Fast Food Calories: Where to Find Them

Ever wonder how many calories are in that Big Mac you just ate? Or how many fat calories are involved with the "Gotta Have It" size of your favorite Cold Stone Creamery scoops? My family does. We often turn to the internet to find out the number of calories can be found in just about anything we eat, but we usually hunt for the ones involved with America's favorite eating pastime: fast food calories.

Fast food calories can be deceptive. In fact, many fast food items that claim to be low in calories often have either hidden calories or hidden drawbacks. To find out which fast food is good or bad for you, first you must understand the basis of a calorie.

Calories are basically a unit of measurement relating to the energy your body needs to run. If you have too many, you could carry extra weight. If you have too few, your body could shut down. But don't just limit the numbers to calories in general. It's what KIND of calories you are getting that will really determine how many you should have.

This is where fast food calorie knowledge comes in. So far, the best site I've seen is chowbaby.com. Chowbaby.com has been around for years and they can even break down the fast food restaurants specifically in your area. If you are jonesin' for a taco but you want to know if you should go to Taco Bell or Dell Taco, chowbaby.com can show you which one is the healthier choice. Chowbaby.com even has restaurant reviews so you not only know what fast food calories you are consuming, you can find out which place has the cleanest and friendliest restaurants to consume them in.

Another good site to learn about fast food calories is foodfacts.info. This site even lets you break down the searches of fast food restaurants by type of food. Let's say you want to eat a healthy chicken sandwich. Should you go to Jack In The Box or McDonald's to get one? Foodfacts.info can pull up the numbers and compare them side by side just from optimizing their search engine. I learned that some chicken sandwiches aren't as healthy in fast food calories as certain burgers!

Finally, the best way to find out about fast food calories is the most surprising: the restaurant websites themselves. Cold Stone Creamery and McDonalds have excellent links and information to what exactly is in each meal or dessert. You may have to do some digging because not all sites display their fast food calorie information on the front page; but for the most part every major restaurant and fast food place has the information available.

I highly recommend doing a good search on fast food calories if you live a frantic lifestyle that prevents you from cooking and you want to eat a little healthier. Knowledge is great power. Empower yourself when you eat out!