What can you eat at McDonald's on a diet? Calorie content of popular fast food

Is it possible to eat healthy at McDonald's?

It was quite difficult for me to believe that on the calorie-filled McDonald's menu it was possible to find dishes that I could safely eat while on a healthy diet. It’s not surprising: when choosing food in this fast food restaurant, it’s difficult for us to focus on healthy food. Every now and then the eye stops at juicy cheeseburgers, sweet pies and delicious ice cream like McFlurry. And of course, many favorite drinks deserve special mention: milk and fruit cocktails, lattes, cappuccino and soda.

However, it turned out that even by eating at McDonald's, you can not only not gain weight, but also lose it! As proof, I will give you examples of some people who were able to lose weight while continuing to eat fast food:

• Professional nutritionist Ivan Shcherbakov conducted an unusual experiment: in 5 weeks he lost 6.5 kilograms by eating only the “wrong” foods. Moreover: he did not even engage in sports or fitness during this entire time. Ivan ate 2 times a day and consumed approximately 1480 calories per day.
• A McDonald's employee from Taiwan lost 10 kilograms in 3 months by continuing to eat at the restaurant where she worked. She simply stopped eating French fries, hamburger buns, ice cream, and fried chicken skin, and she also stopped drinking sugary drinks. At later stages of the diet, the girl began to play sports.
• John Cisna, an educator from Iowa , conducted an experiment in which the goal was to lose weight and improve health by eating McDonald's meals. He began to consume no more than 2,000 calories, and also calculated the amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in his diet. In addition, John began to lead a more active lifestyle. Thus, in 180 days he lost 25 kilograms.

The secret of these people losing weight is that they were able to correctly calculate the calorie content of their fast food meals. It has long been proven that we gain weight not from eating some “wrong” type of food, but because we incorrectly calculate the calories we consume. Thus, if you approach weight loss wisely and know how to navigate the calorie content of foods in your diet, you can lose weight even by eating at McDonald's.

Now I’ll tell you something very, very important! We are talking only about the goal of losing weight! Proper healthy eating is a little different.

Calorie content of meals at McDonald's

Of course, a considerable number of dishes from this chain contain just a crazy number of calories. As an example, let's look at the popular Big Tasty burger.

Its energy value is 812 kcal, and a serving also contains:

• Fat - 48 g
• Saturated fat - 20 g
• Carbohydrates – 50 g
• Sugar - 10 g
• Proteins - 44 g
• Salt - 3.7 g

If you eat a Big Tasty, you can consume half your daily calorie intake in a matter of minutes. And if you wash it down with a delicious cocktail and add something for dessert, you can forget about food until the next day.

The same high-calorie dishes include various rolls, burgers, sweets and French fries.

Most likely, like me, you cannot deprive yourself of such goodies. There is a solution for this case: you need to calculate the amount of energy consumed per day, as well as play sports, burning extra calories.

Wings, nuggets, potatoes

Wings, nuggets, potatoes
Products from this item can hardly be called dietary, but a few chicken wings without sauce will not harm the body:

Be sure to read: How many calories are in a fried cheburek with meat

Diet food at McDonald's

Now that we know that the diet needs to be compiled based on the calorie content of the dishes included in it, we can easily create our own.

However, do not forget that near-dietary dishes contain up to 280 kcal.

Breakfast

If you come to McDonald's in the morning, you can order a cherry pie or a McMuffin. An omelette is also a good option, but you need to remove the jam from the buns that come with it, or not eat them at all. A slightly higher calorie option would be the Chicken Fresh McMuffin, but without the sauce. You can wash this down with a cup of coffee: for example, a latte or cappuccino.

Snack

The best options for a snack would be apple slices and carrot sticks. As during breakfast, you can drink coffee.

Dinner

For lunch you can order a vegetable Caesar salad (necessarily without sauce) and a cheeseburger. Another option would be one of the Rolls: for example, Fish Roll. As with the salad, ask to remove any sauces from the dish.

Dinner

Chicken McNuggets are the best option for dinner at McDonald's. In addition, you can order a vegetable salad, again without sauce.

With this diet, you will not consume many calories, but do not forget about various preservatives, salt and other food additives. This is all quite unhealthy and makes most fast food junk food.

Diet food at McDonald's: nonsense or reality?

Dietary dishes include:

• omelette from the morning menu (330 kcal);
• salads without oil and sauce (250 kcal);
• cappuccino without sugar.

At the same time, the Caesar roll, which appears so often in advertising, only seems dietary due to the lavash. Inside, in addition to meat and vegetables, there is a lot of sauce. The total calorie content of the dish is 695 kcal.

Be sure to read: How many calories are in 1 piece of juicer with cottage cheese? and in 100 grams of product

How to eat at McDonald's?

