Lesson 2: Food

There is a lot to know about food, from eating enough (yes you read that right), eating the right kind of food, and when you eat it.

Let’s start with the kind of food. Sure you can eat fast food for every meal, one meal, or any combination in between. But let’s take a look at exactly what that means. We all know that we should only eat a certain amount of calories per day, and later I’ll tell you how to figure that out, but for this example, I’ll use my recommended caloric intake for when I’m losing weight and say that our daily calories intake should be 1500 calories for the day.

If you eat fast food for every meal and stay within 1500 calories for the day, here is what your daily food intake will look like:

Breakfast
Egg McMuffin 300 calories

Lunch
Premium Asian Salad with Crispy Chicken 410 calories

Dinner
Filet-O-Fish 380 calories
Small French Fries 230 calories
Ketchup Packet 15 calories

Desert
Chocolate Chip Cookie 160 calories

Daily total: 1495

(The items I picked are all relatively low in calories compared to other items on McDonald’s menu.)

So, it is possible to stay at 1500 calories per day eating only McDonalds. But let’s take a look at some other nutritional information for this day’s food. Specifically, let’s look at fat content. The McDiet above has 68 grams of fat and, that’s 12g of fat more than the recommended daily intake of 32-56g of fat.

Now, let’s take a look at what your meals would look like if you prepared them all at home:

Breakfast
1.2 cup blueberries 41 calories
1 Yoplait yogurt cup 100 calories
2 Kellogg’s Lowfat Nutri-Grain waffles 142
1 tablespoon pancake syrup 59 calories

Lunch
2 cups Romaine lettuce 16 calories
1/2 chicken breast 104 calories
1 tablespoon salad dressing 26 calories
2/3 cup croutons 122 calories

Dinner
1/2 red bell pepper 22 calories
5oz ground turkey 200 calories
1 cup spaghetti 208 calories
4 slices onions 21 calories
1/2 cup spaghetti sauce 71 calories
3 tablespoons parmesan chest 68 calories

Desert
1 peach 42 calories
1/2 bagel 73 calories
1/2 tablespoon jam 28 calories
2 Oreo cookies 130 calories

Daily total: 1475 calories

Now, take a look at the home cooked list of daily food compared to the McDiet list and think about the volume of food for each. There’s a lot more food in the home cooked day. Now, let’s take a look at fat content. With the home cooked day, I would only consume 37 grams of fat, well within the daily recommended range. So, more food (and a couple less calories) and less fat. I don’t know about you, but I’m all for more food, and if I can do it while eating less fat (which will help lose weight), then even better!

So, the lesson is… while you can eat McDonalds for every meal and still stay within a reasonable calorie range, at the end of the day you may not feel very full, and will have consumed way too much fat. I’ve seen a lot of people write that they can eat whatever they want and lose weight as long as they stay within their calorie range, and while that may be true for some, others will have to work harder to burn off those extra grams of fat, and will most likely still be hungry when they go to bed. So, do yourself and your body a favor, eat fast food only occasionally and cook more. Your body and your stomach will thank you!