30. Subway Steak, Egg, and Cheese Omelet Sandwich
490 calories
20 g fat (8 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
1,430 mg sodium
Subway’s Omelet Sandwiches, albeit better than most fast-food breakfasts in the country, are still a big step down from the Muffin Melts. Make sure you choose accordingly.
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Steak, Egg, and Cheese Muffin Melts
380 calories
14 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,200 mg sodium
29. Panera Bread Grilled Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Sandwich
510 calories
24 g fat (10 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
1,060 mg sodium
There are two differences between these sandwiches. First, this one is built on ciabatta, which provides 50 more calories and half as much fiber. And second, it replaces the ham with bacon, which means an extra 100 calories of mostly fat.
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Breakfast Power Sandwich
360 calories
14 g fat (6 g saturated)
860 mg sodium
28. A&W Crispy Chicken Sandwich
550 calories
25 g fat (4.5 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
1,130 mg sodium
The word “crispy” is the restaurant’s way of discreetly warning you that this piece of chicken has been covered with breading and plunged into a bucket of sizzling hot oil. Any similarity to regular chicken was completely lost in the process.
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Cheeseburger
420 calories
21 g fat (7 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
1,040 mg sodium
27. Hardee's Charbroiled Chicken Club Sandwich
560 calories
30 g fat (8 g saturated)
1,430 mg sodium
What goes into a club at Hardee’s? Cheese, bacon, and mayonnaise—the unholy trinity of sandwich toppings.
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Little Thick Cheeseburger
450 calories
23 g fat (9 g saturated)
1,180 mg sodium
26. Blimpie Grilled Chicken Caesar Ciabbatta
580 calories
20 g fat (5 g saturated)
1,480 mg sodium
The emperor has no clothes! Nine times out of 10, when you see the word Caesar, expect trouble. Consider this in the same nutritional red zone as mayo-bloated chicken salad. Ciabatta sounds fancy, but it’s essentially no different from white bread. Switch to 6-inch wheat and you’ll gain an immediate 3 grams of belly-filling fiber.
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Turkey and Cranberry
350 calories
4 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
1,220 mg sodium
25. Jack in the Box Sausage Croissant
580 calories
39 g fat
(13 g saturated, 4 g trans)
770 mg sodium
Two simple but immutable rules are at play here: 1) Bacon always beats sausage, and 2) buns always beat croissants.
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Bacon Breakfast Jack
300 calories
14 g fat (5 g saturated)
730 mg sodium
24. Subway 6-inch Meatball Marinara Sandwich
580 calories
23 g fat (9 g saturated)
1,530 mg sodium
Subway offers plenty of healthy options, but the meatball sub isn't one of them. Add some cheese and maybe a sauce and this 6-incher will end up costing you at the gym.
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6-inch Roast Beef on wheat
310 calories
4.5 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
800 mg sodium
23. Wendy's Chicken Club Sandwich
630 calories
30 g fat (10 g saturated)
1,390 mg sodium
Chicken clubs rarely deliver on their low-cal reputation, and that’s especially true at fast-food joints. Unless it’s made with grilled chicken and no mayo, expect it to be on par with the burgers.
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Jr. Cheeseburger and 5-Piece Crispy Chicken Nuggets
490 calories
26 g fat (8 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
1,150 mg sodium
22. Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich
630 calories
35 g fat (8 g saturated)
1,410 mg sodium
Triple Whoppers are supposedly charbroiled, but that doesn’t make them healthy. Here, the addition of cheese and a mayo-based sauce ups the fat ante by a factor of five.
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Charbroiled BBQ Chicken Sandwich
380 calories
7 g fat (0.5 g saturated)
1,010 mg sodium
21. Atlanta Bread Company Turkey Club Panini
635 calories
25.5 g fat (7 g saturated)
1,255 mg sodium
Not an altogether terrible meal, but certainly not up the standard one would expect from a collaboration between turkey and salmon—two all-star proteins with serious low-calorie potential. The problem is the sandwich comes on oversized panini bread and the salad carries an aggressive dose of sugar and oil.
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Honey Maple Ham on Honey Wheat
370 calories
11.5 g fat (4 g saturated)
890 mg sodium
20. Starbucks Egg Salad Sandwich with Grande Tazo Iced Chai Tea Latte
730 calories
26 g fat (7 g saturated)
945 mg sodium
The words salad and sandwich are best taken on their own. When combined, expect an excess of mayo-based binder and a flood of calories. Tack on a Chai Tea Latte with 42 grams of sugar and you have a snack with more calories than five bowls of Breyer's chocolate ice cream.