There are a few simple rules for visiting fast food restaurants that will help you always eat healthy there:

1. Resist temptations and only order what you can afford to eat. Be sure to count the calories you consume.
2. Take your time, eat slowly so that your body can better absorb all the necessary substances.
3. Don't eat at McDonald's too often; it's better to limit yourself and not visit these restaurants more than a few times a week.
4. Don't eat hamburger buns. If you don’t want to throw them away, you can always feed them to stray animals on the street or birds.
5. If possible, don't go to McDonald's alone: ​​take someone with you who is also on a diet. Choosing food together will be easier and, of course, more fun. You can also halve and consume fewer calories.

Top 5 Lowest Calorie McDonalds Meals

Now let's move on to the numbers. Let's start with the rating of the least calorie dishes and those closest to pp.

1. In rightful first place, of course, is oatmeal! Tasty, nutritious, very healthy! Of course, homemade oatmeal is better, but this one is also good. Made from natural oatmeal, complemented with cream and jam. Calorie content - just over 200 kcal, carbohydrates (slow!) - 35 g. That is, this is an ideal pp-breakfast!
2. Apple slices and carrot sticks contain even fewer calories! 40 kcal in apples and only 28 kcal in carrots! True, they are unlikely to satisfy your hunger, so they are in second place.
3. In third place is vegetable salad and its 68 kcal! Contains only herbs, vegetables and olives! For a “weight loss” dinner, it is simply irreplaceable!
4. Tea and coffee without sugar are the favorite drinks of any weight loss person or person losing weight. The number of calories in them is hardly more than 20 kcal. It is clear that milk, cream and sugar increase this figure several times. So, this ice cream is already 123 kcal, a delicious latte is 176 kcal, iced coffee is 135 kcal.
5. Fifth place - ice cream cone! This dessert has only 151 kcal! Perfect if you want something sweet.

The lowest calorie dishes

We all know that fast food is a fairly high-calorie food, and constant eating there can have a very bad effect on our figure and weight. Therefore, first, let's look at which dishes are the least caloric.

This article is for informational purposes only. Remember - fast food food is harmful, and you can only eat it if you have normal medical indicators.

Vegetable salad

Of course, let's start with the easiest thing possible. This dish simply physically cannot be high in calories since it consists only of such ingredients as olives, cucumber, Iceberg and Radiccio salads and Cherry tomatoes. And of course, don’t forget about the light salad dressing.

The calorie content of this dish is only 68 grams per serving.

Carrot sticks and apple slices

Simply chopped carrot sticks in a convenient package. An excellent snack for those losing weight. And one serving contains only 28 kcal. The same goes for apple slices, which contain only 38 calories per serving. True, not everyone will be ready to pay almost 50 rubles for a small chopped carrot or apple.

Caesar salad

Caesar salad is one of the most popular dishes in any restaurant or cafe. At McDonald's it consists of lettuce, chicken cutlet, grated cheese, cherry tomatoes and vegetable oil.

Of course, I would not say that this is such a low-calorie dish. But if you consider this dish as lunch, then this is an excellent solution, since the calorie content is only 283 kcal per serving.

Hamburger

As strange as it may sound, a hamburger without cheese can be included on our list, despite the fact that it is a bun with a fried patty. Despite this composition, the calorie content of this burger is relatively small, amounting to 253 kcal. Of course, this is all due to the fact that, unlike a cheeseburger, there is no cheese here. Due to the cheese, a cheeseburger has 50 kcal more than a hamburger.

And if you take a chicken burger, then it has as much as 339 kcal, which is higher than the two above-mentioned American sandwiches.

Pie in Italian

This pie is not a main dish at all, but rather an appetizer. The filling of this pie consists of tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese, due to which it tastes a little like pizza. Due to the use of such a low-calorie product as tomatoes, this snack contains only 163 kcal, which will affect your figure.

Chicken snacks

You probably thought that not everything was right with our heads. Yes you are right. Only those who are not right in the head will write about what you can eat at McDonald's while on a diet. However, a small portion of 6 chicken wings contains a little 292 kcal. Even while losing weight, sometimes you can indulge in fried chicken pieces.

The same goes for the famous Chicken McNuggets. A small serving of 6 pieces contains 268 kcal. And this is even less than in chicken wings.

Waffle cone

The cheapest ice cream at McDonalds has the lowest calorie content at only 135 calories. Yes, you can eat at least three of these a day and it won’t affect your figure in any way.

Beverages

You also need to be careful with drinks, since they will not satisfy your hunger, but they will add a lot of calories due to the sugar content in them. I'm not talking about milkshakes, whose calorie content reaches almost 400. Soda, due to the same sugar, contains more than 100 kcal. And juices are even more than 200. No, if you get calories, then only from food, and not from liquids.

Therefore, if you want to drink at McDuck without harming your figure or gaining excess weight, you can take mineral water, tea, coffee (only regular Americano) or Coca Cola Light. In these drinks, the calorie content tends to zero. Just don't drink too much. It is better to drink all drinks except water in limited quantities.