really didn't take long to completely remove fast food as an option, I know this for myself. God's blessings!!!

muzmacol

errr no

2012asv

I eat there almost daily. Being a single guy it is a challenge for me to always eat at home. Typically I have a Large Light Lemonade and an Ice Cream Cone as a daily snack. For breakfast sometimes I get their fruit and yogurt parfait or their new Oatmeal with Fruit. Once a week I treat myself to a Daily Double if I have been really good that day and fries without salt. If it is in your calories and it doesn't impact the other things you are monitoring such as salt and fat then it should work. It has worked for me so far. I am down 24 pounds as of today! : )

Ok. Dude. This might be TMI but I REALLY want to encourage you to find other ways to eat. Buy a table top bbq and some ground beef and make your own at home. It's a million times healthier. The reason I say this is because my brother ate there daily as well....and he passed away at 24 from a heart attack. His veins were completely clogged. I wish my brother had found other ways to get food, too. Please.

My 21 yr old skinny skinny cousin ate there daily- sometimes twice a day. He almost died one day when his body went into major diabetic shock. No one knew he became diabetic because he was so skinny no one thought to check. It was from the terribly unhealthy diet. He was driving when it happened also, so it was twice the risk. Not worth it!

Onesnap

Ok. Dude. This might be TMI but I REALLY want to encourage you to find other ways to eat. Buy a table top bbq and some ground beef and make your own at home. It's a million times healthier. The reason I say this is because my brother ate there daily as well....and he passed away at 24 from a heart attack. His veins were completely clogged. I wish my brother had found other ways to get food, too. Please.

You are my favorite poster of the day. Thank you for your raw honesty.

I also wanted to suggest watching the HBO miniseries that was on last month The Weight of the Nation.

It was really well done.

coe28

YES YOU SHOULD!! NO ONE SHOULD EVER GIVE UP MCDONALDS. EVER. :happy:

amuhlou

Eat it - then log it and move on. As long as it's a 'once in a while' thing it really isn't the end of the world. Not a ton of value nutritionally speaking but it's calories in calories out.

Just the fact that you posted on here shows a lot about how your lifestyle has already changed.

If you do eat it, watch out for the sodium though.

jboccio90

Work it in.
I myself eat whatever I want everyday, if it fits in my calories then I do not feel bad.
The only caution is sodium levels, but hey you only live once!

IpuffyheartHeelsinthegym

I'm really craving it! Hahaha

If I do choose to have it, it won't be until tomorrow for lunch (planning ahead!). I'll just have a small chips and a McChicken burger with no mayonnaise, and I can easily fit it into my calorie intake (1,250).

I'm torn between my "within calorie goal = okay" mentality (as I want to live like this forever, a lifestyle change) and that little voice in my head that's like "NO. People on MFP will hate you because you're trying to lose weight and eating junk! BAD" Hahaha

I suppose this also applies to other areas of my diet... should I work in some chocolate/treats every day into my daily intake? I think that as long as its within my target calories its okay, but that just can't be right! I can't possibly lose eating junk....can I?

To eat McDonalds or to not? That is the question...

I eat it. I love big macs, I take off the top bun and meat and flip over the middle bun with a small fries, even with a medium coke (with ice) it counts in about the same as a whopper and just a little over the actual/original big mac by itself.

I also eat kid meals.

Really, I don't care who hates me and actually I got in an argument over this this past weekend. I used to eat McDonalds two times a day at least. If I have it once or three times a WEEK then I've made a drastic lifestyle change already and people just need to leave me alone about it.

As far as chocolate, I heard on the radio yesterday that 3 ounces of chocolate a day reduces blood pressure and cholesterol.

I'm with you and for the most part, my friends know and don't care that on the weekends, its highly likely they'll see some fast food joint and *gasp* ALCOHOL in my food diary. I could care less what anyone thinks, because soon I will have to restrict food again for a few weeks or so during training, so for now, I eat whatever I want on the weekends.

bethmac_va

I like that you are planning for it, which means you aren't impulse eating at McD's.

One of my weaknesses is potato chips. I don't eat them every day but if someone told me I had to give them up forever, I'd never succeed. I DO plan for them by weighing them and putting them in baggies. Even if it's a half or quarter serving, I'm going to have my chips! :happy:

Mickey D's is another weakness for me, and I will have that too if I plan for it.

I say do it! :bigsmile:

Charloo1990

Have it. I don't believe in only eating fruit, veg, chicken, fish and all that other healthy stuff. I believe in a healthy balance. If you can stop at the burger and fries that's fine. Personally i eat what i want i.e chocolate, chips, fruit, high cal drinks. Anything as long as its within my daily allowence. You've got to live a little, what the point in completly depriving yourself. You get fed up other wise and in my opinion are more likely to throw the towel in.