Eat This
2 slices Domino’s large cheese pizza
360 calories
19 g fat
In the world of mass-produced pizza, nothing beats Domino’s crunchy thin-crust pie. This is how Italians meant for pizza to be eaten—with a crackling crisp crust and balanced cheese and sauce.
Not That
2 slices Pizza Hut large cheese pizza
560 calories
24 g fat
The average guy will consume 46 slices of pizza this year, so save yourself nearly 5,000 calories by opting for the Domino's slices.
2 Turkey Sandwich
Eat This
Subway 6-inch Turkey Sub
330 calories
8.5 g fat
A Subway 6-incher not enough to quell your raging lunchtime hunger? Double up on meat for just 50 calories more.
Not That
Panera Sierra Turkey
840 calories
40 g fat
Don’t sweat the meat in the sandwich: turkey, roast beef, and ham are all lean cuts. But Panera slathers its turkey with a thick layer of chipotle mayo and slides it into a heavy, oily wedge of foccacia, so that turkey is a porker.
3 Tuna Melt
Eat This
Einstein Brothers Tuna Salad Deli Melt
610 calories
36 g fat
Einstein Brothers' tuna melt clocks in just over 600 calories, with a respectable 40 grams of protein.
Not That
Quiznos Regular Tuna Melt
1420 calories
118 g fat
Tuna melt—with mayo and cheese—is often a deli disaster area. They dish it up with an ice-cream scoop! But Quiznos has outdone itself: It has produced the worst sandwich in America. Eat this and you are the whopper.
4 Burrito
Eat This
Taco Bell Regular Style Steak Burrito Supreme
390 calories
14 g fat
Share half of your Chipotle burrito or swap in Taco Bell's leaner Burrito Supreme. (If you must, add a taco—you'll still save more than 450 calories.)
Not That
Chipotle Steak Burrito
1,033 calories
40 g fat
Chipotle uses terrific fresh ingredients, but until the chain downsizes its football-size burritos, it will still give you a linebacker's gut.
5 Caesar Salad
Eat This
Panera Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
560 calories
34 g fat
Round out your meal with a 90-calorie cup of Garden Vegetable soup.
Not That
Chili’s Chicken Caesar Salad
1,010 calories
76 g fat
In the wrong hands, a Caesar salad can be murder. At Chili's, the innocent pile of romaine is swallowed up by a perfect storm of dressing, Parmesan cheese, and croutons, making this unnatural disaster one of the unhealthiest salads in America.
6 Breakfast Sandwich
Eat This
McDonald’s Egg McMuffin
300 calories
12 g fat
Eighteen grams of protein make this a surprisingly sound beginning to your day. In the nutritional hierarchy of breakfast breads, English muffins beat bagels and croissants every time.
Not That
Starbucks Classic Sausage, Egg, and Aged Cheddar Breakfast Sandwich
460 calories
25 g fat
As for meats, bacon tops sausage, and ham trounces them both. Replace the sausage with ham and you could save up to 500 calories a week from breakfasts alone. Case in point: Starbucks has a ham version of this sandwich that weighs in at 380 calories.
7 Cinnamon Roll
Eat This
Au Bon Pain Cinnamon Roll
350 calories
21 g sugars
Right. There's absolutely no nutritional value in a cinnamon roll. But when you just have to have one, take comfort in knowing that Au Bon Pain's sweet spiral more than halves the calories and sugar found in the Cinnabon catastrophe.
Not That
Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll
813 calories
55 g sugars
8 Doughnuts
Eat This
Dunkin' Donuts Glazed Donut
230 calories
10 g fat
12 g sugars
Both are cloaked in sugar, but Dunkin's original doughnuts are light and airy because they’re made with yeast.
Not That
Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Cake Donut
330 calories
18 g fat
18 g sugars
Cake donuts are heavy and dense because they’re made with cake batter. Remember: Cake is not a breakfast food.
9 Banana Split
Eat This
Dairy Queen Classic Banana Split
530 calories
14 g fat
Ditch the Baskin-Robbins bomb in favor of the scaled-down version from Dairy Queen and spend the 500 calories you saved on another sundae (next week).
Not That
Baskin-Robbins Banana Split
1,030 calories
39 g fat
With more sugar than four Snickers bars, it'll make your energy levels soar then plummet.
10 Milkshake
Eat This
Wendy's Small Original Chocolate Frosty
330 calories
42 g sugars
The choice here is simple: Both choco-blasts are the same size and taste the same,but Wendy’s cuts a third of the calories and sugar. Go for the pigtails on this one.
Not That
McDonald's 12 oz Triple Thick Chocolate Shake
440 calories
63 g sugars
11 Chicken Meal
Eat This
Boston Market chicken meal
300 calories
17 g fat
Boston Market slow-roasts its birds on a spit, so they're naturally juicy (but not oil-saturated) with a great balance of fat and protein. Add sides of garlic-dill new potatoes and green-bean casserole for a meal you can savor now and not suffer from later.
Not That
KFC Original Recipe chicken meal
460 calories
32 g fat
There's no secret recipe here, just a fryer full of bubbling oil and a breaded, grease-infused two-piece combo that adds 160 calories and 15 grams of fat.
12 Beer
Eat This
Guinness Draught
126 calories
10 g carbohydrates
Surprised? Most people think of Guinness as a beer milkshake: dark, thick, and rich enough to inspire guilt along with the intense pleasure. But a 12-ounce mug is as low in calories as many insipid light beers, and it can save you up to 75 calories over other full-flavored brews like Sierra Nevada.
Not That
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
175 calories
14 g carbohydrates
Drink a six-pack of this a week and you'll gain more than 4 pounds this year.
13 Fruit Smoothie
Eat This
Jamba Juice Power Mega Mango Smoothie
420 calories
97 g sugars
The Jamba version is 100 percent fruit, so there's a huge caloric discount and big antioxidant payload. Save 300 calories and 45 grams of sugar!
Not That
Dunkin’ Donuts Large Tropical Fruit Smoothie
720 calories
142 g sugars
This sickeningly sweet concoction from Dunkin' has an ingredient list straight out of a chem lab and more sugar than seven Haagen-Dazs vanilla-and-almond ice-cream bars. So this tropical excursion will be bad for your equator.
14 Cheeseburger
Eat This!
McDonald’s Big Mac
540 calories
29 g fat
In the battle of the iconic American megaburgers, the McDonald’s triplex is the surprising victor. But don’t take this as an all-you-can-eat Big Mac pass: If you add a medium order of fries and a Coke, your lunch just grew to 1,130 calories—supersize you.
Not That!
Burger King Whopper
760 calories
47 g fat
BK’s burger barons have a heavy hand with the mayo—it contributes 160 calories to a Whopper, which more than trumps the not-so-secret sauce that crowns the Big Mac.
15 Tacos
Eat This
On the Border Grilled Fajita Chicken Tacos
570 calories
9 g fat
Not That
Chevy’s Fresh Mex Grilled Chicken Tacos (full order)
911 calories
41 g fat
