HOLY... McDonalds Big Breakfast w/Hotcakes is 1300 calories?!

[shortylickens]

If you plan on being busy, its a great meal to start your day.

 

[IronWing]

edit: darn it. All this talk of high calorie breakfasts combined with my weak will forced me to go make pancakes.

Look on the bright side, you got pancakes out of the deal. :biggrin:

 

[Kaido]

If you plan on being busy, its a great meal to start your day.

I'm always on the fence about healthy eating. On one hand, I've stuff like Forks Over Knives where they put old people on a protein-rich Vegan diet and they go from the hospital to running marathons. On the other hand, not everyone is affected in the same way - some people can eat garbage and not get fat or feel sick. Just look at this lady - 105 years old and says bacon is keeping her alive:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/09/105-year-old-woman-says-bacon-keeps-her-alive/

I'm a total wuss when it comes to food (yay allergies), but my brother can basically eat a box of Chips Ahoy and work a 16-hour day without any problems. And he only needs 4 hours of sleep a night to handle work & school, whereas I need at least 7. I think most people would benefit from having a better diet than the standard American one, but then again, there are some genetic superfreaks out there who thrive on no sleep and junk food and still make the rest of us look bad :biggrin:

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

they've actually got a good meal builder on their website. it's good if you're tracking macros.

the pancakes are 350 calories, 8p, 8f, 60c.
the biscuit is 260 calories, 4p, 12f, 34c.

Remove those 2 and it's almost cut in half. You can still eat the syrup because it's delicious.

Now I'm craving chicken and waffles covered in syrup. This place called Founding Farmers makes a great chicken n waffles.

 

[Saint Nick]

Is McDonald's going to start serving breakfast all day?

 

[IGBT]

just think..you don't have to eat for a week.

 

[momeNt]

McDonald's is great if you are looking at cost per calories and trying to be upwards of 800+ per meal. If you are eating 600 or less you are better served at the grocery store, but if you are on a bulk, McDonald's on the way home from the gym is better than any gainer shake out there!

 

[CountZero]

- Don't get fries. Period.
- Instead of soda, get water or unsweetened tea. The artificial sweeteners in diet drinks can really screw with your hunger and metabolism - avoid like the plague (ask me how I know).
- Get a salad. Don't get a creamy (fatty) dressing like Ranch. Instead, get a vinaigrette like Italian.
- When given the choice, get grilled chicken instead of crispy.
- On a sandwich (burger, etc.), ask for no cheese and no sauce or mayo. Add ketchup or mustard if needed instead.
- Breads, sweets, and fats will often contribute to the calorie count quickly without actually filling you up. If there's an item without much of those, go for it. Wendy's chili is a good option.

A couple potential gotchas in that guidance.

- Dressing, if you don't know about the vinaigrette there's a fair chance that it is loaded with sugar. The general consensus these days is that we have gone overboard with our fear of fat and many 'low fat' options are higher in sugar to compensate. A real vinaigrette is better than a creamy dressing but at a fast food restaurant it might not be. The real kicker is the size of the dressing they give is usually enormous and if you use it all you might as well have gotten a burger for all the good it did. Moderation is key.
- Also with the salad croutons can be a surprise source of calories and carbs so skip 'em if you can.
- Similar to dressing, ketchup has more sugar than ice cream by volume (depending on brand). Mustard is practically free though.

Eating out is a land mine, listing calories is helpful to give a general gauge but you need more info to really decide. A balanced mix of sugars, carbs and fats is better than a diet that goes all one way but you can't pull that info out of just the calorie count.

 

[bradly1101]

Hey, all you soybean product eaters! You're destroying the rain forest!

Oh wait...

The article says this:



And this:



And this:

The problem with Macdonalds and most of the rest is that they have split loyalties between the shareholders and the customers.

The food has to be just tasty enough to keep the customer coming back, but cheap enough to keep overall costs down for the shareholders. The combination results in a menu full of fat, salt and sugar. It's also why a burger or breakfast at a privately owned joint (Joe's #2 Charbroiler) will always be 10x better than Mcd's.

Just Google 'Macdonalds environment' and you'll get lots of PR pages, but they are getting better:
http://www.sustainer.org/dhm_archive/index.php?display_article=vn304mcdonaldsed

It's hard to make cheap food without deeply harming the environment.