Ideas for quick McDonald's breakfast that won't break the calorie bank?

sylkates wrote: »

joobey wrote: »

mitsimr wrote: »

I work at McDonald's and seriously you don't want to risk it. When we use butter we do not measure it and we use ALOT. We use butter in almost all of the breakfast food. The eggs sometimes may be small or may be large depending on who makes it. The meat is usually used quickly but while it's up there it is sitting in a thick layer of grease. The only thing I would recommend is the yogurt parfait. It is 120 cals without the granola and 150 with. I have it without and save the granola packet for something else. That is really low calorie though so that has nothing to do with cals and everything to do with the fact I don't like crunchy yogurt. The oatmeal is reasonable cals as well I just haven't tried it yet. We also sell the apple slices and cutie oranges. Seriously though if it comes from the grill you do not want it be there is no way to truly track your calories.

Wouldn't that be against policy for McDonalds to list calories but not go strictly by it? I would think that would be a legal issue. If it says 300 calories, it better be 300 calories.

There's no law dictating that a restaurant calorie count must be accurate. In some cities they must place it on their menus, but there's no legal problem if their 'estimated' calorie counts are inaccurate. Unlike packaged foods, which have what, a 15% leeway?

In most cities, there't not even a law that requires calories on menus at all - it's purely a courtesy, put there for marketing purposes.

I always thought it had to be at least 20% accurate but most of the time they still fail to meet this requirement; for example, many companies (such as Olive Garden) has been hit by some undercover people who calculated the actual nutritional information on their meals and found them to be WAY over what they say.

I, too, work at McDonald's but I'm usually in the front and don't see too much of what happens in the back as most of the food gets prepared. I work with the oatmeal, frozen treats, and hot beverages. I will say the oatmeal is probably one of the safest things you can order in terms of having accurate nutritional information, as should the beverages since it tells us how much syrup and such to add. The milkshakes pour out automatically but the whipped cream could be off since everyone has their own preferences on how much to add. I was told the ice creams should have three swirls but 90% of the time I see them do at least twice this, and the mcflurries I also see employees frequently wing (I was never told how many turns of oreo/m&ms to add, but I calculated it on the website and figured it should be three turns for a regular size and 2 for a snack size). Again, not everyone follows this so it's all really hit or miss, but if you want to play it safe I'd recommend ordering beverages without whipped cream and specifying how many turns in a mcflurry you want or how many pumps of syrup/cream you wish to have in a beverage (again, these aren't really the best options anyways but I don't have the luxury of working in the kitchen).

Hope that helps!

hgycta wrote: »

sylkates wrote: »

joobey wrote: »

mitsimr wrote: »

I work at McDonald's and seriously you don't want to risk it. When we use butter we do not measure it and we use ALOT. We use butter in almost all of the breakfast food. The eggs sometimes may be small or may be large depending on who makes it. The meat is usually used quickly but while it's up there it is sitting in a thick layer of grease. The only thing I would recommend is the yogurt parfait. It is 120 cals without the granola and 150 with. I have it without and save the granola packet for something else. That is really low calorie though so that has nothing to do with cals and everything to do with the fact I don't like crunchy yogurt. The oatmeal is reasonable cals as well I just haven't tried it yet. We also sell the apple slices and cutie oranges. Seriously though if it comes from the grill you do not want it be there is no way to truly track your calories.

Wouldn't that be against policy for McDonalds to list calories but not go strictly by it? I would think that would be a legal issue. If it says 300 calories, it better be 300 calories.

There's no law dictating that a restaurant calorie count must be accurate. In some cities they must place it on their menus, but there's no legal problem if their 'estimated' calorie counts are inaccurate. Unlike packaged foods, which have what, a 15% leeway?

In most cities, there't not even a law that requires calories on menus at all - it's purely a courtesy, put there for marketing purposes.

I always thought it had to be at least 20% accurate but most of the time they still fail to meet this requirement; for example, many companies (such as Olive Garden) has been hit by some undercover people who calculated the actual nutritional information on their meals and found them to be WAY over what they say.

I, too, work at McDonald's but I'm usually in the front and don't see too much of what happens in the back as most of the food gets prepared. I work with the oatmeal, frozen treats, and hot beverages. I will say the oatmeal is probably one of the safest things you can order in terms of having accurate nutritional information, as should the beverages since it tells us how much syrup and such to add. The milkshakes pour out automatically but the whipped cream could be off since everyone has their own preferences on how much to add. I was told the ice creams should have three swirls but 90% of the time I see them do at least twice this, and the mcflurries I also see employees frequently wing (I was never told how many turns of oreo/m&ms to add, but I calculated it on the website and figured it should be three turns for a regular size and 2 for a snack size). Again, not everyone follows this so it's all really hit or miss, but if you want to play it safe I'd recommend ordering beverages without whipped cream and specifying how many turns in a mcflurry you want or how many pumps of syrup/cream you wish to have in a beverage (again, these aren't really the best options anyways but I don't have the luxury of working in the kitchen).

Hope that helps!

I believe the 20% accuracy is for pre-packaged food -- not for restaurant food. That said, it would surprise me to learn that McDonald's was regularly putting much more butter in their food -- part of the "advantage" of the fast food model is that it's so pre-portioned and pre-determined that it's very easy to keep food costs predictable and under control. A franchise that is using lots of extra butter would be increasing their food costs.

i sometimes get sausage mcmuffin w/egg and throw away the muffin...i am doing low carb

Order the Egg white delight.