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Roma Tomato and Mozzarella Sandwich with Grande Black Shane Iced Tea
460 calories
18 g fat (7 g saturated)
590 mg sodium
19. Outback Roasted Filet Sandwich
763 calories
20 g fat (6 g saturated)
3,333 mg sodium
Outback's ability to bump up the calorie count of almost any dish is once again on display here. By no means should a steak sandwich with provolone cheese and garlic herb aioli have almost 800 calories. Treat yourself to a New York Strip and save roughly 250 calories.
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New York Strip Steak (8 oz) and Fresh Seasonal Veggies
516 calories
29 g fat (15 g saturated)
788 mg sodium
18. Hardee's Monster Biscuit
770 calories
55 g fat (18 g saturated)
2,310 mg sodium
When they say “Monster,” they mean it. This 700-calorie behemoth should be enough to scare anyone: It contains nearly a full day’s worth of sodium and saturated fat. Instead try the Sunrise Croissant with Bacon. It’s not exactly diet-friendly, but if you’re stuck at Hardee’s, it’s a way to escape without too much damage.
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Sunrise Croissant with Bacon
450 calories
29 g fat (12 g saturated)
900 mg sodium
17. Arby's Market Fresh Roast Beef & Swiss Sandwich
780 calories
37 g fat (11 g saturated, 1 g trans)
1,700 mg sodium
The bread that houses this sandwich is responsible for an astounding 380 calories, much of which is thanks to a recipe that calls for 14 grams of sugar from mostly high-fructose corn syrup.
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Super Roast Beef
430 calories
18 g fat (6 g saturated, 1 g trans)
1,070 mg sodium
16. Denny's Moon Over My Hammy
780 calories
42 g fat (16 g saturated)
2,580 mg sodium
The Moon Over My Hammy has been a staple on the Denny's menu for years. Considering the dish serves up 16 gram of saturated fat and an entire day's worth of sodium, we think it's overstayed its welcome. Denny's either needs to give this breakfast classic a nutritional makeover or strike it from the menu completely.
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Veggie-Cheese Omelette
500 caloris
37 g fat (12 g saturated)
940 mg sodium
15. Au Bon Pain Sausage, Egg, and Cheddar on Asiago Bagel
810 calories
46 g fat (20 g saturated)
1,340 mg sodium
Bacon always trumps sausage in the breakfast meat category, but at Au Bon Pain, the race isn’t even close. Subbing in bacon for this sandwich would save you 240 calories and 23- grams of fat. Do you really love sausage that much?
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Bacon and Egg Melt on Ciabatta
470 calories
23 g fat (10 g saturated)
980 mg sodium
14. Quiznos Turkey Club Torpedo
815 calories
37.5 g fat (9 g saturated)
2,4440 mg sodium
We can't vouch for the militant theme running through the names of Quiznos’ subs, but this is one that lives up to the title. They load bacon, cheese, and mayonnaise into the war-head and aim the Torpedo right at your gut.
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Pesto Turkey Bullet and Tomato Basil Soup (cup)
455 calories
18 g fat (7 g saturated)
1,800 mg sodium
13. Five Guys Cheeseburger
855 calories
55 g fat (26.5 g saturated)
1,240 mg sodium
What Five Guys calls a “cheeseburger,” the healthy world calls a “double cheeseburger.” Yes, even without embellishments this bulky hunk of beef has more calories than two McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
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Little Cheeseburger
580 calories
32 g fat (15 g saturated)
1,071 mg sodium
12. Cosi Tuna Melt
874 calories
40 g fat (11 g saturated)
1,154 mg sodium
Another complete waste of one of the world’s healthiest proteins. What is it about tuna that drives sandwich makers to turn to an ocean of mayo and a sea of melted cheese? This is one of the worst items in the entire store.
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Shrimp Remoulade Sandwich
456 calories
20 g fat (6 g saturated)
825 mg sodium
11. Domino's Pizza Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwich
880 calories
46 g fat (17 g saturated, 1 g trans)
2,370 mg sodium
Don’t bother looking to the sandwich menu for reprieve. More than half of these greasy bread boats break 800 calories, making them second only to pasta in their potential for caloric punishment. If you want something other than pizza, wings are your best bet.
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Chicken, Bacon, and Roasted Red Pepper Pizza (2 slices; large, Brooklyn crust)
670 calories
16 g fat (6.5 g saturated)
925 mg sodium
10. Red Robin Whiskey River BBQ Chicken
965 calories
52 g fat
1,842 mg sodium
Alternative burgers nearly always lead you astray in the restaurant world. Any nutritional benefits you might receive by swapping out ground beef for a lean chicken breast are lost when it's smothered in salty sauces and sitting on a bed of deep-fried onions. At Red Robin, the safest choice is always the Natural Burger. It's not the healthiest in the world, but at least you can escape fairly unscathed.
