If you’re trying to lose weight, one of the challenges you’ll face is what to do about those times when you find yourself at a fast-food restaurant.
The offerings at these establishments are typically incredibly high in calories. A Big Mac meal at McDonald’s can set you back 1,300 calories. Damn! If your calorie goal for the day is 2,400 calories, that’s more than half your daily calories in a single meal.
The typical advice for people losing weight is to just avoid fast-food restaurants altogether. And with some preparing, thinking ahead, and good decision-making, you can accomplish that most of the time.
But not 100% of the time. Sometimes, life throws a wrench in your plans.
Maybe you’re on a road trip, and your friends decide to stop at Carl’s Jr. for lunch.
Maybe your kid’s soccer team decided to go out to dinner to Chick-fil-A after the game.
Maybe you’re just really pressed for time and need to grab something fast at a drive-thru on the way from work to another engagement.
What to do?
Well, what if I told you you don’t have to choose between convenience and your fitness goals? You can have your fast-food burger and eat it too—all while staying on track with your weight loss.
When you want to lose weight, you want to choose foods that are lower in calories and higher in satiating, muscle-building protein.
Thankfully, most fast-food restaurants now offer options that meet this criteria. With a bit of creativity, you can easily select meals at pretty much all the major fast-food restaurants that will give you 30+ grams of protein (which is a good minimum goal for a meal) and only clock in at around 600 calories.
Below, we provide some suggestions for meals that meet these metrics that you can get at five popular fast-food restaurants. One thing to keep in mind is that while you can reduce the calories in your fast-food orders, it’s hard to reduce the amount of sodium. These are going to be sodium bombs. So they’re not great for everyday dining, but they’ll do in a pinch.
Whether you’re looking to shed a few pounds or maintain your hard-earned gains, this guide will show you how to navigate the pitfalls of fast-food menus and stay on track with your goals.
General Guidelines to Keep Your Fast-Food Meals Lower in Calories
Before we get into specific meals, here are some general guidelines to follow that will allow you to keep your meals lower in calories, regardless of the fast-food establishment you visit:
- Food tracking apps like MyFtinessPal are your friends. I use the app all the time when I’m at fast-food restaurants. Quickly look up the calorie and macro count of foods and piece together your meal with that info.
- Choose grilled over fried meats.
- Choose lean proteins. While you can still enjoy a beef burger, protein sources like turkey or chicken breast generally have fewer calories.
- Ask for extra protein. Adding extra protein, like extra meat, can help increase satiety while keeping calories low.
- Skip the fries. If you’re looking for a side, get fruit or salad instead. Also, hot take: fries aren’t that good anyway!
- Skip the high-fat sauces, dressings, and condiments. Ask for lower-calorie options instead.
- Load up on veggies. Satiety is premised in part on volume; calorically dense foods won’t fill you up and will leave you feeling hungry. To increase volume and nutrition, add low-calorie veggies to your meals like extra lettuce, tomatoes, and onions.
- Choose water or unsweetened drinks like diet sodas.
Finally, don’t be afraid to enjoy yourself with a no-holds-barred high-calorie fast-food meal every now and then. I love getting a double cheeseburger on occasion. You can just adjust your macros and calories accordingly and eat less the rest of the day. Or just chalk it up to an anomalous indulgence, and get back to your diet the next day. You don’t have to eat perfectly 100% of the time to still lose weight and stay healthy.
Fast-Food Meals That Are 600 Calories or Less With More than 30 Grams of Protein
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is a tricky place to get a high-protein meal that’s low in calories. They used to offer grilled chicken and salad options here in the United States, but they got rid of them back in 2020.
You can still get a meal that’s a little more than 500 calories and 30 grams of protein by pairing a McDouble burger with an order of McNuggets.
McDouble + 4-Count McNuggets
- On the burger, ask for no cheese and extra pickles, lettuce, and onion for added volume.
Total calories: 530 (If you don’t eat the burger’s bun, you can knock off an additional 100 calories.)
Protein: 30 grams
Fat: 27 grams
Carbs: 43 grams
Taco Bell
Do you want to Live Más but without all the extra calories? Try the Cantina Chicken Bowl at Taco Bell. Choose grilled chicken instead of roasted chicken to keep the calories down but the protein high.
Cantina Grilled Chicken Bowl
- Ask for three servings of grilled chicken.
- Ask for it with no rice and no avocado ranch sauce
- Keep the black beans, cheese, and low-fat sour cream.
- Ask for extra lettuce, pico de gallo, and cabbage for added volume.
- Use hot sauce packets to add flavor.
Total calories: 460
Protein: 56 grams
Fat: 18 grams
Carbs: 20 grams
Chick-fil-A
Boy, do I love Chick-fil-A. My usual go-to is the spicy chicken sandwich with extra pickles. I usually get two of them as a meal.
If I know I’ll be having Chick-fil-A for dinner, I’ll cut back on my other meals during the day to make room in my macro budget for those two spicy chicken sandwiches.
But sometimes we have nights where we have Chick-fil-A unexpectedly and getting my regular two-fisted sandwich order would put me way over my calorie count for the day.
Thankfully, Chick-fil-A offers some tasty high-protein, lower-calorie grilled options.
Here’s an order with just 420 calories and a whopping 50 grams of protein.
Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap + 4-Count Grilled Chicken Nuggets
- Use buffalo sauce to add some low-calorie flavor.
Total calories: 420
Protein: 50 grams
Fat: 15 grams
Carbs: 30 grams
Panda Express
A lot of take-out Chinese food is loaded with fat. But you can get a solid meal at Panda Express that has 600 total calories and 72(!) grams of protein.
Plate Meal: 2 servings of Grilled Teriyaki Chicken + 1 serving of Super Greens
Total Calories: 600
Protein: 72 grams
Fat: 30.5
Carbs: 25 grams
Subway
Sandwiches are a great fast-food option if you’re looking for something high in protein, but lower in calories. At pretty much every sandwich chain, you can create a custom sandwich that’s loaded with satiating, lean meats like chicken or turkey and plenty of filling, high-volume veggies.
Subway isn’t the tastiest of the sandwich chains, in my opinion (we’re bigger fans of Jersey Mike’s around here), but its outposts are ubiquitous. Here’s an example of a nutritionally solid sammie to get there:
Grilled Chicken Sandwich
- 6-inch artisanal bread
- 3 servings of grilled chicken
- 2 servings of provolone
- Lettuce, tomato, onion (ask for extra)
- Sweet teriyaki sauce
Total calories: 540
Protein: 70 grams
Fat: 16 grams
Carbs: 47 grams
Allowing for fast food in your weight loss journey isn’t just about damage control—it’s about creating a sustainable strategy for long-term success.
By being flexible with your diet, you’ll be more likely to stick with it in the long run. Research shows that a flexible approach to nutrition, allowing yourself to enjoy a variety of foods—yes, even fast food—can lead to better adherence and, ultimately, better results.
