March 30,2010

Top 15 Fat Burning Foods at Fast Food Joints!

Ok… lets see, Big Mac, Double cheese burger, if I told you these were fat burning food you would not believe me and you are right!  But if I told you that bananas and apples make you fat would you believe me??  But they could.

Calories are not the only thing that is important!

The most important thing about the foods is not only the total calories you consume but also the ratio of Fat-Protein-Carbs.  Further more the type of fat, protein and carbs you are taking in.

Lets take a look at this a MacDonald’s hamburger.  At first glance it seems a good choice only 250 calories right??

However when analyzed most of the calories are from fat (9 gr) and carbs with only 12 grams of protein… not good.  So even though this is relatively low calorie I would not choose this as one of the 15 Fat Burning Foods.

What to look for!

I will look for foods that contain around 25-40 grams of protein, 7-15 grams of fat, and 25-40 grams of carbs with very low sugar and saturated fat content…

The Chosen Few!

I started out trying to use these Fast Food Restaurants, McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s, In-N-Out, KFC.  I eliminated Burger King and In-N-Out.  Burger Kings nutrition information was not presented in an easy to evaluate format.  And In-N-Out… ummmm… lets just save it for an occasional cheat day.  Even the protein style burgers did not pass the test.  I then added some selections at convenient stores.

Evaluating the Facts!

Using there nutritional facts posted on there web sites, I will choose 3 foods you might not be thinking of, 10 foods you would figure would be on there and 2 that totally shocked me.  For a total of 15.  Then at the end I will state my opinion on which one I might go to.  Finally I will rank the establishments in order of what I would choose to go to, based on what I like, selection and taste.

* A few more are on here from McDonalds than others due to the easy way they presented there nutritional facts.

Sodium Content.

In general I would not recommend regular eating at these places due to the high sodium content of the foods but if you are in a pinch here are some recommendations.

15 Fat Burning Foods at Fast Food Joints!

3 Foods you might not be thinking of

1. Water (Increases caloric burning by approx. 23 kcal/2 glasses)
2. Coffee, (caffeinated) before work out only!  But make sure you drink 2 cups of water for every cup of coffee.
3. Gas Station: Most gas stations now offer booth protein bars and Muscle milk.  Two great choices for a quick snack to hold you off between meals.

10 Foods you figured would be on here!

1. McDonalds Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich
2. McDonalds Premium Grilled Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich
3. McDonalds Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap® (Grilled)
4. McDonalds Honey Mustard Snack Wrap® (Grilled)
5. McDonalds Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken
6. McDonalds Premium Bacon Ranch Salad with Grilled Chicken
7. Wendy’s Ultimate Chicken Grill
8. Wendy’s Mandarin Chicken salad (go light on dressing)
9. Wendy’s Chicken Caesar Salad (go light on dressing)
10. KFC grilled filet or Filet sandwich without sauce.

2 Foods I was shocked by!

1. KFC Original Chicken Breast (This was a  favorite only 15 gr of fat for 42 gr of protein, and only 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 4 grams of carbs
2. Wendy’s large chili (High Sodium don’t eat regularly but not bad in calories and % protein)

In conclusion my choice of restaurants.  If I were to eat there I would choose them in this order.

1. KFC
2. Wendy’s
3. McDonalds
4. Convenient stores

http://www.wendys.com/food/pdf/us/nutrition.pdf

http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutrition_facts.html

http://qa.kfc.com/nutrition/pdf/kfc_nutrition.pdf