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Natural Burger
569 calories
24 g fat
989 mg sodium
9. Quiznos Regular Tuna Melt
1,000 calories
66 g fat (14 g saturated)
1,350 mg sodium
Quiznos' melt suffers from the same affliction as Cosi's: too much mayo and cheese. This subpar sub certainly isn't worth the 1,000 calories.
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Pesto Turkey Bullet and Tomato Basil Soup (cup)
455 calories
18 g fat (7 g saturated)
1,800 mg sodium
8. T.G.I. Friday's California Turkey Burger with sweet potato fries
1,005 calories
This sounds like the healthy rebuttal to a plain burger and fries, but the calories tell another story entirely. When will a chain restaurant finally make a turkey burger worth eating?
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Flat Iron Steak with chef's vegetables and mashed potatoes
820 calories
7. Panera Bread Italian Combo on Ciabatta
1,040 calories
45 g fat (17 g saturated, 1 g trans)
3,090 mg sodium
When it comes to Italian-style sandwiches, you can always count on a mound of fatty meat tucked inside a big portion of doughy bread. All told, the final product usually ends up somewhere around the 1,000-calorie mark—like this one at Panera Bread. Cut calories and get a range of flavors by going with a You Pick Two combo.
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Half Asiago Roast Beef Sandwich and Half Fuji Apple Chicken Salad
610 calories calories
29 g fat (10 g saturated, 0.5 trans)
1,050 mg sodium
6. Boston Market Rotisserie Chicken Salad Sandwich
1,040 calories
60 g fat (9 g saturated, 1 g trans)
1,780 mg sodium
Boston Market may have shaved 4 grams of trans fat from this sandwich, but it also grew by an extra 240 calories. Chicken salad has hit a new all-time low.
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Beef Brisket, Green Beans, and Dill Potatoes
480 calories
27 g fat (4 g saturated)
560 mg sodium
5. Applebee's Reuben
1,130 calories
80 g fat (28 g saturated, 4 g trans)
3,550 mg sodium
Piled sky high with fatty slices of pastrami, the Reuben is a sandwich that is guarunteed to destroy your diet for the day. Although the calorie, fat, and sodium counts are all high, what's most troublesome about this version from Applebee's is that it contains a staggering 4 grams of trans fat. That's two days' worth and reason enough to stay away from this sandwich.
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Spicy Shrimp Diavolo
500 calories
10 g fat (3.5 g saturated)
1,910 mg sodium
4. Denny's Grand Slamwich
1,320 calories
90 g fat (42 g saturated, 1 g trans)
3,070 mg sodium
Bacon, sausage, ham, eggs, cheese, and mayo conspire to create the worst breakfast sandwich in America. Start your day with this and you’ll need to wait 48 hours before consuming another gram of saturated fat. And that’s before you get to the hash browns that come on the side.
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2 Fried Eggs with Honey Ham and Hash Browns
560 calories
41 g fat (11.5 g saturated)
1,150 mg sodium
3. Cheesecake Factory Grilled Turkey Burger
1,331 calories
31 g saturated fat
1,674 mg sodium
Terms like “grilled” and “turkey” are intended to temper your nutritional worries, but a quick look behind the buzz terms reveals that you could stuff nearly four Wendy’s Double Stack Burgers into the vast caloric trench created by this “healthy” alternative.
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The Factory Burger
737 calories
15 g saturated
1,018 mg sodium
2. Cheesecake Factory Grilled Portobello on a Bun
1,377 calories
22 g saturated fat
1,362 mg sodium
Like the turkey burger, the portobello burger is another sandwich that restaurants love to tout as a healthy alternative. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. This example from Cheesecake Factory is the worst we've found, but you should remain skeptical anytime a portobello sandwich is on the menu.
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The Factory Burger
737 calories
15 g saturated fat
1,018 mg sodium
1. Chili's Buffalo Chicken Ranch Sandwich w/ fries
1,560 calories
86 g fat (14 g saturated)
4,010 mg sodium
Given the rate of wing consumption in this country, clearly hot sauce-slathered chicken and blue cheese or ranch is a winning combination. Problem is, chains such as Chili's are using this high-calorie combo to create sandwiches that are some of the worst on the menu. Along with fries, this tangy train wreck has two days' worth of sodium and more than a day's worth of fat.
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Grilled Chicken Sandwich w/ Veggies
610 calories
12 g fat (5 g saturated)
1310 mg sodium