Fast Food Greater Than 1000 Calories

I used to love Del Taco's taco salads...so sad they closed down in my area .

I don't think that is a picture of a meatball sub?

I still eat fast food I just work it into my calorie count.

I eat fast food once a week and get food that is closer to 500 calories which is what I normally eat for that meal. You can get lower calorie food if you choose.

The lesson is check nutritional info and have a sense of what calories are in foods. If something is fried, has a pound of meat, cheese, bread, gravy, a pile of fries bigger than a cat, basically a pint of ice cream with peanut butter the calories are going to be up there. Don't act shocked that it adds up to 1,000+ calories.
You can be shocked about salads. Fast food salads can be sneaky.

I don't find any of that surprising. But I eat a meal >1000 calories almost every day.

cee134 wrote: »

I expect my meals to be less then 1000 calories a sitting...

Sure but I don't expect deep fried food topped with high calorie food and large portions to fit my idea of a regular meal.

In fairness... at one restaurant I went to, when the appetizer was more than 1000 calories, they expected 4-6 people to split the thing. Looking at the Aussie cheese fries... that's more like 8-12 people enjoying them.

I think some of these grossly huge things - like the Heart Attack Grill's Quaruple Bypass Burger - are meant to be shockingly huge. It's like they're thumbing their noses at all the people who say fast food is unhealthy. It's like they're saying, "You wanna see unhealthy? This is unhealthy!"

Also... Dairy Queen's Chicken Strip Basket is on their twice and the one with more strips has LESS calories. (1340 cal for the 4 piece, 1270 cal for the 6 piece). How does that even work?

I also wonder how many of them are still on menus. I know you can't get the Quad Stacker at most BKs anymore. They only do Double Stackers (a more reasonable 420 calories).

When I go out to eat with my husband to one particular restaurant, I always get the same meal (because I don't really like anything else on the menu), and it's a 1200 calorie salad. I just plan for it and adjust my calories. I've made many 1000+ calorie homemade meals as well.

The fun part is, just wrapping any of those burgers in lettuce instead of bread will shave off an absurd amount of calories. A really fun example, that I often eat:
Jimmy John's Gargantuan on French Bread: 1063 kcals.
Jimmy John's Gargantuan Unwich (lettuce wrap): 744 kcals.

That's with absolutely nothing about that hunk of salami, mayo, cheese, and oils changed, except what's containing it.

At my hairdresser's, she always has those "Eat This Not That' books to peruse. While many of them have some shockingly high food items and a fairly reasonable substitute, one of my pet peeves is when they display something like the total calorie count for an item that is likely meant to be shared (like a plate of Cheese Fries or Bloomin Onion at Outback) compared to an item which is clearly an individual serving.

Eat This! Coconut Shrimp (640 cals)
Not That! Aussie Cheese Fries (2,140 cals) - although the Outback website now says 1,100 cals for the cheese fries, probably reduced the size because of the shock value of these type of infographics...

Now it is likely that even if you split the cheese fries 4 ways, you are still getting a salad and an entree too, so the total meal may end up still being high... But it doesn't seem like a fair comparison to put something that four people could easily share against something that if two people split it, they would be grouchy and hungry.

The 5 Guys meal is totally worth it - the rest, not so much.