I get occasional hankerings for Burger King. It's good that they are only occasional since they aren't always located in convenient places. And I don't live on the West Coast with Jack in the Box, In and Out, et al. And I was in Burger King recently and while eating my meal, noticed the placemat had meal suggestions ranging from 410-615 calories.
That range fits in to about a third of the daily requirement for most people, so if you ate one of these meals and kept your other two meals to around the same size, theoretically it could work.
But would you stick to these set meals?
- If you wanted to do 410 calories, you could have a grilled chicken salad with light Italian dressing, apple fries with caramel sauce, and water. Not a whole lot of food, but rather good by fast food standards.
- Amazingly, one of the options parallels what someone could realistically order. For 520 calories, you could get the junior hamburger with a small onion rings and a diet soft drink.
- The largest combo on the placemat, at 615 calories, is a 9-piece chicken fries, side salad with light Italian dressing, and a diet soft drink.
The funny part is that I used to steer my life around eating at a fast food place. "I don't feel like fixing dinner. Let's go eat out." And being on a budget, eating out meant burger, fries, and drink.
Even though I don't eat that way anymore, I still eat fast food. But it's usually on the run, before an event or to tie me over until I can eat a regular meal.
So I might have a couple of the smaller burgers. You figure that these are better deals in terms of health. But they are surprising high in calories, fat, etc. The snack to "tie me over" is more like a meal and I'll still have a meal afterwards.
And this snack is without French fries (mostly) and a soft drink (now always). So eating is better, but still with a feeling that it still isn't good.
But the reality of our lives is that fast food will slip into our lives. There isn't much we can do short of significantly slowing down our lives.
So enjoy fast food when you can. Bring healthier snacks to supplement. If you know that a fast food meal is in your future, bring raw veggies for snacking. And eat those veggies before the grease gets into your system.