Lose Weight Eating Fast Foods: Five Easy Steps

Lose Weight Eating Fast Foods: Five Easy Steps

Let’s face facts: Most of us simply do not have the time to prepare every meal or calculate every calorie. That’s one of the reasons there’s been an increase in the incidence of obesity over the past few decades: Plain and simple, we are very busy. We want to grab some lunch when we’re hungry and we want it very fast. Of course, we want it to taste good and we want it to be filling. So that leaves “healthy” or “low-Cal”–or even low in fat and sodium-pretty far down on the list.

All fast food chains have their own website with all the nutritional information you could dream of at your fingertips. But it can be exhausting and time-consuming to plow through all of these, so I’ve come up with a few easy steps to help you plan lunches that are fast, and low in calories. This means you can actually lose weight eating fast food every day!

STEP 1: Make a list of the fast food restaurants you frequent most often. There could be five or six on your list, but most likely there are just two or three you choose most often because they are conveniently located for you and you like to eat there.

STEP 2: Go to their website to get started. It’s important that you go to the company website, and not another site that lists calorie content of foods. These other sites get much of their “information” from uninformed dieters who enter what they believe to be the right numbers, but often they are incorrect.

STEP 3: Decide what information is most important to you. Overall, calories are probably the primary information you need. Also consider if you want to be limiting your fat intake, carbs, or sodium. These can all be very high, even when calories are not.

STEP 4: Focus on the menu items you are most likely to order. If you don’t like chicken salad, it’s not worth your time to see that this item is low in fat and calories! Unless you would consider choosing an item solely based on the fact that it’s low-cal, look at the sandwiches or entrees you are most likely to order. Now you will get some pleasant surprises and some really big shocks when you see the actual calorie level in some of what you have been eating. Amazingly, you will find that you can save hundreds of calories in some cases by ordering a hamburger and fries, instead of what you thought was a healthy fish sandwich! Some of the chicken sandwiches have over 700 calories because they are fried, made with cheese, topped with sauces, and in some cases even have their buns buttered. This is information you have no way of knowing until you look at the website from the fast food chain that gives you this information.

STEP 5: Make your menus. Once you find the lower cal (or lower fat or lower sodium) choices, build a few meals at a few of the more convenient locations for you. I suggest printing them each on an index card that will be easy to carry in your purse or your glove compartment. You don’t have to remember anything except the note cards: when you drive up to the window, you’ll have all the information you need. You’ll know what sandwich or salad to order, what you can have with it, what to ask to be left off (such as the mayonnaise) and how many calories you’re getting, all from your handy notes.

Now I want to share a great weight-loss tip with you: for every hundred calories you save on your lunch, you can lose a pound at the end of this month. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but you might be saving 400 calories each day and this will add up to four pounds this month without going on a diet or being hungry or being deprived. The best news is, that’s 36 pounds by this time next year, simply by taking an hour this weekend to write out your smart fast food choices. Who wouldn’t want to lose that?!